One day, I'd like to buy a pedal off eBay that isn't borked....

starwarsnosebleed

I bought an EHX phaser from a guy on Musicradar years ago, who told me (after i had paid) that it is '...a very subtle effect'

it was so subtle in fact, that i couldnt hear any phasing effect whatsoever!

twat!

never had problem pedals from ebay though.

lasermonkey

Oh, I forgot one! An MXR Phase 100 that didn't sound quite right to me, but didn't really twig until it was too late. One of the dual optocouplers was faulty (showing approx 10x the resistance of the other two optocouplers). I did a temporary fix by adding some parallel resistors, but I think it's failed completely now and I need to source a new one.
At least it only cost me £45.
 I'm also wondering whether the Ibanez PH-7 I bought off eBay is a dud, as it sounds really weak, which isn't what I'd expect from an Ibanez phaser at all. Still, that one was only £12.50 and I'm sure I can make it sound better with some piggery jokery.

lasermonkey

Joy!
The batch of 100 germanium transistors I just bought off eBay turned out to be ridiculously low-gain silicon transistors (hfe of 8!). The vfs are all at .7v and the gain doesn't increase with temperature. No way they're germanium.
Yet another bloody eBay dispute opened.
I think the moral here is don't buy anything, ever.

builttospill

Many years back in my ebay pedal addiction years I won an ebay auction for a 70's narrow box Ibanez compressor.
The seller responded with a message congratulating me on my purchase and that it would be packaged well due to the age of pedal.
A week passed and the pedal arrived in a ripped Manilla envelope, no bubble wrap in sight.
I was amazed I was able to get a sound from the pedal, to make matters worse the postman had forced the envelope through our letter box.
I wasn't impressed, I really hate this sort of stuff. I always go over the top with my packaging to the point where the buyer has to cause injury to himself with a kitchen knife.

frank1985

I haven't used ebay to buy pedals in years as I've had people sending expensive pedals like the strymon bigsky in jiffy envelopes with no box. Luckily none were damaged in the post!

JezWynd

starwarsnosebleed said:

I bought an EHX phaser from a guy on Musicradar years ago, who told me (after i had paid) that it is '...a very subtle effect'

it was so subtle in fact, that i couldnt hear any phasing effect whatsoever!

twat!

never had problem pedals from ebay though.

It's not often an ehx effect gets described as subtle!

lasermonkey

I have had a few pedals turn up in just a Jiffy bag, though they've all been fine, strangely enough.
 I think I might give buying pedals a miss for a while. It's not like I don't have many!

builttospill

Here we go again! Just bought an old Rat 2 turned up with loose power jack, missing it's original nut & washer and now one of the resistors looks to be fritzed. Described as in excellent condition FFS!

I've another incoming ebay purchase soon... a late Big Box Deluxe Memory Man... can't help but feel a little apprehensive about it.

lasermonkey

If it's any consolation, I know exactly how you feel!

Voxman

builttospill said:

Here we go again! Just bought an old Rat 2 turned up with loose power jack, missing it's original nut & washer and now one of the resistors looks to be fritzed. Described as in excellent condition FFS!

I've another incoming ebay purchase soon... a late Big Box Deluxe Memory Man... can't help but feel a little apprehensive about it.

If you buy these on Ebay, if it's misrepresented can't you simply return it and get a full refund, or agree a partial refund to cover the repair with the seller?  

clarkefan

If it was a Buy It Now purchase then yes it's covered by sales legislation and should be sortable.

Stuff like "no returns accepted" in a Buy It Now listing is meaningless (eBay should stop people doing that, it's misleading).