21 Aug
2008
21 Aug
'08
7:07 a.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
Why does everyone on this list think that everyone
else is trying to
scam them anyway? Do we not trust anyone that is not a blood relative
anymore?
Heh. To be honest, I'd trust people on this list, as I do other lists that I'm
on. I'd find it hard to trust someone on ebay (I've never actually bought
anything via ebay before). Maybe it just feels more like a community here,
which makes it seem like someone has more to lose if they try to screw me
over. That's probably rather stupid ;)
But authenticating the contents, you are not far from
the mark. Things
should be opened from their sealed packages in order to verify that
there is no deterioration going on that can not be seen. This is
pretty standard museum practice. A good example is opening up the
seals of some bit of hardware - perhaps a new-in-box Lisa - to make
sure the batteries are not leaking - which in the case of a new-in-box
Lisa, they very likely are.
For sure. The first thing I do with hardware is strip it down - not only to
check for potential problems, but also to do some form of cleaning.
Re. shrinkwrapping though, it still seems open to scamming - people willing to
spend extra money for a shrinkwrapped vintage product are *probably* going to
leave that product shrinkwrapped - a seller could easily shrinkwrap something
incomplete and/or internally damaged and in the few cases where they got
caught out, just claim that it must have been down to natural decay, a
production error, or whatever.
I think I only ever sold one rare shrinkwrapped software product which was
worth significant money - after clearing it with the buyer, I opened it all to
inventory contents and check condition, which seemed like a good idea to both
of us.
cheers
Jules