eBay Fails and Collecting Mishaps

[Andre]

Recently I decided to spring for one of those iconic iMac "Yum" posters on eBay, thinking it would look great on a wall near my desk. The seller listed only one minor imperfection, some "slight discoloration" on the back of the poster which did "not show through to the front." This sounded OK to me so I went ahead and bought it. When I received the poster it turned out that the slight discoloration was actually yellow mildew, there was lots of it, and it did show through quite visibly to the front, ruining it for display. MAJOR bummer. Fortunately I didn't pay a lot for the poster, but I guess it served as a lesson for me in what to watch for when buying collectibles (as you can probably tell, I haven't done a lot of this).

This got me thinking -- with all the eBay collecting that we retro Mac fans do, there's got to be a significant percentage of purchases that don't turn out the way we'd hoped. I'm curious to hear what other eBay letdowns you've experienced over the years, and what were some of the worst disappointments?

[avidmaccollector]

Not enough disk space on Ning to support all my stories....

 

Latest one I can recall - bought a brand new, unopened original LaserWriter 1 mint in box. The seller decided to ship the box as is - so it arrived covered in UPS stickers, shipping labels, and you can imagine the rest......

[Wholly Mindless]

I had a //gs with monitor show up thrown in a box filled with popcorn, cardboard and bubble wrap.  Well, it was full until it split wide open on the way.  It wasn't terribly broken but one more bounce probably would have killed something.

 

The next one - stunningly packed - even the cables were wrapped in bubble wrap separately.

 

It just varies.

[Finkmac]

…My Mac Classic Disk drive broke… So I purchased a new one… And it won't eject… Unless I push a paperclip through the hole… I actually have one near my Mac Classic Desk at all times now

[David Merrill]

I've bought hundreds of items on Ebay. I've been using it for 13 years to buy collectibles. I've had very few mishaps and the little money I've lost along the way is far outweighed by the money I've saved on items and made through selling on Ebay. My worst mishaps were during the early years when they didn't have as many protections for buyers and I didn't understand how the ones they had worked. I think it's much safer now with buyer protection coming from both Ebay and Paypal, which have mitigated any problems over the past few years. It's better now that sellers can't give bad feedback too.

 

That said, my worst computer experience was a Mac SE Superdrive that came in damaged, not working, with an off kilter floppy drive. The guy refused to take it back or reimburse, then disappeared. This was before my understanding of Ebay protections or perhaps even before they had them.

 

I bought a pair of 1940's end tables. They came packed separately in two big boxes with no bubble wrap peanuts or anything, just the tables. The legs had punched through the boxes and each had a broken leg. Fortunately it was UPS, so they were covered up to $100, which was more than I'd paid. It took a while to get the seller to understand he had to initiate the insurance claim, but I got my money after about a month. I still have the tables in my living room with the two broken legs tied on. Been meaning to glue them, but never got there.

 

Took a chance on an old copy of Tales Of Suspense without a pic based on the description and price. Big mistake. It came in scribbled all over and colored in on the cover. I learned a lot from this one. The guy was a deadbeat. He offered some free comics and stalled until after the complaint period was up. I don't take many chances like this any more.

 

Then there was the cheap copy of Kung Fu season 3 I had o pay for with a money order. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Oh, well, it was only $12 and before I understood protections. But this was the one where I researched how the protections worked and understood why paying with a money order was dumb, dumb, dumb. :)