So far, at least 100 people have fallen for this one (including me!), and it is only going to get worse. Sellers on eBay are offering Venezuelan Black chocolate at inflated prices, and are profitting on the basis that most people do not know what the RRP actually is (£7 in Selfridges).

Please beware!!!!!!!!!! These sellers are not endorsed by Willie Harcourt-Cooze.

I just searched for Venezuelan Black chocolate and no results.

That probably means that another 30 suckers have been scammed then!

do people buy chocolate on Ebay. i am amazed that they go to all that trouble. surely the postage would make the cost to dear.

Well, I didn't until a few days ago, but it was the only place I could go to get it. Shame that my money has gone to support the high-life of some low-life, rather than to help people who are working hard in the Venezuelan rainforest...

You women and chocolate!

I wonder if President Hugo Chavez is up to his anarchic tricks using eBay?

never hard of it but you can buy most things on ebay so this does not surprise me in the slightest

mmmmmmm chocolate...

Selfridges, London will apparently have some from 14th March!

It's already there - I've seen it!

A plea:

If you do want it, please buy it at Selfridges, or directly from Willie. Please DON'T get it from other online sources, coz it'll be hugely more expensive, and you don't know where it might have been!!!!

I dont tjhink I would buy a food item from ebay cos like you say, you have no idea where it has been tho admitedly I have had some serious bargains aswell. could somebody tell me please what is so special about this chocie tho

QUOTE]Originally posted by Lucibee:
A plea:

If you do want it, please buy it at Selfridges, or directly from Willie. Please DON'T get it from other online sources, coz it'll be hugely more expensive, and you don't know where it might have been!!!![/QUOTE]

Good news! Selfridges do a mail-order service. All you need to do is call them up and order. If enough people do this, then I'm sure it won't be long before they launch a legimate (and cheap) online shop.

I bought that packet of Wotsits eaten by Jerry Springer off ebay.

And they are launching in Waitrose next week.

aloo:

It is a chunk of 100%-cocoa-solids chocolate (milk choc is about 20% and Bournville is near 40%), so it is strong and bitter. Most folk use it for culinary purposes, though I do enjoy it 'straight' in small quantities.

At £7 for a 180 gram block, that is about £39/kg, so it is expensive luxury food. However, at that strength, a little can go a long way.

It's only £6 at Waitrose...

Why is it a 'scam'? There's a product which has had basically free advertising on Channel 4 for an hour at peaktime weekend viewing four weeks running, promoting a new chocolate in the run up to Easter. The product has been hyped; he's not been able to keep up with demand, and the cooking chocolate has become very hard to get hold of. The result is that some individuals are now desperate to get it and willing to pay silly prices. It's how ebay works - its an auction. I happened to have been bought a couple of bars - didn't want both, put one on ebay at a start price of under a pound. The price that was finally paid was astonishing, and in many ways obscene. I may give some of the profit to Oxfam, and spend the rest on a little treat for my kids. I won't lose any sleep over 'poor Willie' though - its a lesson in the power of the media to send people bonkers, that's all.

It was a scam to me, because I thought my money was all going to Willie, which it wasn't coz it went to someone who had set up a website to look like Willie's blog and online shop.

Well, both Selfridges and Waitrose have now sold out because of the frenzy, so I'm exploring all the other nice chocolate out there. Maybe I'll go back to Willie's stuff once everyone has forgotten about his Channel 4 series.