13 Oct
2005
13 Oct
'05
6:58 p.m.
...or Another Reason Why I Fricking Hate eBay
Sorry this is so long, but it's worth a read in case you ever happen upon
an item being offered by this seller. Read this before you get burned.
So a couple weeks ago I asked one of my employees to go on eBay and find
an external power supply for this cute little Dell P4 system that I got
in without the P/S. He dutifully went onto eBay, found the most
reasonably priced item with a Buy It Now, and bought it for me.
Later, when I went to pay for the item, I noticed that the seller had
26000+ feedback total, with 1700 postive and 34 negative just in the past
month. If it were me, I would've avoided this seller like a foul odor in
the air, but my naive teenage employee doesn't know better.
So anyway, from past experience, I figured there was probably a 50/50
chance this would go well, because like, what are the odds that a wall
wart (more like a big slab) would be bad? So I went ahead and sent the
PayPal payment. A week later (yesterday) I receive my item. The first
thing I did before plugging it into my computer was check the voltages,
because even though the seller claimed it was "TESTED WORKING, NO DOA", I
didn't want to take the chance of this thing zapping the computer. So
what do you know, I get no voltage. Then I notice the LED is out. I try
another power cord but it's pretty plainly dead. Oh bother.
I called the seller this morning (before the generous 7 day "DOA warranty"
runs out) and get some lady that tells me someone will call me back.
Later in the morning I get an e-mail explaining their RMA procedure. So
now I'm being required to ship the item back to them on my dime.
I think the conclusion of this warning can be aptly made by simply posting
some of the negative feedback this seller has gotten in the past week
([-] means negative feedback, [N] means neutral):
[-] Won item, didn't have item, ordered, never received, recd full refund
4wks later - geb249 Oct-13-05 11:16 (5811227432)
[-] The computer doenst work!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - adilsonmarin Oct-12-05 12:21
(5232544487)
Reply by bobsbid1: Windows you need to install windows, or better
yet get a mac:))
[N] no coment - mcnabbster Oct-11-05 19:02 (5809582719)
Reply by bobsbid1: seems a shame to neg him for a misspelled feedback oh
what the... heres your neg
[-] buy blinking book-ends here - mcnabbster Oct-11-05 19:01 (6803142818)
Reply by bobsbid1: get them while they are hot!! they wont last at
these prices remember you need 2
[-] DIDNT GET THE PRICE YOU WANTED SO THAT WHY YOU DIDNT SHIP? STAY AWAY
FRAUD.!!!! - thaiartcrafts_com Oct-11-05 16:05 (5811566861)
Reply by bobsbid1: we got a grand for a 50.00 item and he is mad
because we lost it?
[-] GEFORCE 4 TI 4200 DOSE?NT WORK NOT FUNCTIONAL - NOT DOA - BEWARE -
goodfriday Oct-11-05 14:48 (8703050567)
Reply by bobsbid1: his spell checker does'nt work either:) do you
think it was his kumputer?
Follow-up by goodfriday: There policy should have read -AS IS- 7yrs100% on
ebay you decide.
[N] Excellent selection & products, fast delivery, Poor customer service -
cdnbud Oct-07-05 08:32 (5219793883)
Reply by bobsbid1: This is a self sevice site would you mind picking on
yourself elsewhere?
[-] BUYERS BEWARE! Totally mis represented item and will not return. DO
NOT BUY! - bhickster2ir3m Oct-07-05 04:48 (5812863214)
Reply by bobsbid1: WARNING NON READERS! IT IS NOT TO LATE** STAY IN
SCHOOL**
And this is just within the LAST 7 DAYS.
Notice that he automatically leaves negative feedback for the buyer if the
buyer leaves him either negative or even NEUTRAL feedback.
Needless to say, I strenuously suggest you do NOT attempt to do business
with this lout. With all the revenues eBay generates from this junk
dealer, I doubt they'll do anything about him, which is why I felt
compelled to post a warning to the list. With all the business they do,
I figure at least one other person here might benefit from my experience.
As for me, I sent the seller an e-mail asking them to just refund my money
and be done with it. If that doesn't work, I'm just going to go straight
to PayPal with my complaint and try to get a straight refund. It'll be
more productive than trying to go through with the seller's absolutely
ridiculous RMA process.
The auction in question:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6807210038
You've been warned.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
13 Oct
13 Oct
5:39 p.m.
At 03:58 PM 10/13/05 -0700, you wrote:
...or Another Reason Why I Fricking Hate eBay
The problem isn't E-bay. You should never have bid on this item IMO. He
has 430 negatives in the last year alone! Even for someone with 26000
feedback rating that's too many. In fact, the 26000+ rating tells me that
he's to busy to test the stuff or to give reasonable service to his
customers. I've learned to stay away from sellers with HIGH transaction
numbers. They usually won't answer E-mail and their stuff is untested and
frequently poorly packed. All due to a lack of time caused by too many sales!
Moe bad signs are his flipant responses to the negative feedback and his
unfailing retaliatory negative feedback.
Joe
Sorry this is so long, but it's worth a read in case you ever happen upon
an item being offered by this seller. Read this before you get burned.
So a couple weeks ago I asked one of my employees to go on eBay and find
an external power supply for this cute little Dell P4 system that I got
in without the P/S. He dutifully went onto eBay, found the most
reasonably priced item with a Buy It Now, and bought it for me.
Later, when I went to pay for the item, I noticed that the seller had
26000+ feedback total, with 1700 postive and 34 negative just in the past
month. If it were me, I would've avoided this seller like a foul odor in
the air, but my naive teenage employee doesn't know better.
So anyway, from past experience, I figured there was probably a 50/50
chance this would go well, because like, what are the odds that a wall
wart (more like a big slab) would be bad? So I went ahead and sent the
PayPal payment. A week later (yesterday) I receive my item. The first
thing I did before plugging it into my computer was check the voltages,
because even though the seller claimed it was "TESTED WORKING, NO DOA", I
didn't want to take the chance of this thing zapping the computer. So
what do you know, I get no voltage. Then I notice the LED is out. I try
another power cord but it's pretty plainly dead. Oh bother.
I called the seller this morning (before the generous 7 day "DOA warranty"
runs out) and get some lady that tells me someone will call me back.
Later in the morning I get an e-mail explaining their RMA procedure. So
now I'm being required to ship the item back to them on my dime.
I think the conclusion of this warning can be aptly made by simply posting
some of the negative feedback this seller has gotten in the past week
([-] means negative feedback, [N] means neutral):
[-] Won item, didn't have item, ordered, never received, recd full refund
4wks later - geb249 Oct-13-05 11:16 (5811227432)
[-] The computer doenst work!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - adilsonmarin Oct-12-05 12:21
(5232544487)
Reply by bobsbid1: Windows you need to install windows, or better
yet get a mac:))
[N] no coment - mcnabbster Oct-11-05 19:02 (5809582719)
Reply by bobsbid1: seems a shame to neg him for a misspelled feedback oh
what the... heres your neg
[-] buy blinking book-ends here - mcnabbster Oct-11-05 19:01 (6803142818)
Reply by bobsbid1: get them while they are hot!! they wont last at
these prices remember you need 2
[-] DIDNT GET THE PRICE YOU WANTED SO THAT WHY YOU DIDNT SHIP? STAY AWAY
FRAUD.!!!! - thaiartcrafts_com Oct-11-05 16:05 (5811566861)
Reply by bobsbid1: we got a grand for a 50.00 item and he is mad
because we lost it?
[-] GEFORCE 4 TI 4200 DOSE?NT WORK NOT FUNCTIONAL - NOT DOA - BEWARE -
goodfriday Oct-11-05 14:48 (8703050567)
Reply by bobsbid1: his spell checker does'nt work either:) do you
think it was his kumputer?
Follow-up by goodfriday: There policy should have read -AS IS- 7yrs100% on
ebay you decide.
[N] Excellent selection & products, fast delivery, Poor customer service -
cdnbud Oct-07-05 08:32 (5219793883)
Reply by bobsbid1: This is a self sevice site would you mind picking on
yourself elsewhere?
[-] BUYERS BEWARE! Totally mis represented item and will not return. DO
NOT BUY! - bhickster2ir3m Oct-07-05 04:48 (5812863214)
Reply by bobsbid1: WARNING NON READERS! IT IS NOT TO LATE** STAY IN
SCHOOL**
And this is just within the LAST 7 DAYS.
Notice that he automatically leaves negative feedback for the buyer if the
buyer leaves him either negative or even NEUTRAL feedback.
Needless to say, I strenuously suggest you do NOT attempt to do business
with this lout. With all the revenues eBay generates from this junk
dealer, I doubt they'll do anything about him, which is why I felt
compelled to post a warning to the list. With all the business they do,
I figure at least one other person here might benefit from my experience.
As for me, I sent the seller an e-mail asking them to just refund my money
and be done with it. If that doesn't work, I'm just going to go straight
to PayPal with my complaint and try to get a straight refund. It'll be
more productive than trying to go through with the seller's absolutely
ridiculous RMA process.
The auction in question:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6807210038
You've been warned.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers
]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at
http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
10:47 p.m.
In fact, the 26000+ rating tells me that
he's to busy to test the stuff or to give reasonable service to his
customers. I've learned to stay away from sellers with HIGH transaction
numbers. They usually won't answer E-mail and their stuff is untested and
frequently poorly packed. All due to a lack of time caused by too many sales!
Not to defend this guy or anything, but I bet he has at least a few
employees. With those kinds of numbers you have to. Remember that only
about half of the transactions show up on the feedback, and many of those
do not make the number increase (repeat customers). I would bet that he
has done something like 50-60000 transactions in total. One person acting
alone, running absolutely full throttle, could only do maybe 5000
transactions a year.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
11:13 p.m.
I know exactly the power supply Sellam is describing and talking
about as I've had to service a few for some mid-size businesses in my area.
Secondly, anyone with a clue would steer clear of a guy with a
username like bobs bid 1 ... Sounds entirely made-up and fraudulent
off the bat. Maybe next time the employee will be more careful and
pay some attention at least?
I too was taken by a schmuck like that a few years back. Paid good
money for some big boxy hard drives (4-10GB, 5.25, full-height, 10LB
brick, SCSI's). A--hole who sold them to me (decent ratings, very few
negatives and did not do more than say, 25-50 sales a week) sent them
simply wrapped in thin corrugated cardboard and tape (no padding,
etc). A few pins were bent on one of them, but amazingly, they all
worked fine with no bad sectors, etc. He even gave me negative
feedback 2 days after I paid, before I even received the item from
UPS ground. Again, gotta love eBay.
-John Boffemmyer IV
At 10:47 PM 10/13/2005, you wrote:
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In fact, the
26000+ rating tells me that
he's to busy to test the stuff or to give reasonable service to his
customers. I've learned to stay away from sellers with HIGH transaction
numbers. They usually won't answer E-mail and their stuff is untested and
frequently poorly packed. All due to a lack of time caused by too
many sales!
Not to defend this guy or anything, but I bet he has at least a few
employees. With those kinds of numbers you have to. Remember that only
about half of the transactions show up on the feedback, and many of those
do not make the number increase (repeat customers). I would bet that he
has done something like 50-60000 transactions in total. One person acting
alone, running absolutely full throttle, could only do maybe 5000
transactions a year.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
--
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Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.14/131 - Release Date: 10/12/2005
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Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.11.14/131 - Release Date: 10/12/2005
14 Oct
14 Oct
4:52 a.m.
At 10:47 PM 10/13/05 -0400, you wrote:
> In fact, the 26000+ rating tells me that
> he's to busy to test the stuff or to give reasonable service to his
> customers. I've learned to stay away from sellers with HIGH transaction
> numbers. They usually won't answer E-mail and their stuff is untested and
> frequently poorly packed. All due to a lack of time caused by too many
sales!
Not to defend this guy or anything, but I bet he has at least a few
employees.
That's probably true. But just as in Sellam's case, employees don't
always do the correct thing. Because they are employees may explain why the
service from such sellers is frequently poor but it doesn't change the fact
that THEIR SERVICE IS POOR. I buy a lot of stuff on E-bay and I've had VERY
good luck with small dealers but very POOR luck with the mega-dealers. Like
Chuck, I frequently send them a test question just to gage their response
and only about 25% even bother to reply. Guess what? No reply, no bid!
FWIW I've only had TWO negative feedbacks in the 8 1/2 years that I've
been using E-bay. The last one was from a mega dealer that never responded
to my request for the shipping costs and his address after the auction
ended. After a month and 4 requests with no replys I filed negative
feedback on him and he immediately filed negative feedback on me in
retaliation.
I've learned the hard way to be very careful about dealing with the mega
dealers!
Joe
With those kinds of numbers you have to. Remember that only
about half of the transactions show up on the feedback,
and many of those
do not make the number increase (repeat customers). I would bet that he
has done something like 50-60000 transactions in total. One person acting
alone, running absolutely full throttle, could only do maybe 5000
transactions a year.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
10:19 a.m.
That's probably true. But just as in
Sellam's case, employees don't
always do the correct thing. Because they are employees may explain why the
service from such sellers is frequently poor but it doesn't change the fact
that THEIR SERVICE IS POOR. I buy a lot of stuff on E-bay and I've had VERY
good luck with small dealers but very POOR luck with the mega-dealers. Like
Chuck, I frequently send them a test question just to gage their response
and only about 25% even bother to reply. Guess what? No reply, no bid!
I have found this to be true across the board. And yes, if I do not get a
reply, I think twice about bidding.
On a related grumble as a dealer - why do so many people send me questions
on the last day of the auction right towards the end? Well, I know,
because many people browse the auctions "Ending First" every day. Still,
how is one supposed to respond in time?
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
2:40 p.m.
--- "Joe R." <rigdonj at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
I buy a lot of stuff on
E-bay and I've had VERY
good luck with small dealers but very POOR luck with
the mega-dealers. Like
Chuck, I frequently send them a test question just
to gage their response
and only about 25% even bother to reply. Guess what?
No reply, no bid!
I'm just guessing but I think there is a good reason
for the indifference expressed by big sellers, and its
not a lack of manpower. If you are a seller on ebay
you quickly realize that the bidders who ask the most
questions tend to be the most problematic buyers.
A buyer asking questions means , 1) he is actually
going to use the product, or 2) the price is a high
percentage of his disposable income so its critical he
is getting exactly what he wants.
Sellers don't want these type of people, they want
high income, low expectation buyers who are just going
to buy the old computer (for example) and put it on
shelf.
They don't want buyers complaining that "you said my
Altair system had a CPU board model 3424-3423 but the
system arrived with a CPU board model 3424-3423A,
please refund my payment immediately or I will report
you to ebay for fraud".
There has to be a reason those mega-dealers are
mega-dealers.
__________________________________
Yahoo! Music Unlimited
Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.
http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/
6:35 p.m.
I'm just guessing but I think there is a good
reason
for the indifference expressed by big sellers, and its
not a lack of manpower. If you are a seller on ebay
you quickly realize that the bidders who ask the most
questions tend to be the most problematic buyers.
Bingo!
I get the most problems from the guys that buy audio tubes.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
9:44 a.m.
New subject: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
When Franking Clerks go Postal
or
Some say tubes and some say valves...
On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 11:07:08 +0100, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
William Donzelli wrote:
> Bingo!
>
> I get the most problems from the guys that buy audio tubes.
Why would you buy audio tubes, or valves as we call
them over here, from
eBay, when they're cheap enough in Maplins?
Gordon.
Because Maplins is much closer to Stonehenge than the great majority
of the people purchasing tubes from William on ebay (like me).
From my prospective it is a big pond to cross, to a
land where a pound is closer to two
bucks than a dollar. Not to mention the
franking costs to post anything of weight :)
Surface post from the Jolly ole land of Merlin, back here to Central Ohio is running
between
40 and 45 days by slow boat. I can have a full container shipped in about the same time,
most likely end up on the same boat. I had a seller just this spring post a drawing tube
containing a rare plate of the first aerial photo ever taken of Stonehenge sent by ship !
I took about 2 months to get here @%$#^.......
For about a fiver (or about half that, if your think Sterling) one can have a Kilo of
near
instant gratification delivered to the door in about two days with electronic tracking.
On a side note I received a small package (about 65 grams) from the Netherlands
yesterday,
It is inspiration for an art project I am working on regarding some core values.
I took 7 days, an eternity when you are waiting for a good example of hard core from the
Netherlands :)
The postmark was for 1,74 I am assuming euros. I just checked it would be $2.40 to
Airmail it back,
On a personal Note: Thanks Henk, it looks great. I got some interesting closeups at 60x
and 200x
that may work. I will post later when I get a chance to put them in an album. Number one
Son is doing
the marriage thing this weekend so I have been slow getting back to you ...
Got to run ... SheWhoMustBeObayed has other plans for me :)
Later
Bob
16 Oct
16 Oct
8:49 a.m.
New subject: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
Bob Bradlee wrote:
Well, I'm sure that will sort out.
Because Maplins is much closer to Stonehenge than the
great majority
of the people purchasing tubes from William on ebay (like me).
My nearest Maplins is in a different country from Stonehenge.
From my
prospective it is a big pond to cross, to a land where a pound is closer to two
bucks than a dollar. Not to mention the franking costs to post anything of weight :)
Surface post from the Jolly ole land of Merlin, back
here to Central Ohio is running between
Ah, but Merlin was English, wasn't he? Considering it's supposed to be
the same Royal Mail, they're bloody useless down south.
40 and 45 days by slow boat. I can have a full
container shipped in about the same time,
most likely end up on the same boat. I had a seller just this spring post a drawing tube
containing a rare plate of the first aerial photo ever taken of Stonehenge sent by ship
!
I took about 2 months to get here @%$#^.......
That's a very long time to ship stuff. There are people who have
single-handedly sailed the Atlantic in a dinghy faster than that!
Gordon
19 Oct
19 Oct
7:01 p.m.
New subject: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon JC Pearce" <gordonjcp at gjcp.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service
Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
> Surface post from the Jolly ole land of Merlin, back here to Central
Ohio is
running between
Ah, but Merlin was English, wasn't he?
No , he was Welsh , but he did spend some time in your neck of the woods
when it was Welsh speaking - which was up until about the 12th century. :>)
Geoff.
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Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
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7:05 p.m.
New subject: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
Geoffrey Thomas wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gordon JC Pearce" <gordonjcp at gjcp.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 1:49 PM
Subject: Re: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service
Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
IIRC no-one spoke Welsh this far north...
Gordon.
>Surface post from the Jolly ole land of
Merlin, back here to Central
Ohio is running between
Ah, but Merlin was English, wasn't he?
No , he was Welsh , but he did spend some time in your neck of the woods
when it was Welsh speaking - which was up until about the 12th century. :>)
20 Oct
20 Oct
10:33 a.m.
New subject: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
>
>>Ah, but Merlin was English, wasn't he?
>>
>
> No , he was Welsh , but he did spend some time in your neck of the woods
> when it was Welsh speaking - which was up until about the 12th century.
:>)
IIRC no-one spoke Welsh this far north...
Gordon.
How far north is that ?
The Hebrides are "Ynysoedd Heledd" in Welsh - Heledd being the tragic
princess who lived there.
Geoff.
--
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Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.12.4/143 - Release Date: 19/10/05
1:19 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
OK, since there seem to be a fair amount of people into Tube audio,
or at least with a knowledge of it. Would someone care to explain
the following to someone that is used to an all in one unit such as a
Sony Receiver. What is the purpose of separate Amp and Pre-Amps. I
think I understand the whole phono pre-stage, but I've yet to find a
decent explanation of the rest, and I'm looking to switch to tubes
for playback of records (primarily Vinyl, but I'm also interested in
78's).
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
2:08 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
On 10/19/2005 at 10:19 PM Zane H. Healy wrote:
OK, since there seem to be a fair amount of people into
Tube audio,
or at least with a knowledge of it. Would someone care to explain
the following to someone that is used to an all in one unit such as a
Sony Receiver. What is the purpose of separate Amp and Pre-Amps. I
think I understand the whole phono pre-stage, but I've yet to find a
decent explanation of the rest, and I'm looking to switch to tubes
for playback of records (primarily Vinyl, but I'm also interested in
78's).
Purely from memory, but I believe one generally used a separate pre-amp
mostly due to hum issues. The power supply for the preamp could make use
of lower plate voltages, better regulation and DC heater supplies.
Or so I think I recall.
Cheers,
Chuck
4:39 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
OK, since there
seem to be a fair amount of people into Tube audio,
or at least with a knowledge of it. Would someone care to explain
the following to someone that is used to an all in one unit such as a
Sony Receiver. What is the purpose of separate Amp and Pre-Amps. I
think I understand the whole phono pre-stage, but I've yet to find a
decent explanation of the rest, and I'm looking to switch to tubes
for playback of records (primarily Vinyl, but I'm also interested in
78's).
Purely from memory, but I believe one generally used a separate pre-amp
mostly due to hum issues. The power supply for the preamp could make use
of lower plate voltages, better regulation and DC heater supplies.
Or so I think I recall.
2:25 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Zane H. Healy wrote:
OK, since there seem to be a fair amount of people
into Tube audio,
or at least with a knowledge of it. Would someone care to explain
the following to someone that is used to an all in one unit such as a
Sony Receiver. What is the purpose of separate Amp and Pre-Amps. I
think I understand the whole phono pre-stage, but I've yet to find a
decent explanation of the rest, and I'm looking to switch to tubes
for playback of records (primarily Vinyl, but I'm also interested in
78's).
God damn it. This isn't the fucking antique radio mailing list. Take it
to a more appropriate list or take it off-list.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
7:25 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Zane H. Healy wrote:
Maybe we should hold another 10 Year Rule war instead.
8-)
Doc
OK, since there seem to be a fair amount of people
into Tube audio,
or at least with a knowledge of it. Would someone care to explain
the following to someone that is used to an all in one unit such as a
Sony Receiver. What is the purpose of separate Amp and Pre-Amps. I
think I understand the whole phono pre-stage, but I've yet to find a
decent explanation of the rest, and I'm looking to switch to tubes
for playback of records (primarily Vinyl, but I'm also interested in
78's).
God damn it. This isn't the fucking antique radio mailing list. Take it
to a more appropriate list or take it off-list. 
9:39 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
I'm halfway willing to officially sanction all
discussion of antique radios
;)
That half might get you punched in the nose.
Actually, there are no good antique radio groups/lists - all are watered
down. There is a good military radio list, however.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
22 Oct
22 Oct
5:16 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
> I'm halfway willing to officially sanction
all discussion of antique
radios
;)
That half might get you punched in the nose.
Actually, there are no good antique radio groups/lists - all are watered
down. There is a good military radio list, however.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
4:40 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
For the web enabled amongst us, there is a good UK
based vintage radio forum
at:
http://www.vintage-radio.net
(but I don't want to kick off the whole mailing list / web forum thing
again........)
DOes anyone know of a reasonable vintage tape recorder (and/or VCR) list
or forum? It's not really vintage radio (which seems to deal mostly with
AM broadcast-band sets), it's not vintage hi-fi. I am thinking of the
1950's and 1960's Philips, Grundig, etc reel-to-reel machines,
real-to-real video recorders, N1500, V2000 etc VCRs and the like). Or am
I the only person in thw world who fiddles with such machines?
-tony
k
8:14 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 21:40:30 +0100 (BST)
ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
You're not alone. And I do need a supplier for belts and what-not.
And tape, even.
--
http://sasteven.multics.org/MacSE30/MacSE30.html
For the web
enabled amongst us, there is a good UK based vintage radio forum
at:
http://www.vintage-radio.net
(but I don't want to kick off the whole mailing list / web forum thing
again........)
DOes anyone know of a reasonable vintage tape recorder (and/or VCR) list
or forum? It's not really vintage radio (which seems to deal mostly with
AM broadcast-band sets), it's not vintage hi-fi. I am thinking of the
1950's and 1960's Philips, Grundig, etc reel-to-reel machines,
real-to-real video recorders, N1500, V2000 etc VCRs and the like). Or am
I the only person in thw world who fiddles with such machines?
23 Oct
23 Oct
7:25 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 21:40:30 +0100 (BST)
ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
You're not alone. And I do need a supplier for belts and what-not.
And tape, even.
I've got a huge pile of N1500 tapes, a probably-mostly-working N1700 and
most of an N1500 sitting in storage. I have no idea whether it is in any
kind of usable condition, because it may have got damp in the utterly vile
weather we had earlier this year (130mph winds kept me from repairing the
roof for a week or so).
I can get it as far as Glasgow. If you pay some of the petrol I'll take
it further south.
Gordon.
For the
web enabled amongst us, there is a good UK based vintage radio
forum
at:
http://www.vintage-radio.net
(but I don't want to kick off the whole mailing list / web forum thing
again........)
DOes anyone know of a reasonable vintage tape recorder (and/or VCR) list
or forum? It's not really vintage radio (which seems to deal mostly with
AM broadcast-band sets), it's not vintage hi-fi. I am thinking of the
1950's and 1960's Philips, Grundig, etc reel-to-reel machines,
real-to-real video recorders, N1500, V2000 etc VCRs and the like). Or am
I the only person in thw world who fiddles with such machines?
7:28 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
Try these
http://www.palsite.com/
http://s.webring.com/hub?ring=betamax
http://www.colin99.co.uk/beta.html
I've found these sites very useful.
DaveB, NZ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott Stevens" <chenmel at earthlink.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 1:14 PM
Subject: Re: OT: Tube Audio
On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 21:40:30 +0100 (BST)
ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
You're not alone. And I do need a supplier for belts and what-not.
And tape, even.
--
http://sasteven.multics.org/MacSE30/MacSE30.html
--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
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21/10/2005
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For the
web enabled amongst us, there is a good UK based vintage
radio forum
at:
http://www.vintage-radio.net
(but I don't want to kick off the whole mailing list / web forum
thing
again........)
DOes anyone know of a reasonable vintage tape recorder (and/or VCR)
list
or forum? It's not really vintage radio (which seems to deal mostly
with
AM broadcast-band sets), it's not vintage hi-fi. I am thinking of
the
1950's and 1960's Philips, Grundig, etc reel-to-reel machines,
real-to-real video recorders, N1500, V2000 etc VCRs and the like).
Or am
I the only person in thw world who fiddles with such machines?
7:01 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
At 04:40 PM 10/22/2005, you wrote:
Are you aware of this
one? http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/vintagge-audio
Charlie Fox
Charles E. Fox Video Production
793 Argyle Rd. Windsor Ont.
519-254-4991 N8Y 3J8
Camcorder Kindergarten, chasfoxvideo.com
For the web
enabled amongst us, there is a good UK based vintage
radio forum
at:
http://www.vintage-radio.net
(but I don't want to kick off the whole mailing list / web forum thing
again........)
DOes anyone know of a reasonable vintage tape recorder (and/or VCR) list
or forum? It's not really vintage radio (which seems to deal mostly with
AM broadcast-band sets), it's not vintage hi-fi. I am thinking of the
1950's and 1960's Philips, Grundig, etc reel-to-reel machines,
real-to-real video recorders, N1500, V2000 etc VCRs and the like). Or am
I the only person in thw world who fiddles with such machines?
-tony
k
1:01 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
> For the web enabled amongst us, there is a good
UK based vintage radio
forum
at:
http://www.vintage-radio.net
(but I don't want to kick off the whole mailing list / web forum thing
again........)
DOes anyone know of a reasonable vintage tape recorder (and/or VCR) list
or forum? It's not really vintage radio (which seems to deal mostly with
AM broadcast-band sets), it's not vintage hi-fi. I am thinking of the
1950's and 1960's Philips, Grundig, etc reel-to-reel machines,
real-to-real video recorders, N1500, V2000 etc VCRs and the like). Or am
I the only person in thw world who fiddles with such machines?
-tony
k
5:09 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
Tony,
there is a vintage recorder section, with a number of very knowledgable
users on the forum listed above.
Yes, but are they going to flame me for posting about non-valved,
domestic-quality machines? Something like the EL3586 'Upright' machine
I've just bougut?
ObCC. This machine is very much the immediate predecessor of the cassette
recorder, it's 1+78 ips tape speed, one track in each direction on normal
1/4" tape. The connectors seem to be the same as the connectors on the
first Philips cassette recorders (at least according to the schematic
glued inside the case :-)), I indend to try using it with a home computer
sometime. Just for the hell of it.
-tony
21 Oct
21 Oct
11:13 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
At 8:11 PM -0500 10/21/05, Jay West wrote:
Sellam wrote....
And I'm more than half tempted to think that would be a good idea. I
think my question (which was well marked so that those that don't
care didn't have to look at it) got a lot better answer than it would
have if I'd asked on some place like rec.audio.tubes. Though now
that I think about it, I think I'll ask there as well and see what
kind of answers I get :^)
Of course even with some excellent answers both on and off list, I'm
no closer to knowing what I want to do :^)
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
>God damn it. This isn't the fucking
antique radio mailing list. Take it
>to a more appropriate list or take it off-list.
I'm halfway willing to officially sanction all discussion of antique radios ;)
Jay
22 Oct
22 Oct
12:46 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
At 10:22 PM -0500 10/21/05, Jay West wrote:
Zane wrote...
I know :^)
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
And I'm more than half tempted to think that
would be a good idea.
There was a winking smiley on my original post ;)
12:59 a.m.
New subject: OT: Suggestions on modern PC sites?
I'm a bit out of date on what are good sites for getting info on PC
parts. My existing Pentium 4 is about half way to being a classic,
and I'm finally feeling the need for more speed (I confess, it's a
game). Anyone have any recommendations for info sites?
In case anyone is interested I'm looking for info on the following
types of things:
Asus motherboard that will support both an old Intel Socket 775
pre-EM64T 3.2Ghz CPU, and the newer dual core chips
Good 128MB or 256MB Graphics card (can't believe I'm saying that).
Something along the lines of the Antec P180 case (quiet with good ventilation)
Offlist so as to not offend anyone might be good ;^)
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
20 Oct
20 Oct
9:43 p.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
At 11:25 PM -0700 10/19/05, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
God damn it. This isn't the fucking antique radio
mailing list. Take it
to a more appropriate list or take it off-list.
Sam, would it help if I pointed out that I posted the question here,
thanks to your rant and the thread it started? :^)
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
9:31 a.m.
New subject: OT: Tube Audio
Bigger more impressive, often many more knobs and lights :)
Separate preamp. receiver and amp allowed one to upgrade
continuously as funds became available. In the late 60's and
early 70's I built / upgraded my system with my tax check
each year until my wife said enough was enough and
forced be to get a new camera the year my son was born.
Then it was lenses and darkroom stuff that absorbed all
spare money until late in the 70's when computers
SDk-80 and EVK-300 became the new black hole to
throw time and money into :)
First a processor and a teletype, then a second processor and a
Beehive monitor (8008 based), than more memory, and tape controller
for backup, followed by floppy drives, and ..... Get the picture
Anyway "all in ones" were what our parents had, and that would not do
we were the woodstock generation and wanted massive amounts of
unusable power ! (until the parents went out, then took every watt we
had to entertain the neighbors :)
Bob ...
On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 22:19:35 -0700, Zane H. Healy wrote:
OK, since there seem to be a fair amount of people into
Tube audio,
or at least with a knowledge of it. Would someone care to explain
the following to someone that is used to an all in one unit such as a
Sony Receiver. What is the purpose of separate Amp and Pre-Amps. I
think I understand the whole phono pre-stage, but I've yet to find a
decent explanation of the rest, and I'm looking to switch to tubes
for playback of records (primarily Vinyl, but I'm also interested in
78's).
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
16 Oct
16 Oct
11:34 a.m.
New subject: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
I had a seller just this spring post a drawing tube
containing a rare plate of the first aerial photo ever
taken of Stonehenge sent by ship !
I took about 2 months to get here @%$#^.......
For about a fiver (or about half that, if your think Sterling) one can have a Kilo of
near
instant gratification delivered to the door in about two days with electronic tracking.
A friend of mine last year sent a large package of christmas presents
home to Australia. He paid ?60 for postage, the guy in the Post Office
ticked the wrong box and it went the slow way.
It was posted in November and arrived in May. At least by then they
assumed it was lost and give him ?400 compensation. I don't think it
was worth the grief his mother gave him for "Forgetting about us, now
you live over there etc."
Dan
Dan
12:06 p.m.
New subject: Sone say tubes, some say valves .... Was: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
On Sun, 16 Oct 2005 16:34:47 +0100, Dan Williams wrote:
I had a seller just this spring post a drawing tube
At least he was vindicated when it arrived many months later.
containing a rare plate of the first aerial photo
ever taken of Stonehenge sent by ship !
I took about 2 months to get here @%$#^.......
For about a fiver (or about half that, if your think Sterling) one can have a Kilo of
near
instant gratification delivered to the door in about two days with electronic tracking.
A friend of mine last year sent a large package of christmas presents
home to Australia. He paid ?60 for postage, the guy in the Post Office
ticked the wrong box and it went the slow way.
It was posted in November and arrived in May. At least by then they
assumed it was lost and give him ?400 compensation. I don't think it
was worth the grief his mother gave him for "Forgetting about us, now
you live over there etc." Dan
Dan
11:14 a.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
Mmm. To the gold-plated speaker cable brigade, perhaps.
Gordon.
Why would you
buy audio tubes, or valves as we call them over here, from
eBay, when they're cheap enough in Maplins?
Because a 12AX7 (ECC83) made by ICC and an identical 12AXY (ECC83) made by
Telefunken makes ALL the difference.
1:24 p.m.
On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 16:14:55 +0100
Gordon JC Pearce <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:
William Donzelli wrote:
Mmm. To the gold-plated speaker cable brigade, perhaps.
Gordon.
No, such things really matter. There is a significant difference in the
quality of tubes from different vendors. The 'gold plated speaker
cable' analogy is badly overused these days.
It _isn't_ simply a matter of buying whatever latest flashy gear has
paid for the proper advertisements and endorsements.
Just as there are better and worse brands of floppy diskettes.
--
Why would
you buy audio tubes, or valves as we call them over here,
from >eBay, when
they're cheap enough in Maplins?
Because a 12AX7 (ECC83) made by ICC and an identical 12AXY (ECC83)
made by Telefunken makes ALL the difference. 
1:33 p.m.
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
William Donzelli wrote:
Mmm. To the gold-plated speaker cable brigade, perhaps.
But I think the reason the cable makes a difference is you got all the feed
back in a transistor amp ( less in a valve ) and any noise on the speaker
cables like ac hum? and other noise will get fed back to the amp
.
Why would
you buy audio tubes, or valves as we call them over here,
from eBay, when they're cheap enough in Maplins?
Because a 12AX7 (ECC83) made by ICC and an identical 12AXY (ECC83)
made by
Telefunken makes ALL the difference.
Gordon.
.
16 Oct
16 Oct
9:36 a.m.
woodelf wrote:
But I think the reason the cable makes a difference is
you got all the feed
back in a transistor amp ( less in a valve ) and any noise on the speaker
cables like ac hum? and other noise will get fed back to the amp
What *exactly* do you live near that couples that much mains hum into
speaker leads? Consider that the leads have very little inductance, and
are shunted with a very low impedance load...
Gordon.
2:37 p.m.
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
woodelf wrote:
What *exactly* do you live near that couples that much mains hum into
speaker leads? Consider that the leads have very little inductance,
and are shunted with a very low impedance load...
Well I was never a fan of the gold plated bla bla bla speaker and power
cables. What I do have is noise
in my amp --- left speaker no input that I am not sure what to trace
from, noisy tube or what but
no hum. The right speaker don't have this problem, but it is only if I
have my ear right up to my
96? db speakers that I can hear it. Once I play music it goes away ...
Any ideas contact me
directly.
Gordon.
Tube Audio ... Not pricy at all compare to Classic Computers.
PS. The only thing preventing me from building a replica of say
PDP 8 in a FPGA is the lack of a paper tape reader/punch.
20 Oct
20 Oct
12:53 a.m.
At 12:37 PM -0600 10/16/05, woodelf wrote:
Tube Audio ... Not pricy at all compare to Classic
Computers.
PS. The only thing preventing me from building a replica of say
PDP 8 in a FPGA is the lack of a paper tape reader/punch.
Tube Audio isn't pricy compared to classic computers? Interesting...
It is from where I'm sitting.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
8:34 a.m.
On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 21:53:05 -0700
"Zane H. Healy" <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
At 12:37 PM -0600 10/16/05, woodelf wrote:
Definitely seems that way from here, too. Although I will admit my best 'tube
audio' gear is a Dynaco preamp and a Harmon-Kardon integrated amp that I got from
thrift shops. But that's a popular channel for my classic computer items as well.
Either category of equipment is extremely expensive through 'retail' channels, but
'retail' is for people like Paul Allen, and for those who make their money bilking
people with too much disposable income that way.
--
http://sasteven.multics.org/MacSE30/MacSE30.html
Tube Audio ... Not pricy at all compare to Classic
Computers.
PS. The only thing preventing me from building a replica of say
PDP 8 in a FPGA is the lack of a paper tape reader/punch.
Tube Audio isn't pricy compared to classic computers? Interesting...
It is from where I'm sitting.
Zane
16 Oct
16 Oct
7:02 p.m.
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
woodelf wrote:
Check this out:
http://venhaus1.com/airsine.html
US$700 power cable. I'm not kidding.
Doc
But I think the reason the cable makes a
difference is you got all the
feed
back in a transistor amp ( less in a valve ) and any noise on the
speaker
cables like ac hum? and other noise will get fed back to the amp
What *exactly* do you live near that couples that much mains hum into
speaker leads? Consider that the leads have very little inductance, and
are shunted with a very low impedance load... 
17 Oct
17 Oct
3:21 a.m.
Doc Shipley wrote:
Check this out:
http://venhaus1.com/airsine.html
US$700 power cable. I'm not kidding.
Doc
But according to the user comments it compares favorably to the $4000 Ultra
Kahn II.
cf.: P.T. Barnum et al.
5:50 a.m.
Doc Shipley wrote:
Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
What kind of people believe in this crap?
Do they replace the wiring in their house as well to prevent
micro-movements of the wires?
And after that the cable that delivers electricity to their house?
Or are they generating their own "clean" current with special generators
wounded with golden wires?
Hmmm, with some fantansy I can create a whole new market.
woodelf wrote:
Check this out:
http://venhaus1.com/airsine.html
US$700 power cable. I'm not kidding. But I think the reason the cable makes a
difference is you got all
the feed
back in a transistor amp ( less in a valve ) and any noise on the
speaker
cables like ac hum? and other noise will get fed back to the amp
What *exactly* do you live near that couples that much mains hum into
speaker leads? Consider that the leads have very little inductance,
and are shunted with a very low impedance load...
6:43 a.m.
Bert Thomas wrote:
Hmmm. Wanna incorporate? I like the way you think.
Doc
Doc Shipley wrote:
Check this
out:
http://venhaus1.com/airsine.html
US$700 power cable. I'm not kidding.
What kind of people believe in this crap?
Do they replace the wiring in their house as well to prevent
micro-movements of the wires?
And after that the cable that delivers electricity to their house?
Or are they generating their own "clean" current with special generators
wounded with golden wires?
Hmmm, with some fantansy I can create a whole new market.
6:35 p.m.
On Mon, 17 Oct 2005, Doc Shipley wrote:
Bert Thomas wrote:
Hmmm. Wanna incorporate? I like the way you think.
Count me in! I've got some dollars I can invest ;)
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
Doc Shipley wrote:
Check
this out:
http://venhaus1.com/airsine.html
US$700 power cable. I'm not kidding.
What kind of people believe in this crap?
Do they replace the wiring in their house as well to prevent
micro-movements of the wires?
And after that the cable that delivers electricity to their house?
Or are they generating their own "clean" current with special generators
wounded with golden wires?
Hmmm, with some fantansy I can create a whole new market.
7:08 p.m.
What kind of people believe in this crap?
Oh don't get me started on the audiophools :-)
Do they replace the wiring in their house as well to
prevent
micro-movements of the wires?
One of my favourites is 'monocrystaline copper cable' Since any bending
of said cable is going to disrupt the crystal latice, presumably it has
to come pre-shaped to fit thr room, right?
There are some things that clearly do make a difference to the sound, for
good, scientific, reasons. Things like correct head alingment and bias of
an anlogue tape recorder. No corrosion on the connectors. The design of
the filter after the DAC in a digital system (some are downright
terrible).
And there are things that make me ROFLMAO. Things like cutting a corner
off the amplifier frontpanel (an odd number of corners sounds better).
Having an odd number of grounding clips on the carpet (so that the 'bad
charge' has nmore to flow away down and less to flow back up). Sticking
electret foils on the mains plugs. Yes, I've seen all of these and more...
I rememebr once seeing inside a so-called top-end CD player. It contained
the cheapest plastic Philips CD mechanism, and the Philips chipset. Alas
the PCB ssemed to have been laid out by an idiot. Decoupling capacitors
are far too far away from the ICs. Capacitors that the Philips datasheet
said had to be SMD and mounted under the DIL-packaged chip were
conventional components a good centimetre from the pin. And so on....
-tony
6:33 a.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
Well - I suppose if you can find someone to sell it to the audiophiles,
I connect up their speakers with copper brake pipe mounted on ceramic
insulators. Just think of it - never mind 79-strand, this cable is *one
big thick strand*! None of that interference caused by the surfaces of
the strands rubbing against each other! And of course, it's a tube, to
make the most of the "skin effect" to give you clearer high frequencies...
Gordon.
What kind of
people believe in this crap?
Oh don't get me started on the audiophools :-)
Do they replace the wiring in their house as well
to prevent
micro-movements of the wires?
One of my favourites is 'monocrystaline copper cable' Since any bending
of said cable is going to disrupt the crystal latice, presumably it has
to come pre-shaped to fit thr room, right? 
8:42 p.m.
On Tue, 18 Oct 2005, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Tony Duell wrote:
Well - I suppose if you can find someone to sell it to the audiophiles, I
connect up their speakers with copper brake pipe mounted on ceramic
insulators. Just think of it - never mind 79-strand, this cable is *one big
thick strand*! None of that interference caused by the surfaces of the
strands rubbing against each other! And of course, it's a tube, to make the
most of the "skin effect" to give you clearer high frequencies...
Gotta love it when the golden-eared folks apply RF transmission-line
theory to speaker cabling. My scepticism towards audiophile snake-oil
comes via heredity (my late father spent 40+ years in the industry).
Steve
What kind
of people believe in this crap?
Oh don't get me started on the audiophools :-)
Do they replace the wiring in their house as well
to prevent
micro-movements of the wires?
One of my favourites is 'monocrystaline copper cable' Since any bending
of said cable is going to disrupt the crystal latice, presumably it has
to come pre-shaped to fit thr room, right? 
8:53 p.m.
Steven N. Hirsch wrote:
...
Gotta love it when the golden-eared folks apply RF
transmission-line
theory to speaker cabling. My scepticism towards audiophile snake-oil
comes via heredity (my late father spent 40+ years in the industry).
Steve
The Life and Career of Julian D. Hirsch
Steven Hirsch
December 2003
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=522
9:27 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven N. Hirsch" <shirsch at adelphia.net>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only" <cctech at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 8:42 PM
Subject: Re: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
Gotta love it when the golden-eared folks apply RF
transmission-line
theory to speaker cabling. My scepticism towards audiophile snake-oil
comes via heredity (my late father spent 40+ years in the industry).
Steve
I used to have a subscription to Stereo Review in the 1980-90's, must have
read quite a few of your fathers reviews. Funny thing is I am terrible with
remembering names but his stuck in my head for some reason or other.
If you think home stereo sellers were full of it, you should have seen the
garbage car stereo stores were doing in the 1980's.
Anyway, whether its computers or sound systems you have to use your brain,
know what you want/need, and read up on the topic before you even think of
giving anybody your hard earned cash. Salespeople are there only to tell you
what models are in stock and to walk the boxes to the checkout counter.
19 Oct
19 Oct
8:40 a.m.
Steven N. Hirsch wrote:
Gotta love it when the golden-eared folks apply RF
transmission-line
theory to speaker cabling. My scepticism towards audiophile snake-oil
comes via heredity (my late father spent 40+ years in the industry).
Oh, I know. I love it when people say how they spend so much time,
effort and money to get the best possible sound quality, and it's the
only way to appreciate music. You tend to find that these people are
only listening to orchestral music, for some reason. I like to point
out that as a musician, I'm interested in the music *sounding good*, not
a perfect reproduction. If I want to hear an orchestra I will go to a
concert. No recording will ever faithfully duplicate it, simply because
the physics involved in producing the sound is different.
Gordon.
3:43 p.m.
New subject: Expensive tin ears - was: Public Service Announcement:
On 10/19/2005 at 1:40 PM Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Oh, I know. I love it when people say how they spend
so much time,
effort and money to get the best possible sound quality, and it's the
only way to appreciate music. You tend to find that these people are
only listening to orchestral music, for some reason. I like to point
out that as a musician, I'm interested in the music *sounding good*, not
a perfect reproduction. If I want to hear an orchestra I will go to a
concert. No recording will ever faithfully duplicate it, simply because
the physics involved in producing the sound is different.
This brings to mind an occurrence that happened in the pre-CD audiophile
days. All names are changed to protect the embarrassed.
A friend who'd hit it big time by having a software firm he helped found
purchased by a major competitor celebrated by ordering a platinum flute
from Powell and buying a multi-kilobuck stereo system,
complete with Decca
moving-coil cartridge in the tonearm. He invited some of us
over for
dinner to show off his hardware and put on a Quantz flute concerto as a
demonstration. It was all very nice, and someone asked what the work
played was.
"It's the Quantz flute concerto in G minor" replied Martin. My friend Dave
says, "It can't be--that was in B minor". Martin gets the disc and shows
Dave the label--but Dave is adamant (IIRC, Dave had a fairly low-end stereo
system himself). Martin remembers that he has the sheet music and digs it
out. It evolves after some careful listening that the labels on the disc
were "flipped"--the "B" side label had been put on the "A"
side and
vice-versa. Musically-erudite Martin is very red-faced at the discovery by
Dave who doesn't even know the work in question but who has golden ears.
The quality of the sound system doesn't much matter to me--I'm still using
the University 3-way speakers I picked up sometime in the 60's driven by a
receiver I bought at Costco 15 years ago--it's plenty loud. My speaker
cables are zip cord.
Actually, I'm happy enough listening to a work on my 60's era Sony
10-transistor AM/FM lugaroiund (germanium transistors--great sensitivity
and only 3 "D" cells for power). Matters of haromonic construction, part
interplay and technique (intonation and rhythm) occupy most of my listening
energy, with fidelity not mattering too much--although it's nice to have
stereophonic sound for antiphonal works so the parts can be easily
distinguished.
Color me a sonic Luddite.
Cheers,
Chuck
11:58 a.m.
Kevin Handy wrote:
Steven N. Hirsch wrote:
So how many people oil their snakes? It does seem hard to get a good
Hi Fi system nowdays with all the snake oil parts as you have just so cheap
stuff on the low end, and gimics on the high end. With audio nobody gives
any useful specs now days -- THD is done into a dummy load never a
real speaker. What about IM distortion too? PS. I listen to regular music;
classical I find too heavy.
Gotta love it when the golden-eared folks apply
RF transmission-line
theory to speaker cabling. My scepticism towards audiophile
snake-oil comes via heredity (my late father spent 40+ years in the
industry).
The snake-oil industry?
6:10 p.m.
Check this out:
http://venhaus1.com/airsine.html
US$700 power cable. I'm not kidding.
Doc
I seem to recall that not so long back it was considered a bit of fun to
write spoof audiophile letters to the popular hi-fi press and see if they
printed it , waiting to see if anyone agreed in the next issue and then to
see if it later entered the Pantheon of hi-fi "knowledge". Unfortunately ,
the cutting the corners off an amp. seems to have passed the test of time.
8>)
Geoff.
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15 Oct
15 Oct
1:40 p.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
Well this is a good read on why tubes may sound different.
http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/FindingCG.html
Why would you
buy audio tubes, or valves as we call them over here, from
eBay, when they're cheap enough in Maplins?
Because a 12AX7 (ECC83) made by ICC and an identical 12AXY (ECC83) made by
Telefunken makes ALL the difference.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
14 Oct
14 Oct
9:54 a.m.
New subject: OT: Stoopid Bosses (was: PSA: AVOID "bobsbid1"
Rumor has it that William Donzelli may have mentioned these words:
So? When one of my employees frell up, I get the brunt of it. It's *my*
responsibility to take care of the problem. That's why I'm the boss. As
such, if he's got [a] bad employee[s] it's *his* responsibility to fix the
problem. It's painfully obvious he hasn't... with the quantity and caustic
nature of the remarks in his feedback, if he doesn't know they're there, he
either condones the actions or has his head firmly up his '3rd point of
contact', either of which isn't a good situation for a boss.
My SWAG is that he is the one who deals with most of the feedback.
Laterz,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger | Anarchy doesn't scale well. -- Me
zmerch at 30below.com. |
SysAdmin, Iceberg Computers
In fact, the
26000+ rating tells me that
he's to busy to test the stuff or to give reasonable service to his
customers. I've learned to stay away from sellers with HIGH transaction
numbers. They usually won't answer E-mail and their stuff is untested and
frequently poorly packed. All due to a lack of time caused by too many
sales!
Not to defend this guy or anything, but I bet he has at least a few
employees.
10:14 a.m.
New subject: OT: Stoopid Bosses (was: PSA: AVOID "bobsbid1"
So? When one of my employees frell up, I get the brunt
of it. It's *my*
responsibility to take care of the problem.
Yes, I know that. My original assumption was that he did it all himself.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
8:48 a.m.
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Joe R. wrote:
The problem isn't E-bay. You should never have
bid on this item IMO.
Yes, I KNOW. It was my employee that made the purchase as I instructed
him. I just failed to add the caveat, "don't buy from an asshole with
lots of negative feedback."
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
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5:21 a.m.
At 05:48 AM 10/14/05 -0700, Sellam wrote:
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Joe R. wrote:
You should make your employee deal with all the grief and aggravation.
That would teach him a valuable lesson!
Joe
The problem isn't E-bay. You should never
have bid on this item IMO.
Yes, I KNOW. It was my employee that made the purchase as I instructed
him. I just failed to add the caveat, "don't buy from an asshole with
lots of negative feedback."
13 Oct
13 Oct
7:18 p.m.
On 10/13/2005 at 3:58 PM Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
...or Another Reason Why I Fricking Hate eBay
Sellam, you have to choose your sellers carefully. Last week, I bought an
Overland Data 9 track drive. It arrived with the tape door plastic broken.
I wrote the seller and was issued an IMMEDATE (and I do mean just that--it
was about 3 minutes after my email) refund of the item+shipping =
everything that I paid. Seller apologized for the problem and told me to
keep the drive. I'll repair the door and the drive will have cost me
nothing.
I don't buy from sellers wtih negative feedback. There's a neat tool for
Firefox that lets you see negative feedback for any seller with just a
mouse click.
Cheers,
Chuck
7:44 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 10/13/2005 at 3:58 PM Vintage Computer Festival
wrote:
Sigh. I clearly explained how it came to be that I ended up buying from
this seller.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
...or Another Reason Why I Fricking Hate eBay
Sellam, you have to choose your sellers carefully.
7:48 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1"
On 10/13/2005 at 3:58 PM Vintage Computer Festival
wrote:
broken.
...or Another Reason Why I Fricking Hate eBay
Sellam, you have to choose your sellers carefully. Last week, I bought an
Overland Data 9 track drive. It arrived with the tape door plastic I wrote the seller and was issued an IMMEDATE (and I
do mean just
that--it
was about 3 minutes after my email) refund of the
item+shipping =
everything that I paid. Seller apologized for the problem and told me to
keep the drive. I'll repair the door and the drive will have cost me
nothing.
I don't buy from sellers wtih negative feedback. There's a neat tool for
Firefox that lets you see negative feedback for any seller with just a
mouse click.
Cheers,
Chuck
I was looking at a stack of SCA HD's that person has currently on ebay,
something about them bothered me and I didn't bid.
Most places that offer DOA warranty do ask you to send the item back before
you get a credit (and they don't pay for shipping or refund the original
shipping). Places with a policy like that usually sell the item dirt cheap
and charge a crazy shipping fee so even if you do want a refund you get very
little back.
If a deal looks too good it probably is.
8:11 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1" on eBay
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Teo Zenios wrote:
I was looking at a stack of SCA HD's that person
has currently on ebay,
something about them bothered me and I didn't bid.
You chose wisely.
Most places that offer DOA warranty do ask you to send
the item back before
you get a credit (and they don't pay for shipping or refund the original
shipping). Places with a policy like that usually sell the item dirt cheap
and charge a crazy shipping fee so even if you do want a refund you get very
little back.
Overall I paid $28 and change, which included $9 shipping via UPS (there's
obviously more handling charges in that than shipping). The price of the
P/S was $18.95. This was pretty commensurate with all the other listings
(of which there are dozens for this model). It was basically just pick
one and go with it, and my employee made an unfortunate choice.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
9:24 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement: AVOID "bobsbid1" on eBay
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 17:11:11 -0700 (PDT)
Vintage Computer Festival <vcf at siconic.com> wrote:
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, Teo Zenios wrote:
The best approach to take is to treat eBay as a peer-to-peer
marketplace. Anytime you buy used stuff from an outfit with a massive
dose of boilerplate about policies, etc. on the bid page, you're dealing
with a junk dealer who buys skids of trash from the back dock of a
repair depot somewhere.
I buy SCA drives and stuff like that when it appears to be coming from a
'sysadmin' somewhere who gets to 'junk out' the old machines at work and
sells the drives for beer money. And from fellow enthusiasts.
I was looking at a stack of SCA HD's that
person has currently on
ebay, something about them bothered me and I didn't bid.
You chose wisely.
10:29 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
I've been with eBay almost since the first day (before they had photos on
their auctions). But I don't buy a lot of computer equipment.
What I do buy is brass musical instruments--usually with hefty price tags
(think tubas). One of the common scams on eBay is to hijack an ID and
use the photos and description of an instrument that sold a couple of
months back. As a matter of course, I'll always email the seller and ask
for an additional photo or some bit of unique identifying information, such
as the serial number.
This tells me three things.
The first is that the seller cares enough to respond to inquiries--if the
seller doesn't reply, I don't bother with the auction.
The second is that the seller actually has the item in his posession.
You'd be surprised.
The third is that the seller is who he/she says he/she is. If the tenor of
the reply doesn't correspond to that in the eBay posting, I get suspicious.
Many (if not most) scams originate in countries where English is not the
official language.
Never respond to a "second-chance" solicitation. You know, the "the
winner
of my auction didn't pay me or sent the item back, so rather than re-list
it, I'm offering it to you as one of the other bidders for the winning bid"
ploy. Those are almost always scams.
If you respect eBay for the jungle that it is, you'll be okay.
Cheers,
Chuck
10:53 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
Never respond to a "second-chance"
solicitation. You know, the "the winner
of my auction didn't pay me or sent the item back, so rather than re-list
it, I'm offering it to you as one of the other bidders for the winning bid"
ploy. Those are almost always scams.
There are plenty of extremely valid 2nd chance offers. In the surplus
business, it is extremely common to buy a lot of one item, and if one of
the auctions does extremely well, only a foolish seller would not try to
take advantage of the deal. I use them all the time, and yes, they do work
enough times that I keep using them.
In a general note to a lot of people on this list - WHAT THE HELL IS WITH
ALL THE EBAY SELLER BASHING?
I have said it before - I will say it again - pissing off a dealer is one
of the dumbest things a collector can do.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
11:14 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
On 10/13/2005 at 10:53 PM William Donzelli wrote:
There are plenty of extremely valid 2nd chance offers.
In the surplus
business, it is extremely common to buy a lot of one item, and if one of
the auctions does extremely well, only a foolish seller would not try to
take advantage of the deal. I use them all the time, and yes, they do work
enough times that I keep using them.
I'm talking about high-priced "one of a kind" items here, not lots. For
example, if this seller were to ask me about a second chance on this
instrument, I'd be very leery:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Civil-War-era-Eb-Allen-Hall-Rotary-Valve-Tuba_W0QQitemZ7
357151870QQcategoryZ16213QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(It's an antique tuba with an opening bid of $50K).
--Chuck
11:32 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
I'm talking about high-priced "one of a
kind" items here, not lots. For
example, if this seller were to ask me about a second chance on this
instrument, I'd be very leery:
OK, yes, that is valid - I would be suspect of that, unless the second
chance offer came a few weeks later, and if I see from the feedback that
the original deal went thru.
For such a big deal, I would want to leave a pretty good paper trail, as
well.
For old computers, however, it is reasonable to think that often a number
of a rare item might show up in a dealers hands. In fact, is has happened
quite a few times with me, with fairly rare items (Comdyna and EAI analog
computers), and I have seen it on EBay as well (anone remember the auction
lot of six (!) IBM 2501 card readers?).
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
11:57 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 23:32:58 -0400 (EDT)
William Donzelli <aw288 at osfn.org> wrote:
Agreed, but as someone who participates in a lot of auctions, in-person
and online, I would hesitate to pay the 'high bid amount' that was
realized in a competetive auction for a second unit of the same type.
The 'high' bid amount was realized due to a perception of 'scarcity' on
the part of the collective bidders. Unless the original winning bidder
is looking for yet another of the same unit, the bidding for a second
item should close at a substancially lower price. It is, of course, the
seller's right to list the second item or not, at the time he deems it
will be bid up to the highest price. But my experience is that if
you're patient and wait it out, the market becomes saturated and the
price drops.
I won't deny that I have sold rare silicon on eBay for much, much more
than I had any idea it would realize. I also won't deny that I sit on a
substancial quantity of said chips and intend to one day sell these
'rare' chips again on eBay, again for what will probably be a high
price. And I'll state here that I have publicly offered to sell said
chips to people on this list for a much lower price.
I'm
talking about high-priced "one of a kind" items here, not lots.
For example, if this seller were to ask me about a second chance on
this instrument, I'd be very leery:
OK, yes, that is valid - I would be suspect of that, unless the second
chance offer came a few weeks later, and if I see from the feedback
that the original deal went thru.
For such a big deal, I would want to leave a pretty good paper trail,
as well.
For old computers, however, it is reasonable to think that often a
number of a rare item might show up in a dealers hands. In fact, is
has happened quite a few times with me, with fairly rare items
(Comdyna and EAI analog computers), and I have seen it on EBay as well
(anone remember the auction lot of six (!) IBM 2501 card readers?).
5:10 a.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
At 08:14 PM 10/13/05 -0700, you wrote:
On 10/13/2005 at 10:53 PM William Donzelli wrote:
Choke! Gasp! Gasp! I'd be very careful of ANY auction item that cost
$50,000! Just FWIW I've wondered what kind of idiot (IMHO) would buy a car
sight unseen from E-bay and pay for it within 48 hours! (OF course, BEFORE
you can arrange to get there and see it in person!) But that seems to be
the normal requirement in the auto listings on E-bay. As a buyer I'd NEVER
buy a car without the right to examine it in person BEFORE I handed over
the money. Just to back that up, let me tell you about my EX-neighbor. He's
a bit of a shyster and also has some scheme going. Ok maybe more than a bit
of a shyster. In one of his schemes he found out how much people were
willing to pay for NICE old four wheel drive vehicles. (Like $14k) He
bought a bunch of rusted out worthless 4 wheel drive Land Cruisers and then
brought his father up here from Columbia and had him patch the things up
with LOTS of Bondo and repaint them. (He was buying Bondo by FOUR five
gallon buckets at one time!) They looked great from the photos but they
were so rusted I doubt they were even safe to drive (huge holes in the
frames, etc). Anyway he sold four of them on E-bay to out of state buyers.
The buyers had a transport company pick them up and deliver them (IIRC one
to Texas, one to Maryland and I don't know about the others). AFTER the
buyers got them and found what a piece of junk they were they are all
screaming and making all kinds of threats but there was nothing they could do.
As Chuck said, treat E-bay as the jungle it is and you'll be ok. Usually!
Joe
There are plenty of extremely valid 2nd chance
offers. In the surplus
business, it is extremely common to buy a lot of one item, and if one of
the auctions does extremely well, only a foolish seller would not try to
take advantage of the deal. I use them all the time, and yes, they do work
enough times that I keep using them.
I'm talking about high-priced "one of a kind" items here, not lots. For
example, if this seller were to ask me about a second chance on this
instrument, I'd be very leery:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Civil-War-era-Eb-Allen-Hall-Rotary-Valve-Tuba_W0QQitemZ7
357151870QQcategoryZ16213QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
(It's an antique tuba with an opening bid of $50K).
--Chuck
10:07 a.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
Joe R. wrote:
Choke! Gasp! Gasp! I'd be very careful of ANY
auction item that cost
$50,000! Just FWIW I've wondered what kind of idiot (IMHO) would buy a car
sight unseen from E-bay and pay for it within 48 hours! (OF course, BEFORE
you can arrange to get there and see it in person!)
I've bought one car off eBay, which had some minor mechanical problems
(sticky downshift from 4th to 3rd, horrible crappy thirstymatic gearbox)
but it was just as described. The seller let me test drive it before I
even bid, although I suppose it helped that I was only 20 miles away.
I bought another one sight unseen, about 260 miles away from me. That
also turned out to have one or two minor niggles, but not enough to walk
away from it. I was quite prepared to turn round and go home if the car
wasn't any good - after all, I'd paid for the petrol down and up in my
mate's car already.
However, both these cars cost ?100 and ?150 respectively, and were the
third and fourth example of that model that I'd bought (and the eighth
and ninth of that particular manufacturer's cars that I'd owned).
Gordon.
12:24 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
On 10/14/2005 at 9:10 AM Joe R. wrote:
Choke! Gasp! Gasp! I'd be very careful of ANY
auction item that cost
$50,000!
Bids this expensive are usually arranged with an escrow service to avoid
fraud. IMOHO, this particular instrument will get no bids at the $50K
level. While it's rare, a more realistic price might be around $20K. When
you're dealing with "one of a kind" sort of stuff, you buy where
they're
sold--and that includes eBay. It's quite possible that a deal will be
arranged between the seller and another party after the auction has ended
with no bids. Ebay is some of the cheapest advertising you can buy for
non-mass produced items.
Cheers,
Chuck
15 Oct
15 Oct
12:06 a.m.
New subject: Old Microcomputer RAM Board w/ Tons of Socketted 4116
eBay item #
8708356536
Gil
1:36 p.m.
New subject: Old Microcomputer RAM Board w/ Tons of Socketted 4116
Joe R. wrote:
At 11:06 PM 10/14/05 -0500, you wrote:
Oh I trust him ... I don't trust ebay and all the scams with harvested
emails.
eBay item #
8708356536
And the seller is (drum-roll!) William Donzelli! Do you think we can
trust this guy? :-)
Joe
.
13 Oct
13 Oct
11:31 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
In a general note to a lot of people on this list - WHAT THE HELL IS WITH
ALL THE EBAY SELLER BASHING?
EBay bashing is right. If they wont police sellers who wont send you
what you bought who the hell cares if they get pissed off
I dont think I care what they think. I do care that Ebay wont cull them
so we have to have this silly discussion and the sellers were people
whose opinion mattered
11:43 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
EBay bashing is right. If they wont police sellers who
wont send you
what you bought who the hell cares if they get pissed off
Why? Because blanket Ebay seller bashing hurts the honest dealers like
myself (and yes, most dealers BY FAR are honest). Every time someone
bashes, it hurts my business in a very small, but very much there way, and
that bothers me.
Dealers get into dealing given a bad reputation from the start - sort of
an Original Sin. We have to shed that, and honestly, it is hard
work. Buyers can be easy to deal with, but there are enough that are never
satisfied, and a big pain in the rear, but we still have to treat them
right. Yes, it would be easy to cheat and steal, but somehow most of us
actually do not do it.
I dont think I care what they think. I do care that
Ebay wont cull them
so we have to have this silly discussion and the sellers were people
whose opinion mattered
Actually, Ebay does cull out bad sellers and buyers. However, enough are
still in the system.
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
14 Oct
14 Oct
12:34 a.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
...
Never respond to a "second-chance"
solicitation. You know,
the "the winner of my auction didn't pay me or sent the item
back, so rather than re-list it, I'm offering it to you as
one of the other bidders for the winning bid"
ploy. Those are almost always scams.
I did buy one of those once & it worked fine. But I had a student last year
who told me that he had bid on a laptop and got a "second chance" offer and
was scammed for about $1K. I probably won't do that again, or at least I
will be very careful.
Gil
8:09 a.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Never respond to a "second-chance"
solicitation. You know, the "the winner
of my auction didn't pay me or sent the item back, so rather than re-list
it, I'm offering it to you as one of the other bidders for the winning bid"
ploy. Those are almost always scams.
I responded to one for a video camera. Of course, I'd asked the seller
a question, and he had replied both through ebay and privately. His
second chance offer looked genuine enough (similar headers, sent from
the same mail account and from the ISP), and sure enough it was.
Trust your own intelligence.
Gordon
9:22 a.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
On Fri, 14 Oct 2005, Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
Trust your own intelligence.
If you have any.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
15 Oct
15 Oct
2:34 p.m.
New subject: Public Service Announcement
Chuck Guzis wrote:
Never respond to a "second-chance"
solicitation. You know, the "the winner
of my auction didn't pay me or sent the item back, so rather than re-list
it, I'm offering it to you as one of the other bidders for the winning bid"
ploy. Those are almost always scams.
I beg to differ. I've bought several items on second-chance offers,
with no problems. Granted they were sellers with whom I had history, or
I corresponded with them, much as you suggested, before taking the offer.
OTOH, I've also turned down many more second-chances, because they
were obviously scams, or more often IME, the auction itself was a scam
to generate second-chance bids.
If you have many of a moderately rare item, listing them
simultaneously drives the price into the ground. Unless it's *really*
rare, sequential listings can do the same for the last few. If you list
only one, then make SC offers to the top few losers, then wait awhile
before listing again, you can both sell them all reasonably quickly and
keep the value up.
There's a seller who lists one ATX PSU adapter for the Amiga 4000
about every 3-4 months. The bidding always gets stupid, and I always
get a second-chance offer for as many as I want, at my max bid. As much
as I could use one, it pissis me off too much to go there.
Doc
13 Oct
13 Oct
8:24 p.m.
I don't buy from sellers wtih negative feedback.
There's a neat tool for
Firefox that lets you see negative feedback for any seller with just a
mouse click.
Remember also that some buyers can not be pleased asnd leave undeserved
negative feedback. I recently was turned into Ebay for not shipping an
item only seven days after payment was received - for a cross country
shipment. I tried to explain that there is not an SR-71 hanging around
Newark airport devoted just to get his goods across the country in a
matter of hours.
As we sellers like to say - there's one in every bunch.
I am suprised with a fairly low percentage that bobsbids manages to stay
in the Powersellers program. I thought the requirement was to have it
maintained above 98 percent (mine is at 99.6 percent).
William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org
14 Oct
14 Oct
3:56 p.m.
I don't buy from sellers wtih negative feedback.
There's a neat tool for
Firefox that lets you see negative feedback for any seller with just a
mouse click.
Cheers,
Chuck
II tend to look at the recent and frequent negative feedback. I have
seen how easy it is to get.
In 5 years I've got five negative feedbacks and they've been from
sellers that I've complained about. The last one recently was from
Germany apparantly her paypal account could not take credit card
payments and it was returned. I had to transfer money from my account
to hers. This wasn't a problem but because I hadn't done it before I
had to wait for paypal to credit 1p to my account and give them the
reference number. I sent the seller an email explaining this would
take a week or so. She registered a non payment with ebay 2 days
later. I sent all the emails to them and they agreed. Two months later
she gave me negative feedback in German.
Sorry for length
Dan
13 Oct
13 Oct
7:41 p.m.
I am not familiar with those new ATX style power supplies, but won't
you need a singal to turn the power on? If you don't hook it to a
motherboard, you might need another way to provide the signal.
vax, 9000
4 p.m.
I am not familiar with those new ATX style power
supplies, but won't
you need a singal to turn the power on? If you don't hook it to a
motherboard, you might need another way to provide the signal.
vax, 9000
Power_ON is pulled low to turn on ATX spec. Let it go, PSU shuts
off.
I use a jumper to short ground to usually green wire (check!)
according to the wiring info on the PSU sticker.
Cheers, Wizard
7:55 p.m.
9000 VAX wrote:
I am not familiar with those new ATX style power
supplies, but won't
you need a singal to turn the power on? If you don't hook it to a
motherboard, you might need another way to provide the signal.
vax, 9000
Check here for more on ATX supplies:
http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.batts/ps/powersupply.htm
8:12 p.m.
On Thu, 13 Oct 2005, 9000 VAX wrote:
I am not familiar with those new ATX style power
supplies, but won't
you need a singal to turn the power on? If you don't hook it to a
motherboard, you might need another way to provide the signal.
Also, you mis-read my message. It's an external power supply (i.e. a wall
wart, except it's the size of a small box).
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
8:09 p.m.
On 10/13/05, Vintage Computer Festival <vcf at siconic.com> wrote:
...or Another Reason Why I Fricking Hate eBay
thanks for the long warning.
This brings up the main warning to everyone about EBAY. they don't give
a crap about anyone but the sellers here. I have had two fights with
sellers over non ships and luckily even got my money back.
but when I buy something I want it. Ebay should turn these assholes
off for that if nothing else.
and obviously one could see from the stench this guy generates that
he needs to be turned off till he cleans up his act.
Ebay tries to set on the fence like my cat used to. She would go
get two other cats pissed off at her and run to where they'ed both
go at each other, and she'd jump up on the fence while the fur flys.
same with them. It's a load of crap that they dont fix idiots like
this, but there are 1000 times worse there and they don't care
about them either.
jim
14 Oct
14 Oct
12:47 a.m.
Ah. Bobsbid1. a GENUINE PRICK. He is the guy that taught me that 98% means
the guy is probably a crook. He advertised an older "Sniffer". A Toshiba
portable. I bought it for $10. Probably cost another $20 to ship - don't
remember. When it arrived it ran, but the Sniffer software had been wiped
off the hard drive and the NIC was gone. The only thing I got for my money
was a sticker on the unit that said Sniffer.
We exchanged a few emails. If you think his short feedback messages are crap
you should see his emails. Eventually I gave him negative feedback. He
retaliated, naturally. I had posted all the emails on a web site and put the
URL in my reply to his negative feedback. Turns out that's "against the
rules" so he was able to get it wiped.
If this guy is not getting purged as a seller then I don't know what it
takes. I have learned to read the feedback. Anybody who only gives smartass
answers I will not deal with. Honest sellers will have reasonable
explanations for what went wrong and some "mutual retractions" where matters
have been settled amicably.
Gil
...
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