In the course of my genealogical research on my ancestor who was killed on the Jenny Lind, I found a reference to "Death on the River" by Bob Young. It turns out this was an article in a western theme magazine. The Jenny Lind was one of several ships detailed in the story. I found a copy available on Ebay, but at that point, I was not sure if this was a book, a magazine or what. So I contacted the seller and he told me that he was unable to provide the date of the magazine or the name of it because of scammers.
Huh?!! Since when can you not provide basic information about an item you hope to sell? I'm totally mystified about this one, and I told him exactly that, but said that I would take his word for it. I asked if he could at least tell me if the magazine was pre-1940, since it really would only be of interest from a collectable standpoint, and is not likely to have any genealogical info that I haven't already uncovered.
He's not asking much for it, $24 on Buy-it-Now, but it's more a matter of principle. I don't like not knowing what I'm buying and it sends up all kinds of red flags for me. Here is the message I got from him:
There are four pictures as indicated on my written index.
Thanks for asking. This is a featured story in an old and complete original western magazine. Because of skammers on ebay we do not give our date and name of publication. We were skammed recently.
On all our listings sold on EBay, my wife and I index the item with all names, sites and pictures - highlight same, print it out - enclose it in plastic with binder - then package it in our waterproff mailer and furnish to purchaser at no extra charge for their personal library.
Please be so kind as to consider the feedback we have received from over 4309 customers - 300 of them repeat purchasers.
Thanks,
What do all of you think about this one? I can afford to throw away $24 on a chance, but it just seems very odd.
-Claire
