Ever bought untested Amiga?

[mikele]

Talk about real blind purchases. I mean buying Amiga on flea market, yard sales or even online marked as "untested", "as is".

Sometimes it might be a nice bargain (stories from reliable source about getting A1200 from the redneck store in middle of nowhere with some accelerator under trapdoor) or loss of money when this "untested" label make a good excuse for dishonest seller.

I bought A600 without PSU marked as "not working", but turned out to be OK.
Then won bidding for my Escom A1200, the seller offered a lot of equipment that used to land on german streets as electronic waste, so I did not have high hopes. Turned out to be perfectly fine with good capacitors, working hard disk and pretty nice case!

What's your experience like? Is it worth taking a risk?

[alexh]

All of my Amiga's (except the first) was bought blind (i.e. I never saw them working). Most purchases have turned out fine.

However every time I have bought an Amiga labeled "untested" or "sold as seen" it has really meant "broken".

Determining how broken is key to a bargain.

E.G. I bought a 110v Atari Falcon 030 which didn't power on, "spairs or repairs". Being the UK chances are it was plugged into 220v mains. I bought it cheap and yes it just required a fuse in the PSU.

Out of tens of purchases I have made, only 3 have turned out to be non-economical / non-DIY repairs

Cyberstorm MK-III (£90), Apollo A4040 (£75), Picasso IV (£120)

I could have returned all three but I kept saying to myself, these are cheap... you'll be able to fix them one day

[Nobby_UK]

All of mine were bought blind and have been fine,
but none was labelled "untested" or "as is".

My last purchase - an A600 had no PSU which made me SUS
but it worked (smelt a bit Musty) and had an unexpected
601 in the trapdoor (plus a mouse and Wing Commander).

[chaos]

I once bought two A500s and an A500+ which were sold as untested / not working for very cheap. They all worked perfectly, the A500+ was especially well preserved with no yellowing and minimal battery damage

[Predseda]

Many.

[Hodor]

I´ve never had the chance, but if the price was good enough sure I would.

[pandy71]

Yes, many of them bought with unknown condition - always they can be used as part donators to support other units - this equipment deteriorate so quickly...

[DDNI]

Yes. Latest one is a double untested cd32. No leads, back panel or psu.
Seemed to work ok with real discs but not cdr copies. Changed laser, but still having some issues with cdr copies. I used clonecd to burn a .ccd copy of kid chaos. Other discs burned with cdburnerxp dont work or work very slowly.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by DDNI

Yes. Latest one is a double untested cd32. No leads, back panel or psu.
Seemed to work ok with real discs but not cdr copies. Changed laser, but still having some issues with cdr copies. I used clonecd to burn a .ccd copy of kid chaos. Other discs burned with cdburnerxp dont work or work very slowly.

Check spindle motor. Might need a clean with good ol MR WD.

[DDNI]

Thanks FOL.
Which way should the laser pot be turned to increase voltage?

[jimbob]

Got a wonderful condition A600 for a quid

Got a diabolical rotfest of an A500+ for about 15 times that.
"Has one broken chip, seems to be in good condition otherwise"

Got a nice A1200 plus blizzard set up for a fair price, all good except the faulty RGB to scart cable blew up my TV.

Those are the highlights, there have been a bunch of others.

[chiark]

Exactly what Alex says, unfortunately.
Untested typically means "I've tested it and the thing doesn't work".

[Tiago]

I got an A600 with "broken case and untested", It worked fine. New case and ready to play.

Also got an Atari STfm with "untested, don't konw how to test, don't have cables". It was 100% fine.

[Oli_HD]

Yep, a large number of the ones Ive bought were untested, but like everyone else when its listed on a site as "untested" I assume its tested and faulty.

I remember buying my DKB 2632 card and meeting the guy on a motorway service station, handed him the cash and got the card. Was a total drug exchange style thing but the card was mint, the box was mint, it was brand new.