Another A2000 bites the dust :(

[RetroNinja]

I received an eBay A2000 in the mail yesterday. The box was a bit beat up. Before I opened it I could feel the A2000 sliding in all directions.

This is never a good sign. I haven't even finished unwrapping when I see..

With the top off it looks even worse. The black box (HDD) was flopping around everywhere. A heavy metal block just bashing into things. The network cards to the left were not screwed down. Neither was the GVP 68030.

The toaster card was savagely bashed about. I like how the impacts were enough to bend the card and the plastic off the pin header

Oh good, once I removed the toaster I could see the slot was damaged and pins were lost/missing.

Maybe I need to worry less about the video slot and more about the CPU slot. Even if I can bend it back down I would never have faith the connector is still reliable.

All of the above is purely bad shipping/packaging.



All below is natural deterioration.

What the heck is the brown goo? It was on the back of the 68030 card. It melted and dripped down onto the mobo. It is sticky and staining. I'm not sure how to even start cleaning/breaking that down.

With the drive/power supply tray out I could see some battery damage. Is that the main power trace that has lifted?

I hate ordering things off eBay. I bought another A2000 from this guy a month ago. It came properly wrapped. This rant doesn't even show the smashed plastic pieces. What do you think? Destined as a parts puller? Between the physical damage due to bad packaging, the battery damage, and the goo mystery I think this is a complete loss of an A2000.

 

[davideo]

I think I'd contact Ebay/Paypal and ask for a refund

 

[Pior]

Wow.. I would also request a refund on receiving something in that condition..

 

[miggymad]

I would be straight onto Paypal and raising a case with Ebay for a full refund without hesitation.

That looks horrific!

 

[Rakeim132]

Each expansion board should be individually wrapped and stored INSIDE the case.
The case should be double wrapped with, at least, 2 inch thick of bubble wrap, double cardboard, etc.
I received an A3000T perfectly wrapped from USA, the box was the size of a fridge!!!

 

[Amiga Forever]

The Last 3 picture I am seeing is really horrific and if I was you, Get Refunds as soon as possible.

You Deserve better and you better off order on most TRUSTED Website called AMIBAY

I did love to have Amiga 2000 one day due the fact is that they are Upgradeable machine!

 

[Asturiano]

Had the seller previously stated the heavy damage on the motherboard? I mean the brown goo and the battery acid. What a mess, by the way. That Amiga will need some deep fixing.

 

[RetroNinja]

Yes, I have contacted the seller to see if he wants to make amends. I imagine he will, if not then it is off to the eBay tribunal (or whatever they have).

 

[RetroNinja]

Had the seller previously stated the heavy damage on the motherboard? I mean the brown goo and the battery acid. What a mess, by the way. That Amiga will need some deep fixing.

That's a big problem with eBay. You get people selling things they don't know about. At times that can mean a deal at other times you wind up with something like this. My main draw to the listing was the GVP 68030, the video toaster, the base A2000, and then anything else left over (mouse, LAN cards, etc).

It appears this guy just picked up some gear and thought he could resell it to make some money. I do not fault him for that. I do fault him for lack of better pictures, not screwing down the flopping pieces, and poor packaging.

 

[Asturiano]

That's a big problem with eBay. You get people selling things they don't know about. At times that can mean a deal at other times you wind up with something like this. My main draw to the listing was the GVP 68030, the video toaster, the base A2000, and then anything else left over (mouse, LAN cards, etc).

It appears this guy just picked up some gear and thought he could resell it to make some money. I do not fault him for that. I do fault him for lack of better pictures, not screwing down the flopping pieces, and poor packaging.

Yeah, but in this example a proper group of good and detailed pictures would have been more than adequate. If you had known these details maybe you just hadn´t bought it. In fact, I presume the price wasn´t cheap at all. And well, the poor package have just made the things even worse.

Agreed that sometimes people don´t know what they are selling. But they should know to package things right.

 

[AmigaDepot]

I hope you get a refund as the pictures speak for themselves. Otherwise this looks like a lot of work to get the machine back to life.

 

[nady]

What the heck is the brown goo? It was on the back of the 68030 card. It melted and dripped down onto the mobo. It is sticky and staining. I'm not sure how to even start cleaning/breaking that down.


View attachment 2442891

did you find out what this is?
it doesn't look acid

 

[sdesj86]

EBay is mostly crap these days. You can’t even trust when they advertise tested/good. My last 3 systems (2x C64 and one 99/4a) have been advertised as good/tested/working and yet none were functional. Both C64 have bad ram and boot to a black screen and the 99/4a also boot to a black screen, but I can’t find the fault.

Shipping cost is also through the roof.

 

[RetroNinja]

I wound up shipping the whole setup back for a full refund. It's a shame because the parts were great - video toaster, 68030 accelerator, some 8 bit network cards. Just everything was so damaged, I didn't want to deal with 'maybe' this part is good or only 'sometimes' flaky, sigh. I mean c'mon, how rough was it treated that the hard drive bashed into the accelerator card enough to bend the CPU slot? How am I going to trust the 68030 at that point.

He posted it all again on eBay under As-Is for sale.

 

[RetroNinja]

EBay is mostly crap these days. You can’t even trust when they advertise tested/good. My last 3 systems (2x C64 and one 99/4a) have been advertised as good/tested/working and yet none were functional. Both C64 have bad ram and boot to a black screen and the 99/4a also boot to a black screen, but I can’t find the fault.

Shipping cost is also through the roof.

RANT: Dang right about that, $120 to ship an A2000? I'm sure there's been an increase in shipping cost because of summer's high gas prices. At $120 that's $60 to ship and $60 for the seller. Even then I get damaged stuff so it's not like they spent their $60 on packaging.

 

[RetroNinja]

did you find out what this is?
it doesn't look acid

Nope, sadly, it wound up being returned. There was a rubber foot on the back of the accelerator card, oddly about an inch cubed in size. It was the same brown color as the goop. I was wondering if the goop was a melted second rubber standoff/foot. Even if the A2000 was cranked up (speed) and was generating a ton of heat to melt a rubber foot I would think it would resolidify. Maybe after the matter transition (solid to liquid) the chemical bonds were broken and it could not reconstitute. Any chemicals peeps want to weigh in?

 

[ElectroBlaster]

I have bought some basket cases in my time but never THAT bad!

I would never ever sell an amiga with things not secured or screwed down... the pictures are painful to look at and I would be so annoyed and sick to the core if I had bought that!

If the seller is honest and the listing showed all the problems, ok so be it you know what you are getting into! but if the seller then robbed all the weird-threaded screws and said who cares what happens now, thats not good!

 

[SnowCrash]

The Horror! I paid about $300 for an A2000 "for parts" and it not only is in far better condition but it was shipped so that no more damage was incurred during its journey. I hope you got refunded for that because that is unacceptable...and some other choice words I'll keep to myself.