Tag: eBay

July 11, 2024 – Got Caught Again

July 11, 2024 /

Just like yesterday’s praise of internet shopping, today is my kryptonite. I have a penchant missing details or not getting what I expected. I recently purchased another PCIe tuner card that I was going to install in my Linux/Ubuntu machine. I don’t need it and I was toying with the idea taking the one out of my Windows machine as I mount my new ‘cheap tv’. But, I found one on eBay for $18.

When I looked at the description, it said for parts/not working. The seller description said, ‘untested’ but also said ‘looks great’. When the card arrived, I found that someone had snipped off the ends of the mounting bracket. I was expecting to gamble on whether the card worked or not, not if I could actually install the card.

If the card did not work, I would have nobody to blame, I gambled and I lost. It was stated for parts as well as untested. I went back a looked at the pictures. It was clear what I was looking at after I knew what I got. The thought never occurred to me that somebody would modify the mount. I never expected that I would need to scrutinize the photo with a seller provided description.

Giving my transaction rating, I was a little softer than I felt like. Because the modification was pictured and it was listed as for parts I didn’t do enough due diligence. I do feel slightly mislead however.

I was able to fabricate a mounting plate with careful measuring and drilling. Now I am on to thrashing with Ubuntu again. The literature claims that the driver is in the kernel so that eliminates the blacklisting problem that I encountered with my SDR. The program I chose to try out is called ‘MythTV’. This is a DVR program and requires me learning about MySQL and Linux. This is my next hill.

I have done a little research about eBay’s ‘for parts/not working’ disposition. Apparently, this means that there are no guarantees. Some people claim that people buy things, harvest parts and then resell the rest. You need to be very careful in these situations unless you are a true expert. Learn from me. By paying an extra $20, I could have gotten one with everything including remote control.

I don’t regret my lesson. I guess it just frustrates me when I get another thing that I wasn’t really expecting. I feel like this is one of those places that I really do learn by making every mistake in the book. I am sure it won’t be the last item I buy off of eBay.

End Your Programming Routine: All the way back to the Romans… Caveat emptor. Translated it means, buyer beware. No doubt that I could have done more due diligence. There is no way that I would have made the same mistake if I was looking at the card in person. I just need to keep learning the same lesson on buying on the internet.

October 13, 2021 – Why I Hate eBay and Online Shopping

October 13, 2021 /

We are starting to come around to the point where I have said everything that I want to say. This is a bit facetious, I have mentioned this in passing in a previous post that I dislike ordering online. Today I am going to make my case.

About four years ago, I purchased a rifled barrel for my Remington shotgun. My thoughts were there are some areas around here that are restricted to shotgun hunting only. They are close and maybe I could sit for a half an hour on my way to work or on my way home. This is not to say that I couldn’t use my shotgun as is, but then my range would be limited to about 50 yards. With this new barrel, it makes 150 yards possible.

I did hunt with it a bit. But, then my son got into trap shooting. So, then I was switching barrels and setups several times a week so I thought that it would be good to add another rifled barrel to the inventory. I do have two other shotguns. One is also a Remington in 20 gauge. The problem is since they have gone bankrupt and have been dispersed, used barrels have tripled in price. My other option is a Mossberg shotgun in 12 gauge.

These extra barrels seem to be mostly available (new) before hunting season and then they kind of disappear for the rest of the year. Fortunately, Mossberg barrels have not skyrocketed in price because they are still being made but all the new inventory is already sold out.

I looked on Gunbroker and I looked on eBay. Because I have thoroughly researched what I wanted, I knew that the model numbers were 90121 and 90049. One is parkerized while the other is blued and since my shotgun is actually stainless, having either barrel is fine with me. They actually made a stainless version at one time and I should have bought it when I saw it but they are really rare.

I couldn’t find what I wanted using the part number in either site. I do know that the model number is often not posted. It is not stamped on the barrel anywhere so I searched ‘Mossberg 500 rifled barrel 12 gauge’ and several choices came up. I did read the description and and bought the barrel. About ten minutes after I made the purchase, it occurred to me that this was probably not what I wanted. For whatever reason, Mossberg makes a barrel with rifle sights but it is not rifled and that is what I bought.

The lore on barrels and chokes are such that it is best to use a cylinder bore choke when shooting rifled slugs. The reason being is that all the other chokes provide some level of constriction which impact the slugs travel to some degree. This barrel has a fixed cylinder choke specifically for firing rifled slugs. To that end, my 18″ barrel also has a cylinder choke. My field barrel has removable chokes and I have a cylinder choke for that barrel as well.

What about the sights? I already have a red dot on the shotgun and I wanted this style of barrel for this reason. The other style of barrel has a cantilever mount for scope. I have this on my Remington and I think that is a great design, but it would interfere with my already installed red-dot and they are about 50% more expensive.

It was too late, there was nothing that I could do. I bought something that I have no real use for. Additionally, I don’t see a way to sell it, I don’t think that it is really has a market because I don’t know why anyone would really want this barrel. I might be able to trade it at the local gun store?

End Your Programming Routine: The Latin phrase Caveat Emptor comes to mind. Translated, it means buyer beware. I don’t necessarily think the seller did anything wrong, the description did not state that the barrel was rifled. I am slightly PO’d that the eBay search brought up related items and not what I was looking for and that I didn’t try to verify this is what I was looking for. It actually didn’t even occur to me until after the transaction. If I was physically looking at it, I would have known right away. It doesn’t mean that I am not going to buy again on eBay, but I can chalk this up as another online disappointment.