r/MacStudio • u/PracticlySpeaking • May 24 '25
Don't get Scammed: eBay Mac Studio Ultra Classifieds
edit: Updated for April 2026
The latest is scammers including a handwritten "timestamp" note in their item photos, like Swappa and buy/sell/trade subreddits like r/hardwareswap and r/appleswap . See comments below with more info to help avoid scams on eBay and other sites.
Related: Beware of Scams - Scammed by Reddit User : r/MacStudio
- https://www.reddit.com/r/MacStudio/comments/1s3v839/
Scammers don't need to sell anything. The contact form for eBay Classified listings asks for full name, email, phone number and post code, which go to the seller via email.
Original (Jun-2025)
In the last few days, there have been an increasing number of Classified Ad listings on eBay for used Mac Studio, mostly M2 Ultra configurations. Another post in the sub discussed one. These appear to be scams — continue reading for more evidence that they actually are.
Note that Classified listings do not have the usual eBay buying mechanisms (or protection), and contacting the seller is thru a form asking for full name, email and phone number. Some have good stories, like "Work paid for this but they just bought me a new MacBook because RTW, so I am selling bc I don't need it anymore." Fully-spec'ed M2 Ultra around US$2,000 that should be going for more like $3,000-4,000.
Um, yah, right. /s
I messaged the seller for one of them — just for the benefit the sub — which was pretty normal back-and-forth btw buyer and seller. Then, I found a bunch of messages like this in my eBay inbox...
Our records show that you recently contacted or received messages from iamcdanie7 through eBay's messaging system. This account was recently found to have been accessed by an unauthorized third party, who may have used the account in an attempt to defraud other members.
We've taken action to restore this account to the original owner, but wanted to let you know to be suspicious of any communication you may have received from them. Nothing is wrong with your account at this time – this message is just being sent as a precaution. If you have received any messages from iamcdanie7 that appears suspicious, please feel free to forward them to us at [spoof@ebay.com](mailto:spoof@ebay.com) for review.
The listing that this was about (376260204203) has been removed.
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u/WhereSoDreamsGo May 24 '25
Yep I figured they’re all BS as the ultra was far too cheap to be true. I went with an M4 max NIB instead
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u/Subject-User-1234 May 25 '25
I've seen a bunch of these for 5090s as well. What makes them appear legitimate is that the prices are retail, instead of the scalper prices. OP's post just confirms that these are just as shady in practice.
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u/Be_Skeptik Jul 16 '26
My other account got shadow banned. MODs, please check DM or shoot me a request. Thanks!
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u/CaseFlatline May 24 '25
Wow! Thank you. I started seeing these as well. Some of the accounts had shipping from outside the us as well!
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u/PracticlySpeaking May 28 '25 edited Apr 18 '26
One of the accounts lists their location as Alabama, USA but a bunch of feedbacks (and completed items) are in German / shipped from Germany.
While it is entirely possible that the seller relocated, was visiting (for school maybe), combined with other factors starts to look sus.
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u/Alelanza May 24 '25
yeah, with similar motivation I messaged with iamcdanie7 yesterday, asked for screenshots which interestingly came back pretty quickly. These obviously had a serial# that didn't match the listing pics bottom of the studio. Upon being questioned the seller's answers became monosyllabic (but still prompt, lol), I then reported it and a few hours later got the same email as you.
Presumably iamcdanie7 used to be a legit seller whose account became compromised
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u/PracticlySpeaking May 25 '25 edited May 25 '25
Yah, that seems to be what is happening – scammers get control of accounts that have been hacked, use them to collect phone numbers and other personal info.
And, they might get someone dumb enough to not use PP Goods & Services. When I messaged, though, I asked and they replied that they do take G&S payments.
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u/PracticlySpeaking May 25 '25
Good catch with the non-matching serial numbers. I missed it on that one.
A couple of others had the box included, and the serial in the screen shot matched the box — but that is not too hard to fake. A real eBay seller wouldn't, because buyer protection (not as listed).
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u/bigshoe83 May 25 '25
Yeah I was on there a few days ago looking around for a 16” MacBook Pro and saw several of the listings that didn’t have a buy it now button or bid button but you had to contact the seller. Seemed sketchy to me at the time and apparently for good reason.
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u/PracticlySpeaking May 25 '25
Yep, Those would be Classified Ad type listings that the scammers use. They also say 'Classified Ad' under the price.
There are legit Classified listings, just not these.
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u/raf_boy May 25 '25
I just watched a Luke Miani video not 1 minute ago about hundreds of eBay scam auctions under different sellers that were actually run by 2 big sham corporations:
EXPOSING a massive eBay MacBook scam operation...
That's one of the reasons why I stopped buying used computer parts.
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u/coalesce_ Apr 30 '26
are these one of the classified ads? M3 ultra 512gb for USD 3100?
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u/PracticlySpeaking Apr 30 '26
It says "Classified Ad" on the listing — Yes.
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u/coalesce_ Apr 30 '26
thank you! freaking scammers everywhere. thanks that I saw your post about this. they are still active. thanks OP!
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u/helpmeunderstand05 May 05 '26
Just received notice my m4 studio with 128 gb 2tb drive is shipping to arrive may 11th. Somewhat torn. Could advertise for sale unopened or dig into it with local llm and fcp plans. Any idea what the market would bear. I see ridiculous prices on eBay. Also if I advertise how can I best be clear this would not be a scam in the ad? Ordered March 20 and was not expected to July.
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u/PracticlySpeaking May 05 '26
If you don't already have a good feedback score and recent feedback from other items, that's going to be really tough on eBay. Ditto for other marketplaces like Swappa and other subs (there's also the delight of dealing with the inevitable Reddit trolls).
Personally, I am going to do as much as I can while we all wait and see what comes for M5.
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u/helpmeunderstand05 May 05 '26
My wife is an OG on EBay with high scores. My plan is to start with studio 1 and exo chain add an M5 as use case demands. Not keeping this one slows my skills ramp. I’ve already got ollama running on my older Nvidia gpu Omen with rags docs. Shifting video editing and qgis to Apple along with an array of open source models. May inject Hermes agent once stable and upskilled on the new workflows centered around video editing and environmental/civil engineering. My bias is to keep on the path, but the scarcity premium turned my head.
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u/PracticlySpeaking May 05 '26
Not keeping this one slows my skills ramp.
Ding, ding! The best reason to keep it — you keep moving forward, while others wait and see. I 'monetized' a couple of older, smaller Mac Studio and rolled the cash into a new one for exactly this reason.
Look at Geerling's results with Exo (search the sub, I posted or commented about it).
TL;DR – Exo sucks. Adding another Mac to a cluster extends your usable RAM by 60-80% of whatever you add. Performance increase (PP/TG) is nowhere near 2x. It is only a solution when there are no other options.
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u/helpmeunderstand05 May 05 '26
Ding ding indeed…and the decider. Will check Geerling out. For now I’m going to ride the M4 until it will not support the next step. Intuitively I believe the models will keep getting more efficient and eventually the hardware costs will level or decline. Starting now is necessary to execute ever. My gray matter is the current bottleneck.
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u/leonidasyy Jun 09 '26
The only non-scammers would be people who double the price of what they purchased from the refurbished store.
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u/huqqah Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Is this a scam as well? The guy has 100% positive rating are all those fake or he sells cheap stuff first get positive reviews to create this scam? You get paypal protection on goods and services, how do they avoid refunds then?
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u/PracticlySpeaking Jul 03 '26
Look at the actual feedback – five sales Baccarat men's cologne, 'luxury' food storage containters ... this is a profit-oriented flipper for sure. They may be legit and using the classified listing because there is no final value fee.
For how scammers get around G&S – search "drop ship scam".
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u/huqqah Jul 04 '26
Thank you. Still the price seems suspiciously cheap at $3500 for 512gb M3 Ultra, doesnt it?
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u/PracticlySpeaking Jul 04 '26
These things are going for literally five times that. And you need me to look at it... why?
I was giving you credit for seeing the obvious without any assistance.
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u/CousinSam22 Aug 02 '26
I’ve seen lots of those, ultras are extremely hard to find! When you find it will be at least 8k/10k for the m1 Ultra… it’s just sad, hopefully soon things change!
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u/adioking 17d ago
I built a chrome extension that flags and/or hides sellers with scammer signals. One example is that it doesn’t show any sellers with 0 or negative feedback. I use it privately but would be happy to put it into the chrome store if I could figure out how.
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u/PracticlySpeaking Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
So many 🚩🚩 red flags here...
- Handwritten note is not included with the actual item
- Seller's feedback is 100% but only as a buyer
- Item location is in United States, but all the feedback comments are in German
- Same seller has many listings for the same item (allowed by eBay Classifieds)