Dumb*]#* eBay sellers

[elbaroni]

and...kinda. With the always versatile MacTilt SE by Ergotron sitting on top to ensure the broken lid hinge engages the relevant sensor:



it prints, kinda:


 

(boring essay question ahoy).

the paper only comes out the back home (phrasing), not on top. But with the MacTilt there that might be for the best. I assume all the crud around the printed text is an old/shot photosensitive roller on the toner cartridge?

 

[elbaroni]

Final update for this evening: the paper feed seems to be getting worse. The exit rollers are only rolling intermittently, and it makes a bad noise. Think I need to take it apart and shake out all the broken plastic. It's working electrically, which I'll chalk up as a win. It also works with my SE/30 running 6.0.8, which is contrary to the advice on minimum system levels etc. I'd loooooove to be able to get 600dpi directly from System 6. I always like to print at at least 100x my system version. 

I should probably spend the effort getting my Laserwriter Plus running, really. Or my IIf. Or repair my IIg board. Or fix one of the other two LaserWriter II bodies that have flashing light errors. Or fix the Personal LaserWriter that was DOA with a bad power supply. 

One of these days I'll make one work. In the meantime, this essay won't write itself. 

On that, though, I did the whole first exam for this class I'm doing on my SE/30 (then translated Word 5 -> Word 98 on my G4 bridge system -> Word whatever's current on my Mac mini). I've got a shortcut on my iPad which emails my highlights from a PDF to an email account I can receive on the old Macs, then I run an AppleScript to clean up the remnant Unicode I haven't worked out how to strip in Shortcuts, and the weird carriage returns the email program insists on inserting. I have EndNote Plus on the SE/30 and an LG LCD (natively 1280x1024, so it's 2:1 pixels horizontally, but a bit blurry vertically at 640x480) hooked up to my Micron card (which doesn't do the greyscale trick, sadly). Ridiculous Rube Goldburg territory, but I enjoy it. And Word 5 really is good. I started in MacWrite Pro and got annoyed with its goofy stylesheets and general slowness. I don't have the UK dictionary for Word 4, which was my next choice. But Word 5 is quick, and with most of the useless crap stripped out (grammar checker? Pffft. Button bar? On a 9-inch screen?!) it's pretty streamlined too.   

 

[NJRoadfan]

The LaserWriter 4/600 PS is a Canon PX engine printer. Its internals are the same as the HP Laserjet 4L/4ML and 4P/MP. The difference is the controller board and exterior plastics. Parts like rollers, fuser, and toner should be readily available. I still have a Laserjet 4MP in service on my desk. A bit slow at 4ppm, but they are very reliable and cheap to run. That cartridge cover is a weak point though.

 

[trag]

I've become a "super high maintenance buyer" who asks sellers how they are going to be packaging whenever I think there's a chance this will happen. I offer to pay for extra costs if needed for it to arrive safely, and tell them not to worry about the shipping time - "better safe than fast". It annoys a few of them ("of course I will ship it well") but does seem to help avoid catastrophes. Some people are clueless tools, but some just don't have the knowledge or experience. 

Some times that doesn't work either, sigh.   A few years ago I decided to fill out my stoneware (plates and bowls) assortment.  The pattern I use/like is long since discontinued.   But I got lucky and found a large lot on Ebay at a fabulous price.  However, the shipping price was way too low.     I messaged the seller beforehand and told her I thought the shipping price was too low, and **offered to pay more money for shipping**, but she told me, no, it was okay, etc, etc.

Then, after she packed it up and took it to shipping, she did ask me to split an increase in cost, because, then she discovered it really was going to cost about $50 more to ship than the Ebay system had guessed.  Which I happily did.   

But when it arrived, about half of it was broken.  

The packing was better than nothing, but there were things like torn up ice cream bar boxes used for packing material, and stacks of plates with nothing between them, taped together.    One might imagine that taping a stack of plates securely together will keep it from breaking, but one would be wrong....

Anyway, she was really nice and had some additional pieces she could send (properly, individually wrapped in bubble wrap this time) and it all worked out okay in the end.   But what a waste.  

So the point of the story is, even when you tell them, and they're nice people who want to send you good stuff, sometimes they just don't listen/believe you.

 

[trag]

Looking at the example print from the demolished printer prompted me to offer a bit of advice.

When having a laser printer shipped, always ask the seller to remove the toner cartridge and bag it before shipping.   Also, the waste toner container, if it has one.   Laser printers aren't meant to be shaken and rotated upside down and it does bad things to where the toner ends up when they are.

 

[olePigeon]

Apple Color LaserWriter would leak just about everything during shipping.  You have to pull everything out, especially the fuser.  It'll leak fuser oil.

 

[Solvalou]

As an occasional seller on eBay, I always go out of my way to pack things to a ridiculous level. And yet just a few weeks ago, had to deal with a buyer who I'm absolutely certain deliberately broke something just to claim a refund. Left my first negative too just to be a complete arseh*le (which eBay refused over and over to remove despite me refunding and never receiving it).  :vent:

Seems that no matter how you pack, if it isn't the delivery company, they buyer will find a way to f*** the item up and screw you as a genuine seller from time to time but I digress.

I'vedefinitely had some items that got completely mullered by poor packing or unscrupulous couriers (who I can only assume use parcels as a hockey puck). 

The service the seller uses seens to make a huge difference from my experience, at least here in the UK.

I've had some things packed like your printer, thankfully have arrived to me with minimal/no damage, bit only in a few cases. 

 

[elbaroni]

As an occasional seller on eBay, I always go out of my way to pack things to a ridiculous level. And yet just a few weeks ago, had to deal with a buyer who I'm absolutely certain deliberately broke something just to claim a refund. Left my first negative too just to be a complete arseh*le (which eBay refused over and over to remove despite me refunding and never receiving it).  :vent:

Seems that no matter how you pack, if it isn't the delivery company, they buyer will find a way to f*** the item up and screw you as a genuine seller from time to time but I digress.

I'vedefinitely had some items that got completely mullered by poor packing or unscrupulous couriers (who I can only assume use parcels as a hockey puck). 

The service the seller uses seens to make a huge difference from my experience, at least here in the UK.

I've had some things packed like your printer, thankfully have arrived to me with minimal/no damage, bit only in a few cases. 

As a wise man said, there’s no cure for being a #$@!  

 

[elbaroni]

The LaserWriter 4/600 PS is a Canon PX engine printer. Its internals are the same as the HP Laserjet 4L/4ML and 4P/MP. The difference is the controller board and exterior plastics. Parts like rollers, fuser, and toner should be readily available. I still have a Laserjet 4MP in service on my desk. A bit slow at 4ppm, but they are very reliable and cheap to run. That cartridge cover is a weak point though.

Cheers, I’ll bear that in mind. I think it’s close enough to working that just a good clean might do the trick. See how we go. 

 

[NJRoadfan]

Its possible that the drum is bad on the cartridge that came in the printer. Who knows how long its been sitting, or how tossed it got in shipping. Toner cart is HP 92274A aka 74A. I don't know if HP is making brand new ones anymore, but plenty of NOS HP OEM units and 3rd party replacements out there.

 

[pcamen]

Well here is the next stupid shipping tricks.  I bought a pristine looking 475 mostly for the top case.  It got completely destroyed during shipping.  The guy just put it in a box about the length and width of the LC and then put some styrofoam on the top and bottom of it, but not enough to fill up the box.  The thing is in pieces. 

 

[maceffects]

Well here is the next stupid shipping tricks.  I bought a pristine looking 475 mostly for the top case.  It got completely destroyed during shipping.  The guy just put it in a box about the length and width of the LC and then put some styrofoam on the top and bottom of it, but not enough to fill up the box.  The thing is in pieces. 

View attachment 34854View attachment 34853View attachment 34852

That is brutal!  It is really a big disappointment. 

 

[dzog]

     

 

[gcp]

I haven't had a bad eBay shipping experience in many years, so I was caught by surprise a couple of weeks ago when an IIci showed up in the mail... The seller just put it in a big cardboard box, and threw a few pieces of crumpled up paper in there with it. I've never seen a worse packing job in my life. When I picked it up I could hear bits ratting around inside of the case. When I got it opened up, the speaker bracket had come loose and was just flopping around inside the case. The top case had cracked and split off from the bottom, and one of the 'latches' at the back had snapped off.

Luckily I hadn't bought this one for the cosmetics, but I *had* bought it for the recapped logic board. I was relieved when it appeared to function properly.

My heart skipped a beat again today when a box arrived with what was supposed to be a cosmetically nice IIci case -- the box looked too small to even fit a IIci, let alone securely! Luckily it arrived unscathed... Hopefully will have some time to do the transplant this weekend.

 

[dzog]

Kinda weird that someone selling a recapped Mac would ship it so crappily! 

 

[Torbar]

While we're on the subject of crappily packed eBay Macs,  I've been fortunate on the couple that I've bought over the years(a Performa 410 last year, and a 12" RGB monitor a couple of years ago,  both were packed pretty well),  but this reminds me of like 12 years ago, a dude had a Powerbook 150(I think?), and a Powerbook Duo(not sure the model, some kind of color model) for sale, listed as untested since there was no power adapter, parts only.  They looked to be in good shape, so I bought them.  They weren't an amazing price, but it was a fair price.  I get them, and it was in a giant box, with a few packing peanuts thrown in, and nothing else, so the 2 laptops were just smashing against eachother for the whole trip.  The Duo screen was shattered, and the other one was just completely destroyed.  I message the guy and he keeps saying they're sold as broken so he's not going to do anything about it.  I leave him negative feedback saying that the items weren't packaged well at all, he responds to the feedback calling me a scammer, an idiot, that I bought something listed as parts expecting it to be working,  then a few days later messages me and says that he'll refund me my money if I take down the feedback.  Got my money back, and ended up buying a screen off of someone here and got the Duo working,  The other one was in bad enough shape that it got scrapped.

 

[chiaki]

Well here is the next stupid shipping tricks.  I bought a pristine looking 475 mostly for the top case.  It got completely destroyed during shipping.  The guy just put it in a box about the length and width of the LC and then put some styrofoam on the top and bottom of it, but not enough to fill up the box.  The thing is in pieces. 

View attachment 34854View attachment 34853View attachment 34852

maybe the seller dont know how fragile old plastic is, looks like even the only screw on the LC missing too

 

[PotatoFi]

That is just tragic. I am very sorry about your Performa 476.

I do have an eBay success story to share. I bought a 12" RGB monitor, and since the seller had "Best Offer", I made him an offer very close to the asking price, but put a note asking them to carefully pack it since these are known to get destroyed in shipping. I was very specific, asking them to double-box it, tightly package it, and leave plenty of space on all sides.

They came back with a counter-offer for the exact same price, saying that they could single-box it tightly in robust foam material with lots of padding. I decided to go for it. The results:







I sent them a special thank-you note, and of course left positive feedback praising them for their packing job. And the monitor (excluding shipping) was only $35!

From here on out, I think my standard operating procedure will be to contact the seller ahead of time, politely warn them about how fragile these old machines are, and ask them to tightly pack it in a sturdy box with lots of padding, with the ultimate goal of saving us both the hassle of shipping damage. It certainly worked this time!

So far I am 2/2 successes! Both my Mac SE FDHD arrived safely, as well as this LC monitor! Both times I contacted the seller in advance.

 

[Juror22]

maybe the seller dont know how fragile old plastic is, looks like even the only screw on the LC missing too

I don't think that I have ever seen an LC with that screw in it.  Not that I've seen hundreds, but I've seen a lot and I can't remember any of those being screwed shut.

 

[jessenator]

I don't think that I have ever seen an LC with that screw in it.

I was downright surprised that my IIci had the rear screw in it.  I feel really fortunate with my shipping luck. As a personal note, I try to be as overly safe when it comes to packing. That said, I do get the stink eye in my house occasionally for keeping the packing material that comes my way instead of chucking it  

That's rotten luck with that LC... absolutely unacceptable packing.

I think the best luck I ever had was with my SE/30: came in a Home Depot generic "tapeless" box (still taped thankfully) with the bare minimum of brown crumpled paper... I was very shocked it arrived no cracks.

The worst was probably a Snow iMac I bought probably 10 years ago. The screen wasn't cracked (has massive burn-in), but the shell was just destroyed. I ended up parting that one out it was so bad.