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EBAY SELLERS

Unless it's BRAND spankin NEW in the box, over 75% of the time, at least with CB and Amateur Radio equipment, there is some sort of DEFECT that I needed to repair/alter/replace with everything I've ever bought on eBay.

I'll give you my most RECENT example:

New Old Stock Turner M+2/U hand mic. Looked (as it was) MINT in the photo's, BUT there was no box, no paperwork.

Seller "claimed" that he tested the mic and that it "WORKED FINE."

(I was wondering HOW he did that w/o a 7v battery or a microphone plug..... but I digress.)

So.....

I bid on the thing, win the bid, and the seller IMMEDIATELY ships the thing to me, I get it a mere 2 days later, and, OF COURSE, it doesn't work even after I wire up a mic plug and put in a fresh battery.

Upon further observation, I discover that the mic element is shot; the actual vibrating portion of the element is NOT even connected to the casing of the element (dry rotted? or pulled apart?), so there is NO POSSIBLE WAY the seller could've "TESTED" it as he claims to have.

Fortunately for me however, I had an OLD, parts +2 that was worn, cracked, broken PTT, yellowed and nicotine stained casing, etc., that I saved PURELY for the following good parts on it:

- amplifier circuitry
- element
- blue mic wiring

So, I swapped in the GOOD element from my old parts microphone, and NOW the "New Old Stock" eBay purchase is working fine.

The SAD part of the story is, knowing the way eBay FEEDBACK works, and how it is often RETALIATORY, I left the a-hole POSITIVE feedback, for fear that he would give ME negative feedback had I told the WHOLE TRUTH.

Like they say in Latin: CAVEAT EMPTOR - let the Buyer BEWARE
 
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The one Ebay seller that I bought my GE's and Royce from sold me NIB/NOS radios. No scratches with everything packed right just like they came from the manufacturer. The other sellers sold me allegedly NIB/NOS radios but they had either small scratches,slight rub marks on the faceplate around the knobs and after opening the covers I would find slight wear marks on the external and pa speaker jack contacts. I had a 50/50 ratio of buying new,never been touched radios. If a Ebay seller doesn't have a lot of good clean,clear,sharp photos and are doing a play on descriptions of the products they are selling then I don't bother with those people. I have learned to be more scrutinizing when looking to buy something on Ebay.
As a plus,I have a Ebay app on my iPhone to where I can zoom in on the pictures that Ebay sellers supply along with the product they're trying to sell.

The last radio(TRC-435) I bought from a different Ebay seller was pristine,NOS/NIB.
 
And... DTB Radio has entered the world of Ebay with two peaked and tuned offerings
seller:dtbradio | eBay


These are buy it now/make an offer

He's had those listed on eBay since last year. I came across them while browsing, at least back to August. I've also seen a used 25 or a 29 (non lx) listed by him.

I was seriously considering one, but I rarely use am, and would rather save the money.
 
You bought a 40 yr old item used and are complaining about tiny scuffs/scratches? Non-working is a different story, gotta ask tons of questions when bidding. .02c
 
The SAD part of the story is, knowing the way eBay FEEDBACK works, and how it is often RETALIATORY, I left the a-hole POSITIVE feedback, for fear that he would give ME negative feedback had I told the WHOLE TRUTH.

Like they say in Latin: CAVEAT EMPTOR - let the Buyer BEWARE

Sellers are no longer able to leave negative feedback.

Sellers aren't able to leave negative or neutral Feedback for buyers. That means sellers need other tools that will protect them against unfair treatment from buyers and bring those buyers to eBay's attention.
 
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Found this Ebay seller ( seller:m2216 ) selling off vintage equipment with includes a NIB Antenna Specialists Starduster antenna.
New in Box Original 1970's Antenna Specialists Starduster M 400 CB Base Station | eBay

wow, that's 140$ more than I paid for my NOS starduster. I did see that others had sold for that much and more. I saw one two weeks after I bought mine go for 45$.
I would have gone up to 100$ easily, but I don't know if Iwould have gone 200$. although, in all likelihood that would only come out to 10$-15$ a year for the life of the antenna. not a bad price to pay.
 
I saw the nib 1970's Starduster and thought for a moment that I'd like to have a piece of history here. Name your price. Well,the same seller is selling a NIB K40 speech processor mic as well for $100. My K40 Speech processor died on me last year. I had bought it new in the eighties. Eye candy!!! :D
 
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wow, that's 140$ more than I paid for my NOS starduster. I did see that others had sold for that much and more. I saw one two weeks after I bought mine go for 45$.
I would have gone up to 100$ easily, but I don't know if Iwould have gone 200$. although, in all likelihood that would only come out to 10$-15$ a year for the life of the antenna. not a bad price to pay.

I saw a NMIB Super Scanner sell for over a grand once on Ebay!:eek::eek:
 
Super scanners are finicky and hard to source parts for. Lightening strikes 500 miles away take them out. They never performed very well and are not worth the hype.

Junk
 
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I saw the nib 1970's Starduster and thought for a moment that I'd like to have a piece of history here. Name your price. Well,the same seller is selling a NIB K40 speech processor mic as well for $100. My K40 Speech processor died on me last year. I had bought it new in the eighties. Eye candy!!! :D

I've been thinking about trying to find another one of those k40s, but never for 100$.
 
I've been thinking about trying to find another one of those k40s, but never for 100$.

They were neat to have back in the day but a Xtreme 2018 and an Astatic Road Devil will beat the pants off of it nowadays. I did test my K40 against a 2018 I used to have. The 2018 was twice as loud. I think a radio would have to be set up for a K40 IMO. My K40 was hooked up to my Realistic TRC-428 Ninescan cb(still have) but the modulation limiter resisters are still intact effectively limiting modulation to around 70%. A lot of compression but not much audio. I'd like to try a K40 on my 959 but my Road Devil does just nicely and my Ranger SRA-198 gives me the best sounding audio.
 

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