manero-de one to watch the truth hurts

[John Taylor]

As ebay seems to play a big part on forums, I thought I would mention this one.
I purchased a feature film a few years ago from this seller. The film was advertised as low fade but acceptable, with very little in the way of why it was only listed as acceptable other than a splice or tow and a few lines.
I won the auction, it was a fair price, if memory serves me well i think it ended at 185 euros.
What wasn't mentioned in the description was that there was a few jump splices, (one with a full minute missing) and two other complete sections missing with a total amount of film missing amounting to 5 minutes and a few seconds.

Here is the point, I very politely emailed this seller to see what my options were for the reason of "some film is missing and it was not as described which, with footage missing, it wasn't. His reply was also polite, but abrupt and stated that the film was acceptable and was listed as such, without me asking for a refund or anything HE, offered a partial refund of 25 euros which I said was fair enough and accepted. I gave him good feedback and did not mention the problem, what did this seller then do? Put a ban on me buying which seems to say something about this guy, in a nutshell, the truth hurts. If I could turn back time I would have given the negative feedback he should have got, but thats my fault.
I'm sure many have had no problems judging by the feedback, (which includes mine) but I cant be the only one to have had this happen to.
The seller hasn't even got the balls to answer me when I asked why I am unable to bid on his films. Pretty childish.
Be forewarned, the screenshots of the film I bought also looked first class, in an hour and half movie it's easy to pick out only the good stuff.

[Larry Arpin]

I've seen his auctions for films I really wanted but they always seem to go over the price I could afford at the time. So I have yet to buy from him. I will cautious if the price of a film I want says reasonable.

I had a similar issue with 'Isellprojectorbelts'. I ordered 2 belts and when I received the package there was only one and the wrong kind. I double checked to see if I ordered wrong, which I didn't, so I contacted him concerning this. I received another package and received only one belt. So I contacted him again, received the other belt. So I returned the wrong belt at my own expense and gave positive feedback. Then when I needed another belt I found out I was blocked.

[Alan Rik]

I have purchased a few items from this seller and for me it was all good-A+.
Lately I have seen recent sellers state that a film looks to be in very good condition, LPP, etc. but they also state they have not watched the films all the way through so bid accordingly.
For me missing scenes would be something i may have sent back or if it was misrepresented as TV cut vs. Theatrical (depending on what was censored). And depending on how much I paid I might just eat it and sell it on. There are a lot of odd eggs mixed in with normal eggs in this hobby.. and sometimes you get on someone's bad side for no reason.
Best course is to move on - we never own the films we have anyways. They are just in our possession until someone else takes over their care.. Eventually a film you want will get into the hands of a seller who will deal with you. I find that buying from Ebay isn't the best way to get quality prints. It is to get them from Collectors who are very picky and know every frame and will tell you honestly, the sound is low, the color shifts on R2 etc. Check out the Facebook 16mm pages... lots of great collectors on there who know their films! I use Ebay as a last resort.

[John Taylor]

I just find it odd that the fault clearly was the seller had he have said there appears to a few minutes missing then it would have been down to the buyer but in this case there was no heated arguement, i simply asked the question and the he offered me a small partial refund which i accepted, we both left food feedback. Some peoole are just arrogant to the fact they they were challanged.

[Can Sanalan]

John, I've had a similar situation, a while back and I too am banned. Found out when I couldn't bid on one of his recent auctions.

[John Taylor]

Its very odd Can, if it was me at fault I wouldnt have minded, HE was the one at fault with a vaugue description, as little detail as possible and hide the facts that a buyer would need to know. In my case over 5 minutes of footage missing.
unfortunatly, we see more and more of this. Untested but seems to be ok! One of many such listings, many from well known collectors.

[Ozzie Williams]

If the description is not sufficient to judge whether a film is to a standard you wish, then I think it best not to bid or buy. Or contact the seller in advance to see if they know whether it is complete etc if this affects the price. Some sellers simply don't have the time to watch through a full film, because often the time that would take makes the sale unviable for a seller.

Let’s take a £100 film. Ebay takes 15% straightaway, the film cost something-a stock cost of around 40% for decent stuff, then there is the right off rate of 10% (the item didn't arrive or the buyer fabricate faults...which have to be refunded. Yes, some buyers are dishonest just as some sellers are), then there is the hourly work rate. A commercial seller will need at least £20.00ph to cover all costs. A basic film can take up to 1 hour to prepare and post on ebay to a fair standard (another 10%), then there is the cost of getting it, travel, admin (another 10%). So, if nothing goes wrong on a £100 film, £85 has already gone just making the sale. Add another 2 hours watching it and researching what may be missing and if £100 is all the film can sell for, then the extra time spent means the film will not appear at all for sale. Because it is just not a viable sale for a commercial or hobby ebay to list it...not if they value their time.

Film is unlike many other items for sale on ebay. Because it has the fourth dimension of time (a lot of it), and that has to be paid for. When a seller says acceptable, they are choosing the lowest description category that ebay allows short of saying the film is completely unsaleable. They often take a big hit on the price because of this. I don't know this person, but I guess they were polite and refunded because as you say you would have given them a neg had they done otherwise. They knew you might do this, and I suspect they probably thought 5mins missing on an old film is to be expected given the description (and it wasn't guaranteed complete), and they simply wanted to sleep at night and didn't want the experience again, so they moved on. After all, an ebayer with high positive feedback is actually trying to please people.

Ebay gives sellers no protection against fraudulent buyers (that is obviously not the case here but the seller can't know that for sure), and if it is apparent that you and the seller don't agree on what can be expected given the “acceptable” description (which is natural, subjectivity plays a part…there are grey areas when it comes to film descriptions) then it is not surprising they acted as they did and moved on.

[John Taylor]

You may possibly have missed the point on this one Osi, I never bid on a title where the description is something like, "untested but seems ok", or, "I've unreeled the first few feet and it seems to be good". The only time i may take a punt on those is if the title is good and the price is mega low, like under a tenner.
This one, like many of his titles is listed as acceptable, sellers believe that this covers them for any tiny problem, but as ebay has told me, it doesn't, if a serious problem occurs, (and missing footage comes under that) then the buyer has a right to query it.
The description was, very good low fade colour with some wear and a few splices, NO Mention at all about missing footage. Even a little jump splice or two would be acceptable, but 5 minutes plus is not acceptable unless it is listed as such, it means the film is incomplete.

I still see new and almost new prints being listed by well know collectors as acceptable with descriptions of excellent print with only a slight line, the "acceptable" is the term shrewd sellers use when THEY have had a problem in the past and think this will do.
Thankfully, there are many very good sellers who list with good descriptions.

This seller was out of order and even more so by banning some of us when it's clearly him at fault.
The man, in my opinion, is a con, why ban anyone if your the one at fault? Good feedback given by both parties, and HE gave me a partial refund but he didn't offer, nor would he take it back. I left it as is and was fine until i realised he cut me off from bidding in future,whst a half wit.

BTW, actually giving a partial refund shows who was at fault, if he disagreed he wouldn't have gave a penny back.