HMV 193 for sale - eBay

[Steve]

Why? Because eBay is pretty loathsome in my opinion and I detest it. It's full of petty crooks and dishonest toe-rags. Even if something decent does turn up, you can never be certain of getting a fair crack of the whip. Some crook will use his influence to bear down on the seller and the item disappears before you can say "Where's my Enigma gone?"

The whole thing is just deeply unpleasant these days. There are far better things to do than to spend all your spare time scanning eBay for the latest listings. I've had too much hassle with it to keep me onside now.

[Steve]

I stress I'm referring to the experience of UK eBay here too. US eBay, much like your Craigslist, is seemingly full of rare and not so rare items sold for absolute peanuts by vendors who photograph everything in high resolution detail with plentiful pictures. Machines are plentiful in the US compared to the UK - collectors in the US appear spoilt for choice. There are much fewer collectors than items available so the whole business is not quite so "cut throat". US sellers generally also pack items very well (apart from the gentleman who sent me the FTA machine from Garry James Collection in 12 pizza boxes - an FTA is a complete transportable machine in its own case, designed to be safely transported as a single unit - it arrived broken and incomplete! Why, why, why.....I'll never understand to this day). Most European eBay sellers think a piece of kitchen towel is sufficient to protect a 15kg machine in the post. I've got news for them: it isn't.

Apart from one horn machine, everything else I've bought from France that has been posted, has arrived damaged and broken.