Anyone ever though...why do I bother?

[matt3k]

+1 to Ratfink. Well said.

One thing I have learned is that it is much better to buy an Amiga, especially the Amiga 3000 in my case, if it is used occasionally. I bought a batch of 4 3000D's all of which worked when I bought them. 3 of the 4 failed within one month. The 4 just sat in someones basement for 10 years, even thought I cleaned them up and treated them right. I bought another 3k awhile ago from someone who used it occasionally, it has been rock solid.

Bottom line is to ask the owned if they use the machine or if it's been sitting forever. My 3000D I bought in 92 has been on most of it's life and besides HDD replacement it has been rock solid. Buy a phone pak for your amigas, it's a good reason to keep it on.

Good luck, I left you some more ideas concerning your 3k.

 

[Powerpie5000]

I bought a supposedly "brand new & never used" Thermaltake cooler for one of my retro cards off ebay... It arrived this morning clogged with dust, tarnished, cracks in the plastic cover and old thermal compound left on the back! It didn't cost much, but it really annoyed me. No doubt the fan is a real squealer by now too .

I emailed the seller and he replied saying he's no "I.T nut" and he assumed it was brand new! You don't need to know anything about computers to see this is well and truly used... I could tell it was used before even taking it out of the unsealed packaging! I'm getting so tired with some of the falsely advertised crap people palm off on ebay .

 

[TerrorTrooper]

I do a lot of buying on the "other bay" too.

In my experience, a single item listed as "untested" when it clearly has everything needed to test it, from a seller not selling lots of goods is auctioneese for "I tested it, but it doesn't work, but I'm not going to mention it in case it drives the price down"

 

[RichyV]

I do a lot of buying on the "other bay" too.

In my experience, a single item listed as "untested" when it clearly has everything needed to test it, from a seller not selling lots of goods is auctioneese for "I tested it, but it doesn't work, but I'm not going to mention it in case it drives the price down"

The good news is that, unless it is also sold as "For parts, not working" the 'untested' moniker is not something to hide behind, as it should still work and therefore can be returned for a refund if it turns out to be faulty. The "it's 25 years old so I offer no guarantees" also does not mean that it should not work on first use - again, can be returned for a refund.

Ebay have always stood by me on this one...

 

[LonesomeAmiga]

I do a lot of buying on the "other bay" too.

In my experience, a single item listed as "untested" when it clearly has everything needed to test it, from a seller not selling lots of goods is auctioneese for "I tested it, but it doesn't work, but I'm not going to mention it in case it drives the price down"

The good news is that, unless it is also sold as "For parts, not working" the 'untested' moniker is not something to hide behind, as it should still work and therefore can be returned for a refund if it turns out to be faulty. The "it's 25 years old so I offer no guarantees" also does not mean that it should not work on first use - again, can be returned for a refund.

Ebay have always stood by me on this one...

Another good one for software is not just the testing of it, but taking a backup at the same time. I've had a couple of bits of software show up that have worked the first couple of times in the drive, then died - thankfully I've taken a backup before getting going and it's just a case of writing it back to the disk and moving on (assuming it's not a laser-burned protection system or some such, in which case you're probably screwed).

Martin...