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Sorry, just need to rant a little....
I've bought many new and used blank reel to reel tapes and most of the time they were as described and I had no complaints. I'd never purchased any pre recorded reel to reel tapes off Fleabay until recently when I bid on a few from various sellers. They were all sellers that seem to sell 100s of reel to reel tapes so I didn't think I'd have much trouble. I ended up just winning two from 2 different sellers. One was a 7.5 ips Ray Charles tape. It was so brittle you cannot even unwind it off the spool without it falling apart. Seller says all tapes are "as is" tough luck. The second one was Simon and Garfunkels Bookends at 7.5 ips. I get it and open the box to inspect it and inside the box instead of the commercially recorded tape that belongs in the box there is a standard 3 spoke Scotch brand tape with a Chiquita banana sticker on it. And no, its not the S/G tape just wound onto the wrong reel, its something else. I contact seller and ask if he has the proper tape and could he please send it. Instead he claims it left his place with the correct tape and refuses any further contact. And this guy had 100% feedback till now...So now I've decided it was not such a good idea to try and start a pre-recorded reel to reel collection when both my purchases were bad. I've had pretty good luck buying LPs off Fleabay so I didn't think the pre recorded reel to reel tapes would be so bad. Oh well, at least it wasn't big money stuff...
/rant off
Dave
Follow Ups:
I have bought many tapes on eBay with a good rate of success. The message is always caveat emptor. My rule of thumb is never pay more than $15, including shipping, if there is any doubt about the tape or the seller. If the tape turns out bad, I just throw it away.
I have always gotten refunds from sellers on more expensive tapes if I need to return a tape. I always offer to absorb the postage costs both ways. That puts the seller in a better mood and often gets me the postage refunded.
It's true that many sellers don't have the foggiest idea what they are selling. But these are the very tapes that can turn out to be very inexpensive treasures. Every buyer needs to decide if it is worth the risk.
*
in an envelope and it arrives in pieces....That helped break me of purchasing many more tubes from Fleabay...
Dave
The seller of the S&G tape has now offered to refund my money minus shipping both ways if I return it. As the shipping he over charged me and the estimated return shipping costs each more than the sales price of the tape that really makes a lot of sense..Not only that he has already claimed I am trying to get the tape for free so if he gets it back he will just claim I switched it and refuse any refund anyways AND he will have it back to resell again....What a jerk...Now in the feedback he can claim he offered me a refund and I refused it...
Looks like my best option is to just cut my losses (like I actually thought I would get anything back anyways) and leave him his well deserved negative feedback and hope people will see his expected retaliatory neg feedback for what it is...
Dave
I got screwed for an HP printer from some company in Ohio. They had the nerve to leave negative feedback on me when they sent the same busted printer back to me.
I stopped using eBay at that point for a long time. Now I'm really careful about buying stuff. I think that since my bad experience I've bought maybe 3 items through eBay over the last 6 years. Prior to that I had been an eBay fiend/junky.
Not a big fan of feeling ripped off.
Yep, thats the problem with vinyl and tape on Ebay. CD's work out fine inmy experience. I'm sure someone has an experience where it did not.
ET
I've bought over 100 LPs off Fleabay over the years and even though some where not exactly as described none were so bad that I complained and never got one that was totally misrepresented or the wrong record. A few were even better than I expected. The only time I ever had a problem with a CD purchase is when the guy sent me a cassette instead. he admitted it was his mistake as he had been listing mostly CDS and was using a template and forgot to change the wording to reflect it was a cassette and he gave me a full refund and even told me to keep the cassette!
I collect reel to reel machines amoung other things and I have stopped buying them off Fleabay as it got to where nearly every one was either grossly misrepresented or packaged so poorly they were destroyed in shipping. I will only bid if its close enough that I can drive out to see it first and pick it up myself if I win. Unfortunately, the ones I want are always 3000 miles away..
Dave
I had opened a Paypal dispute on the Simon and Garfunkle tape, the one that had the Scotch blank tape in the box instead of the Columbia S&G tape. The seller is claiming the right tape was in the box when shipped and is calling me a liar in the dispute saying I am just trying to get the tape for free even though I offered to return it. Will be interesting to see what PayPal decides. Just glad its not a big money item (was $7.49 with shipping)
Dave
He said/she said.Guess who pays the fees
Guess who's likely to "win".
Guess who's gonna be S-O-L.
I know it's not fair. I know it's not right. But that's how it (usually) is. Especially with (in the eyes of Ebay/PayPal) penny-ante stuff like this. If you can't actually prove that the item was mis-represented and/or 'switched' (and in this case that is gonna be one hell of a long-shot uphill battle) then as others have said....count your losses and move on. The burden of proof is unfortunately squarely and entirely on your shoulders.
I applaud you for standing up for your case. If you can indeed get the seller make it right, even better.
I most certainly don't think I will ever get a dime back on this but out of principal I wanted to at least go through the motions and make the seller use up some of his time. I'm sure he will also accuse me of lying when he leaves me retaliatory feedback for the neg he is getting from me. Hopefully people will be able to see that for what it is when they check his feedback prior to bidding on his stuff. Any seller that would send a totally wrong tape and then call the buyer a liar all over a few dollar sale is a real lowlife in my book.....
I've got great feedback myself and I didn't get it by screwing people over...
Dave
But you certainly won't find such sonics on mass produced CDs. They are overprocessed and most of the dynamics have been erased by the overprocessing. Occasionally you get a nice one and it's worth the gamble. The ones made in the 50s and 60s on Scotch 3M 111 are the best. Low noise sticky shed oxide and the move to 3 3/4ips came in about 1966, the year I graduated from high school. Ray Hughes
I agree 100%. I won't even go near the 3&3/4 tapes. Even back in the 60s when most companies switched to that for their commercially recorded tapes I thought they sucked even then and wouldn't buy them.
Dave
We're talking about 30-50 year old tapes being sold by clueless (in many cases) folks who don't even have a tape deck to play them on. Folks who got lucky (?) at yard sales and estate sales. Who don't know the difference between 3 3/4 and 7 1/2ips. And the average sale price is not much beyond single digits and the seller couldn't care less about making good on a bummer. That's the playing field.
The wonder, to me, is that the odds of getting a good tape are ... good. Not great, but sometimes (say one out of five times) you get something utterly spectacular and most times you get pretty much what you paid for. It's worth the gamble to me. I can understand why it's not worth it to others.
Thats true about the playing field. I only bid on tapes from buyers that seemed to specialize in selling reel to reel tapes but didn't seem to help much. I have pre recorded tapes I bought myself in the 60s that still play fine but they have always been in climate controlled storage..
Dave
There are some great sellers who take responsibility for each and every reel tape.
Don't give up easily!
Raanan
If paying more than a couple of bucks, make sure seller is offering money back guarantee if defective. Some problems I have experienced are missing music at the beginning of the tape, squealing due to sticky shed syndrome, uneven levels due to coming in contact with a magnetic field, mold from storage in a damp basement, etc.
I have had to return about 6 pre-recorded Reel to Reel and thrown and equal number in the trash that was sold as-is.
I love the tapes from the mid-1950's to 1960's and these are Acetate and can become hard and brittle especially after 50 years. I NEVER Rewind of Fast-Forward them . In fact I never fast forward or rewind any Reel to Reel or cassette tape, if there is blank tape at the end I just let it play out and put on an LP, SACD or DVD-Audio during the play out.
Don't give up on eBay yet, I have purchased many fantastic Reel to Reels on eBay, just look for the words "tested" and "money back guarantee" in the ads.
Here is an excerpt of a recent ad of mine:
Play tested and guaranteed!*
Tape: Perfect like new playing condition.
Reel: Like New
Box: Near Mint, no seam splits, writing on back of box.
All Reel to Reel Tapes I sell have been played in their entirely, only original flawless recordings are sold and guaranteed to play perfectly on your tape deck! NO shedding, NO squeals, NO dropouts, NO splices and NO warped reels! All tapes are complete with no missing music. Buy with complete confidence.
All Reel to Reels are stored in "played" condition and have leader tape expertly attached to protect the ends. They are from my personal collection and have been lovingly cared for. All tapes are packaged securely and have ends of the tape secured by resealable tabs.
Thanks for the suggestions. I am a very long time reel to reel user. I used to work for Musicraft back in the early 70s repairing them before I switched careers to computers. I have several hundred tapes that I have recorded over the years starting in the mid 60s. Many are just stuff recorded of the tuner (a Scott 350C to start with) and some are semi pro recordings I made of bands when I had a business making promo tapes for bands in the 70s. I have well over 120 reel to reel machines now and I like to restore them when I can. I have tapes my Dad made in the 50s on Scotch 111 that still play like new. I have found that many times the acetate tapes get brittle prematurely if they have been improperly stored like in an attic or shed. The older acetate tapes I have that have always been in climate control storage mostly are still just fine. I keep a restored Tandberg 64X for playing brittle tapes as its very gentle on tape. Many old tapes play great on it that would otherwise be torn to shreds on a high torque 3 motor machine like one of my Crown units.I also have a Sunbeam dehydrator I use to try and get one more play from some sticky shed tapes so I can transfer them to digital. All the pre-recorded tapes I have that I bought myself new in the 60s are still ok although I don't have many. I now have fun recording some of the local Bluegrass and Jazz bands using one of my restored tube Tapesonic machines.
Dave
I got a Frank Sinatra 7.5 ips reel to reel off one bidder and the tape also was so brittle, it broke every few feet. Basically useless. I contacted the seller and never got a response back, so I was out of luck. It was a legit tape as far as I could tell.
Thats how this Ray Charles tape is except it doesn't even last long enough to thread the machine. It breaks as you try to unwind it off the spool. Its a legit tape. Was probably stored in someones attic...
Dave
I feel your pain, shame of it all is there was a time when recording from FM was an alternative way to build a library. Now there isn't anything worth spending the time on.
I still have several hundred tapes I recorded of FM in the 60s and 70s and many cassettes from the 80s I used for the same purpose.
Dave
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