NOS, Mint...

[Amon_RA]

Am I the only one that gets seriously annoyed by sellers on Amibay incorrectly advertising their items as NOS, mint etc... ?

An item is not Mint when it is yellowed... it is also not NOS when someone has clearly unpacked and used the item...

 

[Sardine]

Am I the only one that gets seriously annoyed by sellers on Amibay incorrectly advertising their items as NOS, mint etc... ?

An item is not Mint when it is yellowed... it is also not NOS when someone has clearly unpacked and used the item...

Completely agree. I believe we discussed this previously in the admin area. On my phone at work I cant remember what the outcome.

For me.
Nos = never opened & sealed. Once opened its then used, plugged in or not.
Nos can also mean new,old,stock . But again if unpacked and tested then again used.

A true nos item is sold as unkown as it shouldnt have been unpacked and tested.

mint can be used, its slang for perfect condition, looks as good as new, working perfectly, no scratches , faults or discoloration.

 

[fitzsteve]

The problem is this terminology is open to interpretation and subjective. Best advice as always to buyers is to study pictures and ask questions before buying

 

[ChrisUnionNJ]

Sardine and Fitzsteve hit the nail on the head
you as the buyer just have to do your
research..

 

[Amon_RA]

Of course the buyer has to research... no doubt about that

Incorrectly using terms like Mint, NOS to "lure" buyers into reading a post just feels like false advertising... Sellers who do this should be made aware.

Imho the terms "mint" and "NOS" have no room for interpretation... but that's just me.

 

[tbtorro]

Yes, quite annoying, some sellers (especially on the other bay) use these keywords for lure basically.

Same goes for 'rare' 'new' 'boxed' 'complete' etc.. they are used as pure marketing, but also sometimes the seller has no idea what the term should mean. Some go as far as packing yellowed computers or parts in new plastic bags and place them in the styrofoam case hoping for a quick impulse buy. On closer inspection the unit looks clearly used inside the plastic. Ebay picture zoom helps a lot here.

 

[Retro_Lover]

Completely agree with the OP.

My pet hate on ebay is "Untested", because it clearly translates as it didn''t sodding work. I know most 80s equipment would need a CRT, especially RF-only computers/consoles. And most modern flat TVs don't tune in to a analogue signal like a Spectrum.

I have been burned a few times with "Untested" with the obvious candidates, the commodore Plus 4 and C16. Most ads read "Powered on and red light came on" and thats it. Some are innocent I know, but those in the know fully well know it's a dead CPU. Other really annoying ads designed to sucker you in are those that state they lost the PSU. The worst being almost mint machines, mint boxes and polys, manuals, tapes/disks, all in amazing nick for 30 year-old stuff but "magically" lost the PSU. These are most definitely non working.

I saw a ad a few weeks ago for a mint boxed Competition Pro, but couldn't see if it was micro switches or leaf switches, so I asked the seller to just wiggle the stick and get back to me. His answer was he was too busy to do this and I would have to decide to buy or not, so I didn't. These are LAZY sellers who I also hate, won't do this, won't do that, won't post it, etc...

 

[Deleted member 14264]

Completely agree with the OP.

...

I saw a ad a few weeks ago for a mint boxed Competition Pro, but couldn't see if it was micro switches or leaf switches, so I asked the seller to just wiggle the stick and get back to me. His answer was he was too busy to do this and I would have to decide to buy or not, so I didn't. These are LAZY sellers who I also hate, won't do this, won't do that, won't post it, etc...

It's too bad this doesn't translate into a boycott reaction from customers.

When I ask simple questions to sellers on "feepay" and get this sort of answers, I will generally return a TYFWMT - "thank you for wasting my time" ...
:roll:

 

[freehand]

On the bay if the " items specifics" say it's working order what ever the seller writes is irrelevant and if it does not work when you receive the item you will win the case.

The bay also does not recognize the words " sold as seen " and such saying the only interest to them is " items specifics ".

Stick to them rules and you will have no problems.

 

[Half-Saint]

So, if I have an UNUSED item that's in its original (opened) box and was bought new (old stock) directly from the manufacturer.. what does that qualify as?

 

[SaviorX]

So, if I have an UNUSED item that's in its original (opened) box and was bought new (old stock) directly from the manufacturer.. what does that qualify as?

not quite.

both NOS and 'mint' are (for the most part) 'collector' distinctions, and a collector would still be very interested, but likely would care that the box was opened, though it might not make a difference in terms of value or interest to that collector, but some do attribute more desirability to items that are still shrinkwrapped as well.

someone looking for NOS or Mint items aren't generally interested in actually using the item(s) in question.

 

[Half-Saint]

So, if I have an UNUSED item that's in its original (opened) box and was bought new (old stock) directly from the manufacturer.. what does that qualify as?

not quite.

both NOS and 'mint' are (for the most part) 'collector' distinctions, and a collector would still be very interested, but likely would care that the box was opened, though it might not make a difference in terms of value or interest to that collector, but some do attribute more desirability to items that are still shrinkwrapped as well.

someone looking for NOS or Mint items aren't generally interested in actually using the item(s) in question.

I understand, however, we're talking about a rare IBM keyboard in my case. The box was never shrinkwrapped. I opened it to inspect the goods and to take photos for Deskthority forum. I never bought it to actually use it as I already have one such board in used condition for that purpose

So I would describe this as unused, old stock, open box.

 

[SaviorX]

So, if I have an UNUSED item that's in its original (opened) box and was bought new (old stock) directly from the manufacturer.. what does that qualify as?

not quite.

both NOS and 'mint' are (for the most part) 'collector' distinctions, and a collector would still be very interested, but likely would care that the box was opened, though it might not make a difference in terms of value or interest to that collector, but some do attribute more desirability to items that are still shrinkwrapped as well.

someone looking for NOS or Mint items aren't generally interested in actually using the item(s) in question.

I understand, however, we're talking about a rare IBM keyboard in my case. The box was never shrinkwrapped. I opened it to inspect the goods and to take photos for Deskthority forum. I never bought it to actually use it as I already have one such board in used condition for that purpose

So I would describe this as unused, old stock, open box.

that sounds fair enough, often (usually?) the one thing that does trump condition is rarity...

sometimes you have to accept things in whatever condition you can get them in, when the alternative is 'not at all', even for a 'collection', and especially when we are talking about 30+ year old electronics.

so unused/old stock/open box would still be exceedingly desirable in that sort of situation. (sometimes you are just never going to find a true NOS example)

in some respects comic books are a good example, when I started collecting way back in the late-70s, early 80s, there was basically an 8-point grading scale (poor->mint)...collecting value has become so fine over the years it is now (and for a number of years) changed to a 0.5-10 grading scale in 0.1 increments. (though usually jumps of 0.5 nearer the bottom end of the scale) and although there is really no such thing as NOS (although I have seen some factory sealed issues) for comic books, they would basically need to be NOS 'equivalent' to even approach the 10 grade (ie: never read, pretty much immediately sealed, so the spine doesn't even have *1* single crack in it, and no marking on the cover, yellowing of pages, etc)

 

[Amon_RA]

So, if I have an UNUSED item that's in its original (opened) box and was bought new (old stock) directly from the manufacturer.. what does that qualify as?

NOS (Wikipedia) : New old stock (NOS), also backronymed as "new on the shelf" or "new off the shelf", refers to obsolete equipment, or original parts (components) for obsolete equipment, that have never been sold at retail.

Your keyboard just qualifies as UNUSED and BOXED.
The fact that you bought it directly from the manufacturer doesn't make it NOS... (unless you are the retailer who had the keyboard laying around in your stock for years).

Your keyboard might even be MINT, but only if it is in pristine condition; as new (perfect, immaculate, unblemished, undamaged, unmarket, unused, etc...).
If you can't see the difference between a newly unpacked keyboard and your keyboard it would qualify as MINT.

 

[tbtorro]

I think Amon_RA hit the nail on the head, to quote the definition.

Just to pitch in, I've sold many items (chips, parts) on this very forum advertised as NOS. The reason being is that my stock came from a defunct computer store that used to sell Amiga stuff in the 90's. And my stash was the remains of that stock sitting on storage shelves, unsold, for years. They were in various conditions, some stuff worked some didn't, some was discolored, some was pristine.

The ONLY point being that if the actual stock hasn't been sold, then it didn't get into private hands, hence there is less risk of an incomplete item, hidden faults due to usage, or coffee/moisture/pet damage inside, etc etc..

So NOS has really not much to do with if the item was opened, shrinkwrapped, tested, untested, broken, new, yellow or white. It's just that, what is above in the definition and people can chose to believe the seller or not.

In my case apart of NOS, I've always listed what condition the item was, if it was complete and if it was tested and working.

Really there is no point trying to affix any significance to this. Just read the description, look at the pictures, check out the seller and decide - and that's it.