I came across this Eureka solo tent on Ebay (no, not my auction).

The seller claims that the tent's original government contract price was $1,900 each! OTOH, it looks identical to the civilian version Backcountry 1 -- which folks can find for $99 or less!

I realize that military specs are sometimes different -- but reading the specs on the auction, they really don't look all that different -- at least not $1,800 worth of difference that I can tell!

Methinks this can partly explain our government's huge spending deficit!

Edited by ben2world on 06/24/2008 00:07:44 MDT.

Ben
This is a special order, for military use only, limited edition, possibly recently de-classified tent. Nothing like your Texsport.
How many tents have you seen that come with a 2000 word description and not one BUT two pictures of Camo Gurl wearing a bikini ?
Now stop bidding, I don't plan to spend more than $500 on this one.
Franco
The next day.....
At the moment, with one day to go, someone is prepared to pay nearly 3x the cost of the same tent at Campmor

Here is another example of the same site selling a civilian tent pretending that it is "an experimental military assault shelter"
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300222106402 several sold between $400 and $450. This one strangely enough looks exactly like the civilian Eureka Assault Outfitter 4, sold retail between $283 and $390
http://www.campingcomfortably.com/eureka-assault-outfitter-4-tent.html
Even funnier, he provides a link to ORC, the maker of one of the real solo military shelters, sold by OCR to the public for $286.53
http://www.herculeswear.com/product_view.asp?id=217
The fact that the seller gets a 98.5% rating proves that there is a sucker born every minute.
Sold..
The original has sold for $305 but don't despair, he has another one with a Buy Now of $675 (note 10% off!!!) . Now I have a dilemma , shall I buy 6 of the Backcountry 1 or one of the same at $675 ?

I think that I have worked out how he misleads without directly lieing:

Item Specifics - Item Condition
Condition: New


Model : TCOP (Tent Combat One Person) Persons : 1 + Gear
Seasons : 3-Season Original $1,900!
Goverment Cost :
Condition : Brand New With Tags Brand : Eureka!®


note that the $1900 is next to the "original" (original what ?) the next line reads
Government cost : without any info there.
The same is used on his other ads...
However the tent is called TCOP when in fact the Eureka TCOP does not look like that.

Edited by Franco on 06/26/2008 21:22:00 MDT.