eBay - Sometimes it gives, sometimes it takes...

[rubber_jonnie]

Well, I found what appeared to be a reasonable Wonderswan Colour that would make a good candidate for repairs at the very reasonable price of £26:

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But when it arrived I was immediately suspicious due to an overriding smell of mould!!!

I went to install a cartridge only to find the cart slot was so badly damaged that the cart would not go in.

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Thankfully the cart, which didn't come with it and was one I already had, is fine.

Viewing from the outside, the brown locking bar for the screen connector was missing:

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And looking inside there was corrosion everywhere:

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Luckily the seller has been super reasonable and I'm down the path of returning it at their cost, so no complaints there.

Definitely not as described - 'Good Condition' and certainly no use for spares or repairs.

But here's the danger of eBay. Not all images are representative of the real condition, and not all eBay sellers are as reasonable as this one.

Very annoying, and a bit surprising since the seller has good feedback and sells a lot of similar items on eBay.

[HigashiJun]

'Good condition' doesn't seem to have the same meaning for everyone...

[Steve]

Yeah, I used to be under the impression that if the item is sold as anything but 'for parts or not working' you couldn't return. But I did some research (on eBay forums) apparently when a buyer requests a return, the seller has to accept it no matter what. This was news to me, even though I've been selling on eBay for years and have around 900 positive feedback. It's just nice in this case that the seller was a nice person to deal with.

So yeah, apparently as a buyer there seriously is no risk at all any more. Just make sure the seller has a good positive rating.

But as a seller I do think it's a bit weird ... what is the point of being able to put 'Returns not accepted' on your listing, also selling as 'parts or not working' in conjunction with that, when if the buyer really wants they can get their money back lol :)

(ps - I totally agree with your situation of course, definitely deserved a refund! Just chatting about stuff I've found out recently. Your refund would definitely come under 'Not as described' as the reason!)

[mikro]

I guess it could be to discourage buyers to even get the idea of returning it. You know, you buy it, it doesn't work, seller listed it as "as is, no returns", so you just cope with that. You don't start googling how to return it anyway.

[rubber_jonnie]

'Good condition' doesn't seem to have the same meaning for everyone...

No, it certainly does not!!!

[rubber_jonnie]

Yeah, I used to be under the impression that if the item is sold as anything but 'for parts or not working' you couldn't return. But I did some research (on eBay forums) apparently when a buyer requests a return, the seller has to accept it no matter what. This was news to me, even though I've been selling on eBay for years and have around 900 positive feedback. It's just nice in this case that the seller was a nice person to deal with.

So yeah, apparently as a buyer there seriously is no risk at all any more. Just make sure the seller has a good positive rating.

But as a seller I do think it's a bit weird ... what is the point of being able to put 'Returns not accepted' on your listing, also selling as 'parts or not working' in conjunction with that, when if the buyer really wants they can get their money back lol :)

(ps - I totally agree with your situation of course, definitely deserved a refund! Just chatting about stuff I've found out recently. Your refund would definitely come under 'Not as described' as the reason!)

Yep, 100% not as described, the corrosion is so bad there is no hope of even reviving it with a new case and screen, and as for the cartridge port...

I'm pretty sure it had been under water for at least a little while...

Ebay do some weird things though, often quite contrary as you've described, but I have to say this seller was great and said send it back right away and provided a postage label. I have my doubts about other sellers though, like the one who put my other 2 Wonderswans (A B&W and a colour) in a padded envelope but left them floating around inside with no padding so they could have easily damaged each other. When I gave him neutral feedback, he got stroppy.

Sellers need to realise that as soon as you've paid, you should treat the items as owned by somebody else and treat them respectfully and pack properly.

[rubber_jonnie]

I guess it could be to discourage buyers to even get the idea of returning it. You know, you buy it, it doesn't work, seller listed it as "as is, no returns", so you just cope with that. You don't start googling how to return it anyway.

That's definitely a possibility.

At least in my case it wasn't as described so they had to accept it back.

[stephen_usher]

Then there are the buyers who return a broken item of the same type (but not the original) or even something completely different, or remove valuable parts from the item and declare is "faulty".

[rubber_jonnie]

Then there are the buyers who return a broken item of the same type (but not the original) or even something completely different, or remove valuable parts from the item and declare is "faulty".

Indeed there are. I'm not one of those though :)

My worry is that it will appear again on eBay for sale. IMHO it is unrecoverable.