Magic!!!!!!!

[glengowla]

When kim273 sold this ugly copy of the Apple LP on September 1st, it had 'A LOT OF CRACKLE , SOME BACKGROUND NOISE AND A VERY NOTICEABLE SCUFF MARK ON SIDE 2.'

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APPLE-AN-A...p2047675.l2557

The lucky winner was our old pal xxxrecords. When he sold the same copy two weeks later, it had 'barely ANY crackle AT ALL, and only some slight background sound on the run on grooves & gaps'.

I could go on.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APPLE-An-A...p2047675.l2557

[Dr Victor X Storm]

I wonder if the 'winner' was happy when a bid was retracted at the last minute and he ended up with the LP?

[eine]

SOME STATS FOR YOU

xxxrecords price - £1023
kim273 price - £719

xxxrecords profit = £304

word count of xxxrecords item description = 1,061
304 divided by 1,061= .2865

Therefore, for every word xxxrecords writes in his item description, he gets a 28 1/2p profit.

So if xxxrecords wrote a novel the equivalent in length of In Search Of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (and I think plussers will agree that his item descriptions are definitely Proustian in flavour) he would earn a PROFIT of £363,015 (1,267,069 x 28.65).

[Cacapo]

You need also consider the ALL CAPS and ALL CAPS BOLD ratio and the use of random !!!!!.

Not sure how this applies to Proust though.

[eine]

I thought about this, but the maths is too experimental.

[Dr Victor X Storm]

SOME STATS FOR YOU

xxxrecords price - £1023
kim273 price - £719

xxxrecords profit = £304

word count of xxxrecords item description = 1,061
304 divided by 1,061= .2865

Therefore, for every word xxxrecords writes in his item description, he gets a 28 1/2p profit.

So if xxxrecords wrote a novel the equivalent in length of In Search Of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (and I think plussers will agree that his item descriptions are definitely Proustian in flavour) he would earn a PROFIT of £363,015 (1,267,069 x 28.65).

“If a little tipping-on is dangerous, the cure for it is not to tip-on less, but to tip-on more, to tip-on all the time.”

[glengowla]

The man is firmly convinced of the beneficent properties of the felt-tip to the second-hand record business.

Here is another of his more notable tickles.

http://galacticramble.blogspot.co.uk...n-mystery.html

[Dr Victor X Storm]

http://offer.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI...&showauto=true

2 retracted highest bidders in fact. How unusual

[Campag Record]

Looks like the black felt-tip has been used to hide some of that sleeve wear so evident in the first shot. Made a nice job of tidying up the reverse though.

Is that sleeve laminated for his sale? It looks non-laminated on the original sale and laminated for his sale. I was thinking it was perhaps a different sleeve but the flipbacks show the same stains in both pics

[The Divine One]

SOME STATS FOR YOU

xxxrecords price - £1023
kim273 price - £719

xxxrecords profit = £304

Well, not really - there's ebay and paypal fees to come off which is about 14% which on a grand is about £140. Which is £160 profit, which still isn't bad for buying and re-selling an album.

It's possible he got the record professionally cleaned, it can make a big difference. And, Nige, I'd be keen to know how he cleaned up the back too. He's like a vinyl Lovejoy, isn't he?! Also, I can't believe that was a 24 hour auction - anyone else would have run that for ten days. If you look at the bid history, ignoring the mysterious two retracted bids, there's only TWO people bid in it over £40?!

XXX has bought a couple of things off me on ebay over the years. Both times I was given a line "I'm away on holiday shortly, can you please send me the record immediately", and both times the records were re-listed the day he received them. Annoyingly, the records I sold WERE bang on mint, virtually unplayed and he sold both of them for about triple what I sold them for (like the near mint £50 album I sold, he got about £150 for). Once I had his username, I could match up about 30 things he'd bought, then re-sold. Very interesting...

[glengowla]

His model is very largely flipping, with constantly changing usernames as a buyer. I have bought from him twice, and both sleeves had had surgical procedures carried out which he didn't mention. He was amazed and profusely apologetic on both occasions, hastily offering partial refunds and reminding me how his unparalleled feedback spoke volumes as to his integrity, experience and honesty. He does have his supporters, though: when I posted about his Simon Finn auction on my blog someone called John Faulkner left the following comment beneath: 'Perhaps if you were even one third as successful as Graham Cross, then you would save your "cheesy" comments for the lavatory wall - which is where they belong. We all "cut corners" hahaha. To use an overworked saying, get a life, and let those who know better than you get on with theirs. By the way your blog sucks.'

[Dr Victor X Storm]

He was amazed and profusely apologetic on both occasions, hastily offering partial refunds and reminding me how his unparalleled feedback spoke volumes as to his integrity, experience and honesty.

If I'm offered a full or partial refund I wouldn't leave a negative, though it rankles all the same. Often it's clear that the seller is 'trying it on' and hoping the buyer won't notice/won't care. Perhaps they only get caught out 1 time out of 10 which makes it worth it. If only ebay tracked items that had been refunded and returned we would get a true picture of seller's feedback/grading abilities

[glengowla]

Unfortunately, eBay couldn't care less. They keep disabling functions that previously made it easier to keep tabs on sharp practitioners.