Isn't It Nice When A Record Purchase All Goes Well?

[paultp]

I buy very few records these day, but I've wanted a copy of Freddie Houston - If I had Known for ages and they always seem to go for too much moola (or I am too tight! - no need to comment )

Anyway, one appeared on ebay, so I stuck a snipe on it and forgot about it. I "won" it for about 220 dollars, the seller had described it as "Strong VG - good gloss" which probably affected the price. Now I don't mind the odd pop and click (adds to the authenticity IMO) but an ebay VG can be a horrid thing.

So I paid and then started the worry about whether it would turn up, what condition would it be in, would I have to pay a walloping customs charge and that heinous PO handling charge, etc etc

It arrived really quickly, the seller had sent it tracked to port of exit from the states and then signed for which usually means it gets nicked, but (bless him) he'd put a low value on the customs ticket. So it wasn't nicked and I didn't get hit by a large fee. I didn't ask him to do any of this.

I opened it up and it looked lightly marked but not too bad. I played it and it hissed, so I cleaned with a bit of warm water and played it again - clean as a whistle!

The label is fairly clean too.

How good is that? It has restored my faith in US sellers (well, that one anyway), I might start looking for some more long time wants.

[boba]

there are a lot of conservative graders on ebay. actually, even the worst graders now grade more conservatively because the DSR system forces them to if they want to keep selling... but there are obviously still very poorly graded records out there (often from new sellers with low feedback or from junker dudes who aren't exclusively record sellers).