What if a good deal might turn out to be stolen?

[leejosepho]

Here is why I ask:

I needed a certain type of pump to supply a small radiant heater and someone suggested a couple of brands. I went searching on-line and could not find even a ballpark price for what I needed ... so I ended up looking at on-line auctions. I found several auctions beginning around $10.00 for a certain model that would be fine, but I could not find a list price anywhere while trying to determine how much I might bid if I decided to do so. My employer told me he could get a similar pump for a little under $200.00, and after checking my finances, I decided to just do the best I could with around $100.00 at auction.
I ended up getting two identical pumps in separate auctions for a total of $140.00, and I finally found a list price on-line on the same day the first one arrived: over $300.00 each.

Question: Would you be suspicious of these pumps being stolen, and if so, what would you do?

At the moment, I am reasonably certain they are not, but I still do not know for sure. One pump came with one small screw missing, the other came with the control box completely loose, some inconsequential extras that should have been included were not, both shipping boxes had been closed with a commercial packaging stapler, and some of the packaging material had a label making it obvious it was from the shipping department of a radiant-heat company that possibly sells pumps either just like or similar to mine.

[leejosepho]

Well, I wrote to the seller and asked about the history of the pumps ... and here is his response:

Hello, The pumps are new overstock and could have gotten bumped in the warehouse. They have been out there for over a year. If you can't use them let me know and I'll send you a replacement. Sorry for the inconvenience.

"Bumped" would not explain the loose control box, but everything else seems to add up to a really great deal leaving me with no sleepless nights!

Does anybody else need a TACO 006 at an unbelievable price? Just go to the big auction site and do a search for "taco circulator".

[Rancher]

What was the seller's ID on the auction site, I also have bought several TACO pumps there, mostly 009's and 011's.

Rancher

[leejosepho]

I would rather not identify the seller, but he had the lowest beginning bids the last time I looked.

When I can afford to do so, I buy as much as I can from locally owned businesses, then I go on-line and try to leave auctions for last. A few months ago, somebody there was selling new 4" submersibles at about 20% of list, but something just did not feel right about those pumps and the seller's feedback was not as clean as I like to see.

One of my favorite auction purchases was from a seller going by something like "U-Can-Fix-It", and he was very clear about his stuff being new, but broken. From him, and for pennies on the dollar, I got a nice yogurt maker for my wife and it only took me about an hour of poking around at the electronics before I figured out jumping one of the switches left it working just like it should!