Need a bit of eBay advice

[Evan Samaras]

If it's going Vinegar, that's just what's happening. Anything you do from here will just help preserve where it's at until it's eventual demise. If you are unhappy ask for a return, and if denied there is always the eBay guarantee system. They can step in and mediate.

[Maurice Leakey]

Nate
Try leaving them in the sun for a few days.

Maurice

[Nate Lockhart]

I do notice that the smell is even less pronounced more than it was just a couple days ago. Maybe I'm just getting myself worked up over nothing? I suppose giving the film a good cleaning and putting molecular seives in the cans can't hurt.

[Steve Klare]

I had a polyester-based print show up here once smelling of vinegar. How could a polyester print have VS? Well, it can't of course! The packaging can absorb the scent of the VS from its neighbors, though.

I have also had acetate prints show up with a very slight vinegar whiff that de-stunk once I got them out of sealed cans.

I guess they all won't: it's just up to you to figure out all the factors in the gamble of returning it or giving it a chance.

[Janice Glesser]

Nate I have 3 - 8mm reels that although I don't have a test kit I know have VS. I didn't return the films to the seller...but I have isolated them from the rest of my collection.

[Nate Lockhart]

I mean, it sure smells like vinegar to me... Is it really so uncommon for an 8mm print to develop VS?

[Dominique De Bast]

Are you sure, it's a VS smell ? Before I got my first VS print, I suspected several prints to be infected but they had just an unusual odor. A VS really smells vinagar.

[Maurice Leakey]

Thank you, Nate
It's a surprise to hear that a standard (regular) 8 film has VS problems.
I have hundreds of 8mm and Super 8 and have never experienced VS with any of them. 16mm, yes; but not 8mm.

Maurice

[Nate Lockhart]

Is it a 16mm print?

Maurice

Nope, regular 8mm.

[Maurice Leakey]

Is it a 16mm print?

Maurice

[Nate Lockhart]

Something else to note in the shipping is that while in the box, the film was inside a thick plastic bag that was taped shut. That's... not an advised practice from what I know.

[Maurice Leakey]

Nate
As this is in the 8mm Forum is it an 8mm print? I assume that as you say it has a "mild scent of vinegar" that it might be 16mm, perhaps the 1928 version.
If it has VS it will always deteriorate with time, particularly in the warmer regions of the U.S.
If the seller was not correct in his description I certainly feel that you should return it for a full refund.

Maurice

[Mark Mander]

Nate ,
would you have bought it knowing it has VS? If the answers no then I suggest a return or bin it ,Mark

[Nate Lockhart]

Someone on Facebook suggested it may have been on the verge of VS and having sat in an Arizona postage facility may have pushed it over the edge. I'll probably keep the print and take the extra effort to stave off the worst effects of VS, since this is quite a special movie and I'd like to get at least a few showings out of it.

[Chip Gelmini]

Depends how bad it is which of course could be difference of opinion. If the seller is clueless did he/she lie? How easily can you prove it? If the seller accepts returns is it worth the hassle?

Perhaps keep it and in your feedback post simply say not quite as described.

consider how bad did you want the print?