I looked back in my records and it appears that Bernie Kornowitz bought news of this machine to the list back on 12/7/05. It was indeed listed for 10,000.
The second time it was listed was 12/22/05. the seller was "perkinsestate" The auction ended on 2/2/06 with a winning bid of $2,135.00 and was "won" by "hoondogdetroit". So my recollection was a little of, but the "winner" is the seller's friend. the seller listed his location as Pontiac.
On January 6th it was put up on Craig's list in Detroit for 3K or a trade for a B-3.
Here's some more stuff from back then...
"--- In Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com, lsf5275@a... wrote:
I just received an email from the seller. He told me he had a
friend bid on it because he couldn't sell it. ($2,135.00) He was very rude. I
think he might be about 16 years old, so it must be Mom and Dad's money. He
said that he originally sold it to someone in England but didn't explain why it
was re-auctioned. It is now on Craigslist. BEWARE!!! Something smells
real bad about this. It also looks very piece-of-shit-like to me.
PS. If anyone wants Mike Pinder's name on the cabinet lid of
their Mellotron, send it to that guy. I'm sure he can crank them out.
Frank
On his last auction, he said the winning bidder from the prior
auction backed out.
Bernie..."
Then on 2/26/06 I alerted the list that it was back on eBay again. That time it apparently sold.
So my facts were a little off.
Anyway, oddly enough, the seller this time has no eBay history and either does the winning bidder. I expect we haven't heard the last of it yet.