eBay disaster

If I foudn a box of old floppies, I would want to open them and at least look at the surfaces before deciding whether to buy them. How would you feel about a NIB QIC tape? WOuld you assume the belt was still good, and that it hadn't stuck to the tape and was going to pull the oxide off? Becuase I sure wouldn't. How would you feel about a NIB HP97 calculator. Would you assume the card reader roller needed replacing? As somebody who uses these old machines and peripherals, I would want a pack that I could use, not something to look nice on the shelf. So yes, I would prefer something that was tested to something that was NIB. Mind you, I have plenty of 12 sectore RK05 packs already... And a couple of alignment packs. I am still disapointed that I was outbid for an HP120 keyboard a couple of months back. OK, my bid was not that high, but I assumed that nobody else in England would want a Norwegian layout HP120 keyboard. I sysepct I have the only HP120 machine in England with Norwegian terminal ROMs. And I am pretty sure that this was the keybaord that came off my machine. Oh well, it doen't really matter, I made a keybaord for it long before this one was listed on E-bay [1], but it would have been nice to get the original. I still wonder what the buyer is going to use it for... [1] My diagrams for this are on the Australian museum site. -tony