eBay has thrown up some interesting Handpan auctions over the years, mixed in with a fairly generous sprinkling of scams. And while the majority of those scams are of the traditional “you can buy now for only $2000 - wire-transfer me the money outside of eBay where you are no longer protected” kind. Or even the intentional/unintentional naming of non-PANArt instruments as being "Hang", (a legally protected trademark) - to the point where PANArt employed HangBlog Author, Michael Paschko, to act on their behalf to sniff these misleading sales out, and have them removed. Occasionally, those looking to separate you from your cash in less scrupulous ways, try to use more creative means...
The Mysterious Case of the eBay Integral Hang Prototypes
Currently (at time of posting) for sale on eBay are a pair of Handpan going by the descriptive title of “Hand Pan Steel Drum SWISS Handpan D Integral 2008 Prototype”. Which is a pretty vague initial description, should the following story be true…
‘Hallo everyone,
few weeks ago in our Family's House in Switzerland I found 2 Old Hangs. My Father said that he bought them from PanART team as a experimental prototype of Hang Integral 2008.So I got them as a present. Unfortunately I'm not a musician and don't have any time to learn. AndI have my own young Family with small child,so we would like to get some money out for a trip to the Canary Islands(our warm dream:).But I have to say that because they had scratches and because I'm painter and photographer I already repaint them( just a bit with black spray),so now they look much better .My father was worry that it can change the sound, but I think that the sound can be already deform from the long time between the luggage..I'm not sure at all..Anyway they doesn't sound so bad.Video with example I'll try to upload on Vimeo with private password(write me please). Hope it can be interesting for some nice alternative people and for some collection!’
And you can see the photograph of one of these supposed Hang-prototypes above-right.
The Integral Hang
The Integral Hang was PANArt's 2008 launched model, and was described in the following way by Hangblog author, Michael Paschko:
And you can see a picture of a bona-fide Integral Hang pictured right.
Does Not Compute
While here at HPM our mind is currently a little fried from over-indulging in Mandela Effect videos over at YouTube, to the point where we're now questioning EVERYTHING we thought we knew. These
just look to be all kinds of wrong. Sure, the Ding looks approximately right, but we can't see any PANArt logo/branding on these things. And while that could be explained away with the whole "prototype" excuse. The tone-fields just don't look like PANArt tone-fields. They look more like the tone-fields of the readily available Vietnam Handpans. Spray painted black? Password protected video?
Ultimately, while this person deserves a little extra credit for going above and beyond with their attempted pilfering (presuming that's what this is) - these auction listings scream of a scam attempt of the misleading kind. It's a little too late for an April Fool's gag. and should you find yourself reading this post, having stumbled across these two items for sale over at eBay and are considering purchase - we'd have to advise you to be especially cautious. They have a stink to them. Don't they?
Ultimately, while this person deserves a little extra credit for going above and beyond with their attempted pilfering (presuming that's what this is) - these auction listings scream of a scam attempt of the misleading kind. It's a little too late for an April Fool's gag. and should you find yourself reading this post, having stumbled across these two items for sale over at eBay and are considering purchase - we'd have to advise you to be especially cautious. They have a stink to them. Don't they?
