On Sun, Feb 19, 2006 at 08:17:24PM -0800, Mark Knecht wrote: > Yeah, I'd be quite worried about buying and instrument over the net. I > just wondered. Who knows though. Maybe I'll find someplace local or > just take a chance one of these days. It all depends ... I currently have five basses, three of which are from ebay and one from a bassist's forum called the Dudepit. Plus a guitar from ebay too. Plus a mixer, my Delta 66, a bass cabinet, a mic, etc etc. On ebay, I check feedback mercilessly, ask annoying questions, and if anything feels at all wrong, move along. And I bear in mind two more things: * what if I don't like it after all? will I be able to sell it for what I paid? Is it worth the hassle? * what if UPS / FedEx / USPS / etc. destroys it? Am I willing to either take the loss, or go through their maddening claims process? If I can't live with the answers to those questions, I don't bid. I learned the hard way. I once paid $400 for what was essentially a piece of firewood. The lesson learned was that ANY disclaimer text on an auction is enough for ebay and paypal to give you no help whatsoever, even if the auction text is otherwise blatantly wrong. You will never get your money back if there's a disclaimer. Period. Misrepresentation of goods? Doesn't matter. The guy had some sketchy feedback; I should've known. I sold it for $150 to a guy who had the skills to laboriously cut, sand, and glue on a new headstock, replace the truss rod, etc etc. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com
