BCD536HP Deal - Too Good To Be True

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Bob1955

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So I saw a local ad for two BCD536HP's, and the seller says they are factory-sealed, never opened, brand new, that I can buy both for $400 total. I said that I want to open them and power them up and they didn't see why I would want to do that. I told them thanks and good luck. Thoughts?
Seems very "fishy" to me. I wouldn't touch it with a TEN FOOT POLE!
 

KR7CQ

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Seems very "fishy" to me. I wouldn't touch it with a TEN FOOT POLE!

Especially when they balked at opening the boxes to power up the scanners. If I have cash in hand and will buy upon power-up verification, why would there be any issue? That's illogical in my mind.
 

N4GIX

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If they are being sold in good faith, asking the seller to power them up prior to purchase shouldn't be a big deal if the buyer shows the cash and intent to purchase.
The "problem" is that once opened, should the buyer change his mind, they are no longer "new, sealed boxes! The seller then looses out...
 

JamesPrine

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Even if they are brand new and never been opened and are HOT merchandise its not HOT merchandise if you buy in good faith and intentions. It's on the person who sold it to you. You are not buying stolen merchandise if you are not aware it is. If they are new and 200 bucks each I would jump on it and buy them and re-sell them. You can easily make 400 bucks on the deal. But everybody is jumping the gun if they are HOT or not. Maybe the person bought them and just wants to sell them or they don't know the real value of them and the husband died and never took them out of the box and the wife is selling them.

Tell all that to the Judge when you're being prosecuted for possession of stolen property. The 'good faith' defense has whiskers. And it hasn't worked in many years. But do go ahead and have fun.
 

KR7CQ

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The "problem" is that once opened, should the buyer change his mind, they are no longer "new, sealed boxes! The seller then looses out...

I do see that side of it. But given the situation, it's pretty easy to see why a smart buyer would ask to see what's inside and make sure they power up. Overall it's a messy situation, no denying that.

I could see some dirtbag sitting around with a hair dryer getting the seal tape to come off cleanly, packing the box with something of similar weight, and then "re-sealing" the box. I put nothing past people today.
 

rob_d

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The "problem" is that once opened, should the buyer change his mind, they are no longer "new, sealed boxes! The seller then looses out...
Well the implication of "new in box" is that it is a fully functioning new unit. As a buyer I wouldn't want to lose out if it didn't work as I would expect it to be fully functional. If the seller does not want to claim responsibility of the new in box unit then selling it "as-is" should be in the description. I still think testing the unit prior to purchase is not a high demand from a buyer.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

KR7CQ

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Well I got them to agree to meet at their home, and to let me test them. The scanners were new in box as packed by the factory. The couple were body builders and got them from trading old fitness equipment for them and just never ended up using them. Both function correctly. Talked them down to $380 for both and got one heck of a deal. Glad I got them to agree to my terms. Another amazing scanner deal from OfferUp. I have a permanent search alert for terms like "police scanner", "Uniden", etc.

One will serve as a mostly analog Proscan server (I need the WIFI networking) and the other will be sold for around as much as I just paid for both. Free phase 2 digital scanner!
 
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KK4JUG

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Even if they are brand new and never been opened and are HOT merchandise its not HOT merchandise if you buy in good faith and intentions. It's on the person who sold it to you. You are not buying stolen merchandise if you are not aware it is. If they are new and 200 bucks each I would jump on it and buy them and re-sell them. You can easily make 400 bucks on the deal. But everybody is jumping the gun if they are HOT or not. Maybe the person bought them and just wants to sell them or they don't know the real value of them and the husband died and never took them out of the box and the wife is selling them.
If they're stolen, they're stolen, regardless of who possesses them or how they got them. Ask any pawn shop.
 

K9JLR

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I think you got a good deal here and, based on your homework, this seems like a legitimate transaction. I'm going to have to bookmark OfferUp.

For what it's worth, since there was some debate on the legality of unknowingly possessing stolen property here, I asked my brother about it since he's a state trooper on the investigations side for Arzizona DPS (Department of Public Safety). He said the answer always depends on the state you're in, and it's not handled uniformly from state to state, with some being stricter than others (i.e., in some states "good faith" defenses may and often do work better than in others). The AZ judicial system apparently uses a quasi-nebulous "reasonable person standard" to determine whether or not the purchaser of stolen property should be charged with possession of stolen property (often felonious). He said if it's too good of a bargain to be true, it probably really is (OP originally went with his gut, which was a good initial response), and it's to your benefit to do everything you can to ensure that the items are not stolen.
 

Joe_Blough

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I don't thinks it's unreasonable for the guy not to want someone to open the boxes. That's his selling point to get rid of them. What if someone opened the boxes and then said, "Naa, I think I'll pass"? Now the guy is stuck with selling two open-box scanners. The next person is going to come along and be skeptical that they were never used because the boxes have been opened.

My thoughts exactly. Once opened, a potential purchaser has no idea what had been done with them.
 

bob550

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My thoughts exactly. Once opened, a potential purchaser has no idea what had been done with them.
Then, that potential purchaser takes a pass if the open box bothers them. If the seller was offering a used item, you'd also have no idea what those scanners may have gone through. You can also choose to only shop and purchase through sites that offer some type of buyer protection, such as ebay. I successfully negotiated with a seller when one item I bought on ebay was not as described in the listing.
 

jjbond

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I agree that there is no crime unless you know they are stolen, which I obviously don't.
With all due respect, and I have lot for you fellow Phoenix SDS friend.... that's not exactly the case. If the judge feels that the price you paid was so low that you should have known or assumed they were stolen, you can still get charged with posessoin of stolen property. Ask me how I know and I'll show you my jailhouse tat from doing a month in LA county jail just after turning 18 when I purchased an Icom 2 meter at a flea market and without realizing it was stolen, took it into the only ham radio store in the town I lived in to get repaired.... the rest is history.
 

KR7CQ

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With all due respect, and I have lot for you fellow Phoenix SDS friend.... that's not exactly the case. If the judge feels that the price you paid was so low that you should have known or assumed they were stolen, you can still get charged with posessoin of stolen property. Ask me how I know and I'll show you my jailhouse tat from doing a month in LA county jail just after turning 18 when I purchased an Icom 2 meter at a flea market and without realizing it was stolen, took it into the only ham radio store in the town I lived in to get repaired.... the rest is history.

Yes I did misspeak there, fair point. As mentioned earlier Arizona law is based on the reasonable person standard. After thinking things over I'm glad that I stepped back and asked questions and glad that the couple I purchased from had a logical explanation for their having and selling the scanners. If I felt that they might have been stolen I wouldn't have completed the sale and would have reported it.
 

jjbond

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Yes I did misspeak there, fair point. As mentioned earlier Arizona law is based on the reasonable person standard. After thinking things over I'm glad that I stepped back and asked questions and glad that the couple I purchased from had a logical explanation for their having and selling the scanners. If I felt that they might have been stolen I wouldn't have completed the sale and would have reported it.
Just noticed a typo in my post... I sure wish the edit was there a bit longer, but I digress... yea my situation was in 86 in California and there's nothing standard OR reasonable about any person I met while there so it makes sense... LOL
 
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