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09-30-2019, 06:36 PM | #1 |
Mass Nerderer
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Slitherin' around the tank- It's cool, though, 'cause I'm being "watched"
Posts: 9,093
|
First, let me be clear, this isn't so much an angry rant, or "so and so burned me", as it is a bit of toungue-in-cheek reflection. Anyone that wants to add, please do, but keep your RECENT bad expereiences, usernames, etc in the bad eBay sellers thread, please! This is mostly me laughing at how inattentive I can be at times.
Fair warning: this is not concise, I felt like typing a bit today. Recently, I've been offloading a number of parts, games, and figures from my lifetime of collecting, due to some financial B.S. In the process of carefully inspecting my potential wares, a few things have come to my attention, some I should have spotted immediately, and didn't due to my naivete at the time of acquisition, and others were fairly carefully hidden by the seller, and only remained undiscovered because in the past I've always been far more thorough when inspecting to make sure I'm not misrepresenting something I'm selling than I am with making sure I'm not getting ripped myself. call it an unwavering ( and at times, undeserved) faith in humanity. First up, would be my 86 B.A.T. Once upon a time, I had an army of 30 of these guys, each complete and in excellent shape. Fast forward a bit to four years ago. there's a banging on the front door at 6 A.M., and out front is a sheriff's deputy, informing us that the wind has changed direction, and the small fire across the canyon has grown and is now headed straight for us (good ol' Cali at it's finest), and we needed to pack a few things and get the hell out. After a mad dash to grab as much of my collection as possible, and trying to manage all of it during the evac, I came to realize that not only should I get some damned insurance that covers my collection, but that I should also scale it back a bit. And so I did, once we didn't lose the house, and made it back safe and sound. I went through each of my massive troop armies, and selected the finest example of each and sold the rest, done and done... until this months "everything must go sale", made up of my remaining ARAH figures. everything was going quite well, until I disarmed my B.A.T., which I'd assumed for some 10 years was 100% original ( I hate repros, they dilute the market. this is a case in point, here, actually...) only to find that the chest plate was a cleverly put together, but in the end, shoddily made reproduction. all I could do was shake my head, small a bit wanly and mutter, "you son of a bitch, whoever you were". Next, we have "Near Mint Complete 1984 Star Scream" (seller's words, not mine.) This was my first TF pick up as an adult, so I'll grant myself a small pass on this one. Intentionally, I'd only intended to get the G1 Optimus and Megatron figures, as I haven't been an avid TF fan since, I don't know, 1985 or 6. However, while shopping around, I stumbled upon the Star Scream listing, with a box no less, for around $75 shipped. seemed like a stellar deal, so i said "why not? I like Star Scream" and pulled the trigger. Man, that shit was a mistake, even before I noticed an issue. What a can of worms. Next thing you know, I've got a full blown 100+ complete G1 figure collection going. Fine, good, toys are fun, right? Well anyone that knows G1 TFs can tell you that the plastic used sometimes doesn't age well, and my local climate is death on most things anyway, so enter spontaneous breaking figure stage. I'd come home maybe one or twice a week to find something else had broken without even being handled, and after 4 or 5 times, I said "enough!!!" and began to dismantle that collection. You know, get out before all is lost. So I began the tedious process of inspecting, dismantling, and cleaning/ packing as always. everything was going swimmingly until I went to remove one of the blue tail fins... and came away with a large chunk of Star Scream's leg in my hand. Some monkey had glued it in, and I had NO idea to check for that, being as new to the TF figures as I was at the time. Oh well, the accessories still fetched a good price, I guess! This is getting to be a bit long, so I'll finish with a short one. My copy of Contra III: The Alien Wars for the Super Nintendo. The label turned out, upon closer inspection, to be a well produced repro, but the cart sure sold at full collector's market value. Not much to say here, really- this shit is RAMPANT in the retro game market, and all of the people that are making these to pass of as original are the worst kind of scumbags. It took 6 years of owning this for me to notice it. Anyway, for those of you that managed to make it this far through my wall of text, Thanks for hearing me out!
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10-01-2019, 02:54 AM | #2 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: UK
Posts: 211
|
Ah, that sucks mate.
I'm not sure if this counts as "inattentive" exactly. Hard to spot these things on eBay and, when they arrive, how many of us really analyse every detail of every purchase? |
10-01-2019, 03:21 AM | #3 |
Mass Nerderer
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Slitherin' around the tank- It's cool, though, 'cause I'm being "watched"
Posts: 9,093
|
Heck, could be worse. House could've burned down Funny thing is, I always find myself wondering if maybe the guy that had it before didn't fall victim to the same thing and never noticed. and the guy before him. and so on. eBayception!
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10-01-2019, 06:09 AM | #4 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: UK
Posts: 211
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Hahaha, that is true.
My favourite part of that story is you running to save the collection. I'd probably die after spending too long trying to decide what to take. I'm one of those guys that, when you tell them specifically not to, grabs his coat and bag etc. when the office fire alarm goes off. And, usually, my coffee... just in case it's a drill and I'm stuck outside for a while. |
10-01-2019, 08:59 AM | #5 |
Mass Nerderer
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Slitherin' around the tank- It's cool, though, 'cause I'm being "watched"
Posts: 9,093
|
Quote:
Hahaha, that is true.
My favourite part of that story is you running to save the collection. I'd probably die after spending too long trying to decide what to take. I'm one of those guys that, when you tell them specifically not to, grabs his coat and bag etc. when the office fire alarm goes off. And, usually, my coffee... just in case it's a drill and I'm stuck outside for a while.
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I NEED TOYS DAMMIT!!! |
10-01-2019, 01:21 PM | #6 |
He Who Remains
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Florida
Posts: 9,355
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Well, to re-hash a couple old stories. I once bought a Cobra Moray that arrived with zero padding and the front of the ship literally poking out of the box.
I recently sold a rare (maybe even one of a kind) Captain Claymore Mission Brazil prototype figure that became "lost" in the mail. (Luckily I bought insurance on the figure and recouped my money). I got an e-mail from USPS 6 months later apologizing that they never found the package. Almost all my sales from 5 years ago look bad in retrospect compared to today's prices. A couple that stand out to me at the moment, I sold the cobra night watch 6 pack for $30, and a sealed Funskool Dessert Scorpion for $18. Both are priced around $100 currently. On the flip side, I bought the convention Crimson twins for $10 each back then and then resold them recently for about $50 each, so I suppose it goes both ways. |
10-01-2019, 02:28 PM | #7 |
Mass Nerderer
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Slitherin' around the tank- It's cool, though, 'cause I'm being "watched"
Posts: 9,093
|
Quote:
Well, to re-hash a couple old stories. I once bought a Cobra Moray that arrived with zero padding and the front of the ship literally poking out of the box.
I recently sold a rare (maybe even one of a kind) Captain Claymore Mission Brazil prototype figure that became "lost" in the mail. (Luckily I bought insurance on the figure and recouped my money). I got an e-mail from USPS 6 months later apologizing that they never found the package. Almost all my sales from 5 years ago look bad in retrospect compared to today's prices. A couple that stand out to me at the moment, I sold the cobra night watch 6 pack for $30, and a sealed Funskool Dessert Scorpion for $18. Both are priced around $100 currently. On the flip side, I bought the convention Crimson twins for $10 each back then and then resold them recently for about $50 each, so I suppose it goes both ways. In fact, It turned out to be the exact opposite of one of my horror stories- came with a surprise pair of parachutes not mentioned in the listing, and at a screaming good deal no less! Maybe I should start another thread detailing the unexpected positives, so I don't look like as much of a longwinded snarky asshole... (probably too late for that, though )
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10-01-2019, 04:48 PM | #8 |
Tomcatter
Join Date: Oct 2018
Location: Greater Houston Area
Posts: 729
|
Very
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"A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."- George Washington "The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it."- Thomas Jefferson BST http://www.hisstank.com/forum/g-i-jo...-t-thread.html |
10-01-2019, 06:19 PM | #9 |
Mass Nerderer
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Slitherin' around the tank- It's cool, though, 'cause I'm being "watched"
Posts: 9,093
|
__________________
I NEED TOYS DAMMIT!!! |
10-01-2019, 08:59 PM | #10 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: sitting in my tin can far above the world
Posts: 3,929
|
Nah, I enjoy the stories. It's why we're all here. When I complain about GI Joes to the cashier in the grocery it just isn't the same
That said, I've been lucky enough not to get too burned on ebay yet (that I'm aware of) but I have bought a couple figures that were not in as good of condition as I thought. It was my own bad for not scrutinizing the pictures enough before bidding.. late at night...and inebriated.
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