I was warned, I can’t say I wasn’t. But I think I learned my lesson. Morgan Jones clearly said it on his book: don’t buy on eBay from sellers who claim they don’t have the means of testing the valves. So if they don’t, why are in the business of selling valves?
Mr. William Donzelli (aka toober in eBay), sold me a pair of used 4-65a for the amount of $43.55. I took the risk, I’m not denying that, but after receiving the tubes on the post I did test them accordingly. One was completely flat despite filament being alive, and the other was completely gassy and filaments burned after 20 seconds of use. I do own many 4-65a and can test them accurately on my curve tracer and valve testers. If you don’t have one, you can always do some pretty basic tests anyway with basic lab equipment.
I contacted Mr Donzelli to try solving this out amicably. But his response was harsh and clear: no returns and items sold as-is. What kind of seller are you if you are not able to share the risk and compensate your buyer if you literally sold him a useless product and you got away with the money. Is that fair? Not even accepting the return of the useless product? Offering a similar one? a discount on the next purchase?
Not, that wasn’t offered. claim was raised on eBay and responses from seller were only made to protect himself:
“[…]I have certainly learned my lesson winning auctions the resulted in disappointment – I saw that those wins were my doing, not forced by anyone, and I had to adhere to the rules. So do you. Good buyers do this”. (Mr Donzelli responding to my claim on eBay case)
So Donzelli is telling me to learn the lesson: there are sterling buyers out there that the find a way or covering their back in the best way to screw their customers legally over eBay. What we had in the real world, clearly exists now in the virtual one 🙂
If you don’t want to make this man happy by selling you everything at your own risk, DON’T BUY FROM HIM! – you were also warned, so don’t be as stupid as I was next time 🙂
Thanks for the heads up!
Hi Bas, unfortunately I haven’t been the only one. Had received an email from someone in eBay who has been through exactly the same situation in eBay…
Hi again Ale,
I have to admit. I’ve bought many many tubes without there being a test report or even mention that they have been tested. Mainly because I buy NOS Russian tubes.
Some of my tubes like the GM70’s I haven’t even tested. But then again a quartet of those babies for 80usd one can afford to have a dud here or there.
Yes, I do buy a lot of NOS russian valves too. Haven’t had any issues in many years and then this. There are very respected sellers out there, but some other ones aren’t. I was looking at buying some 4-65a as am in the process of building an SE amplifier.
cheers,
Ale
As-Is sales are iffy. They are for items bought for appearance only or things that you feel confident that you can rebuild yourself. Never pay top dollar for an as-is.