PROPOSAL: mandatory use of Amiga Test Kit

[suppah]

I really like Amibay, the rules are strict and you can be quite more sure of what you receive compared to Ebay or general e-commerce sites but of course you can still buy computers that haven't been tested correctly. Most of the time ppl are unaware, sometimes ppl are and ship to you a broken or faulty Amiga.

I recently received a 500 with a faulty CIA which i found out very quickly by using Amiga Test Kit. Since the fault was only on TOD (time of the day) some games i tested which don't use this timer worker perfectly until i ran Cannon Fodder and the very famous intro music was bonkers (will post a video about this on YouTube). The deal i made was still nice, the 500 is well configured and for the price it's a nice deal but i had to buy another CIA for 20€ to fix the problem.

What do you think ? Would it be possibile to enforce the posting of screenshots of testing done with the aforementioned kit ?

The proposal is more aimed at the "unaware" rather than the a**holes which ofc can still post fake screenshots or screenshots taken on other amigas.

 

[moggsie]

You can't force people to buy a test kit just because they might, one day, want to sell their equipment. The computers/consoles/electronics that are sold here can be 30/40 years old and there will always be an inherent risk when buying aged tech. Most sellers here are honest and wouldn't try to deceive. It sounds like you were just unlucky in this circumstance.

 

[Sardine]

simple answer, use a protected payment method,

talk to the seller explain your issue and request reimbursement for the amount required for the repair or return the item for a full refund ( if sold as fully working not sold as is or untested ).


if you used Iban or PayPal gift then your at the mercy of the seller and our feedback system.


Just be aware the item could be a loft find from a person who knows nothing about the amiga and seeing the kickstart screen = working ( common sense here )

we are talking upwards of 30ys old for these items and even a fully tested amiga can throw the towel in at any moment.

 

[Templar]

I think the guy speaks of the software test kit by Keir Fraser, that can be downloaded from here: https://github.com/keirf/Amiga-Stuff/releases

 

[suppah]

Yes, "the guy" was talking about the publicly available software. It's just an adf that you can write to a floppy or use with gotek, you can even launch the software from Workbench.

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Just be aware the item could be a loft find from a person who knows nothing about the amiga and seeing the kickstart screen = working ( common sense here )

Yes, that's exactly the target of persons i had in mind.

we are talking upwards of 30ys old for these items and even a fully tested amiga can throw the towel in at any moment.

Of course, that is understandable.

This is an example output of the program:

 

[Templar]

@ suppah

I guess, no offense taken, right?

 

[Timtheloon]

This is an example output of the program:


View attachment 168583

This would have to be a picture of the monitor, the computer and proof of ownership all in one and they could still deceived buyers by the seller hooking the screen to another amiga of the same model out of shot. very hard to police.

The other issue is that unfortunate event of DOA. I've had it myself when selling a machine, which was working wonderfully and when shipped it arrived DOA.

 

[suppah]

and they could still deceived buyers by the seller hooking the screen to another amiga of the same model out of shot. very hard to police.

The proposal is more aimed at the "unaware" rather than the a**holes which ofc can still post fake screenshots or screenshots taken on other amigas.

Of course, this has already been said by me in the first post..... there is no way to stop deceiving...
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@ suppah

I guess, no offense taken, right?

Of course not just found it funny, and I would forgive anything to James T. Kirk!

 

[matt020]

Urrgh. It will just make selling an item even harder still. Once you get through the:

"you haven't stated a price"
"you haven't provided proof of ownership"
"you cant change the price and remove the old price"

You then have to add in:

"you didn't include a screenshot of Amiga Test Kit"

etc etc etc.

It's a no from me.

 

[miggymad]

Caveat emptor

It's a no from me too

 

[VosCoBoss]

PROPOSAL: mandatory use of Amiga Test Kit

I personally never sell an Amiga without going through all AmigaTestKit tests. And state that in my ads. I think it would be good practice dor any seller to do the same.

But then still an issue may arise that wasn’t detected, or the hardware may break down after the sale simply because it it a 30 year old computer.

If such tests matter to the buyer, it would probably be better for the buyer to demand a report of Amigatestkit or other specifics before making a purchase, instead of forcing the seller to provide such proof.

 

[HanJammer]

While I usually test all the stuff I sell, I don't expect it from others and when I buy non-tested item I don't really expect them to work. One thing I expect is that the price will be adequate. But nobody forces me to buy it if it isn't.
IMO it's usually more profitable to take the risk and buy untested stuff cheaply. Forcing the 'full diagnostics' policy on everybody will inevitably lead to prices being higher (sometimes testing something takes as much time as the the item is worth - and yeah, I can precisely tell how much my time is worth) or the stuff not being sold on AmiBay at all (AmiBay is in fact a small community and unfortunatelly with a defective (slow as heck and hard to use) interface) as the Facebook Marketplace is as good alternative (well, I'm guilty of it myself - I recently sold many cool items on Facebook Marketplace for this sole reason, never bringing them to AmiBay).

 

[davideo]

Even when things have been extensively tested they can go wrong once delivered https://www.amibay.com/showthread.php?117804-A500-Ver-8-1-minor-Leakage

 

[Sardine]

and when fixed ill take it back

 

[davideo]

and when fixed ill take it back

That's the next job in what has been a long list of jobs to do

 

[lilwashu]

I don't think this is a good idea, I recently bought a computer that worked perfectly for about an hour then within a week a RAM chip, colour encoder and PSU had failed. It's just part of the hobby.

 

[Sardine]

I don't think this is a good idea, I recently bought a computer that worked perfectly for about an hour then within a week a RAM chip, colour encoder and PSU had failed. It's just part of the hobby.

Totally agree,

as an example our house central heating boiler had reached 15 yrs old and although working it needed a new diverter valve " creaking and sticking" this was booked in to be fixed and as the whole boiler could fail at any moment and parts thin on the ground for our make of boiler we chose to replace it.

That's half the age of your typical retro computer and when they where new ( me as a kid especially ) it was used every day.

So to flip that switch and see the kickstart screen, the 38911 basic bytes free or the "OK" prompt after 30yrs is a miracle.

If we had the same support for my boiler as we do for our retro computers from all the hobbyist's and new gadget miracle workers of the likes of sid and pla replacements etc I would neve need to replace my boiler again,, just keep upgrading it