eBay and Amiga, is it getting worse?

[Jeff]

I recently bid on an Amiga 3000T motherboard from karmanss.  The item (2770789487) was listed as parts-non working.   I clearly asked ahead of time if the board had any damage from a corroded battery.  The seller responded that it did not.  I wanted to repair the board as a spare for my aging "T".   The board not only arrived with battery corrosion damage, but someone destroyed the board by removing the SMD 68030 and 68882 destroying/shorting traces in the process.  At first I thought "Oh Well at least it was only $33.00".  But the more I think about it, I wouldn't have bid on this crap had I known that.  Shouldn't he have disclosed that when I asked about the battery?

I also bid on and won a FMV for one of my CD32's (3066700074) paid for within 24 hours of auction close 12/22.  The seller still hadn't shipped the item as of 1/05.  I am loosing faith and patients with eBay sellers.  I have always worked hard to make sure people are happy when I sell and that things happen in a timely manor.

 I want to bid on other Amiga items on eBay and I am finding it hard to trust these people anymore.  Am I being to critical or are things getting worse ?

Thanks for letting me Vent
Jeff
 :-)

[Jeff]

Well  you can check the auction out, it's still up.  I was ok with it at first until I thought about it for a while after looking at the board. The photo sucks and you can't see the damage.  I clearly asked ahead of time about battery damage.  My responce would have been "the board has been destroyed by improper removal of the CPU and Math CO. Extensive unrepairable trace damage!".   I guess it never occured to me to also ask, has anyone hacked any chips off of the board?

karmanss also has some other cool stuff up on eBay, toaster/flyer and such.  I sure won't bid on them.  Problem is eBay is "THE" place to buy hard to find Amiga stuff.  Experiences like these are making me NOT want to shop eBay, and I know there are still good people out there like redrumloa for example.  

There have been 2 other FMV's up on eBay since the auction I won.  Both are nicer packages and if I didn't have a $100.00 tied up with garbage and stuff that the seller can't ship I could bid on one of those.

The guy you were buying from must have been an inexperienced seller.  You can easily set up an auction properly so these type of things don't have to happen.  I am sorry about yours as well.

Jeff
 

[Jeff]

A lot of people have given some really good tips about eBay and I'll try to use them. What I would like to see is AmigaBay.  A smaller place where screened reputable buyers and sellers could get together for safer transactions.   But that's not likely to happen.

Some of this stuff is getting really hard to find.  I have a really nice collection of classic Amiga's and I need a few more bits to round it out.

Thanks for the tips,
Jeff
  :pint:

[Jeff]

Yes, it did finally today!  It's SO COOL to see a CD32 play a movie so effortlessly.  I just poped in Silent Running and it took right off.  Great picture too.

Now if I could only locate the plastic cover for the back of it I'd be in heaven :-).   The stock cover won't fit over the "U" connector.  I would gladly pay for one if somebody wanted to sell theirs.  

Although this one has version 40.22 rom in it,  I have the stuff to program another rom for it if I can find the 40.30 binary file somewhere.

I am almost tempted to buy another complete unit if I can't find the cover.  Ya I know I'm crazy, don't rub it in.

BTW  How should I handle feedback for this transaction?  Although the guy did take 2 full weeks after payment to ship it, I did get it and it does work.  Thoughts?  I have never left anyone a bad feedback before.

Jeff :-D

[Jeff]

Thanks, yes it is an impressive piece of hardware!  Especially considering that it's 10 year old technology.

I even found the 40.30 rom file.  I have had it all along with some OLD Amiga stuff.  I'll be updating the eprom tomorrow to the latest version.

Jeff