Buying Amigas from Auction sites - Guide

[sneckburger]

Looking for an Amiga and are new to the Amiga Scene since the 90s?
Maybe you’re watching a few machines already on a popular auction site.

Trouble is there’s far too many profiteers dishonestly milking everything they can get from anything retro like the Amiga
Here’s what I’ve found that may help others sort the wheat from the chaff

Listings that specify “Untested”.
This usually means tested but doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s because the owner hasn’t got the correct cable for the TV. But if he /she’s flogging abunch of other Amiga related hardware, then I’d get suspicious.

Advertised as “Super white”
Been retro brited (probably several times and will go yellow again in a few months or so, but now the plastic is all brittle and all the clips are broken).

“With Box”.
unfortunately People seem to be selling boxes separately to cash in even more, though I bought a boxed A500 recently that had a different serial number to the one on the machine.
In my opinion boxed original means it should be the original box!. There’s one on right now with someone selling the box separate claiming it boosts the value of your Amiga!. Yet they are advertising the Amiga at the price they sell with the original box.

“RE-Capped”
If the seller is a shop or has been refurbishing these for awhile, chances are it should be a good buy, but I’d hate to see a re-capped machine that say…I’d had a go at with my poundland soldering iron and hand full of thumbs :-/

This forum I believe is a friendly one to help others, so please add your advice to the list if you have any.


My advice is to look for people who are clearly just having a clear-out and the machine is relatively untouched. At least then you know what you’re buying as there’s loads of Amigas out there that have been cobbled together from bits of old spares and are impossible to fix.

[dalek]

Don't put up with blurry or out of focus pictures - demand better!

[005AGIMA]

Great advice.

If buying from overseas, I'd recommend asking to have a skype call. This will allow you to see things in real time, see it boot, and ask questions live rather than waiting 24hrs between communications.

You're paying top dollar if it's from a re-seller, so it's worth asking IMHO.

Even when just buying games, I've seen sellers posting items with inconsistent disk colours and what looked to be re-printed labels.

While the rest of the inventory looked legit, it put me off ordering anything from them.

[sneckburger]

Thought Id bring it to attention on here as I'm seeing an increase in level of dishonesty on ebay of some listings.
Unless it's just me?

[Nobby_UK]

Ebay has always been the home of the dishonest.

[4pLaY]

Originally Posted by sneckburger

Thought Id bring it to attention on here as I'm seeing an increase in level of dishonesty on ebay of some listings.
Unless it's just me?

Shopping on Ebay is always a hit and miss, AmiBay is a bit better as most selling goods there really do not want to get bad feedback. Local ads where you can pick up in person is the best, if you can find it .

[wiser3]

Make sure anything shipping to or from you has a tracking number. Some couriers charge extra, but it's worth it. I had a shipment of 2 A1200's take nearly 3 months to get to me. Without the tracking number i'm sure it would have gotten permenately lost.

Take pictures of everything. Especially any packaging damage when it arrives. In fact if you see packaging damage on arrival you can request the courier put a note on the shipment that it arrived with shipping damaged.

[005AGIMA]

Originally Posted by sneckburger

Thought Id bring it to attention on here as I'm seeing an increase in level of dishonesty on ebay of some listings.
Unless it's just me?

Sounds like you have specific stories to share? Maybe with names changed to protect the guilty?