The spelling errors leap out at one, and the lack of proper punctuation and sentence structure makes that very hard to read. The first one has the merit of being properly written as well as accurate. :)
Rant on you make an excellent point. By adding the words 'Featherweight" to the listing the seller is guaranteed an inflated price. It also makes me sick. Featherweights are overpriced too but bargains can still be found. What gets me is the buttonholers in the green pebbled boxes. They were also for every low shank machine in the Singer line. The actual buttonholer that was issued for the Featherweight is in a black pebbled case but it seems that has been forgotten. I picked up 3 last year for $5.00 a piece. Gave them as gifts at that price. Its no wonder sellers of machines get such a bad rap.
Yeah, him I'm aware of. I belong to Treadle On, and the Featherweight group. :) And an Elna group... No wonder I get 400 emails in a weekend!
Well that is certainly true. There are people who still swear there are WMDs over there but that it's being kept a secret. Uh.... yeah... sure.... lol. Honestly, I don't like to see people get cheated either but, as with the people who continue to get sucked in by lying politicians, most of them will either ignore or turn on you when confronted with facts. Many people simply believe what they want to believe regardless of facts. I guess that's how frauds are so successful--- they can always bank on the "suckers" to pretend they haven't been conned.
I said I was not defending the ads (see above) or saying that people aren't cheated. I repeat that I don't understand how people get taken in or how they can possibly believe that the ubiquitous term "industrial strength" means the device is an industrial model. That they do is partly their own fault.
Phae
Most things sold under the label "industrial strength" *are* ordinary as I illustrated in a previous post. That is my point. The terminology obviously enjoys no legal protection in the US. That is unfortunate but apparently true. We have few consumer protections and that situation is worsening by the day in the current political climate.
Tire is a Japanese product, and I think Clover repackages. Things Japanese in the Seattle area is the US retail importer... don't know quite how Clover gets into the picture. I believe Things Japanese carries all colors, all weights.
Kay
Kay, I was under the impression that Clover was/is a Japanese company. Not sure, though.
Doreen in Alabama
Yes, they are. They may now own Tire, but I can't find the info.
I hear ya. And I must admit that I haven't actually seen any Chinese counterfeit thread yet, not that I'd know it if I saw it anyway. But if it's worth a lot and easily counterfeited, I figure it's only a matter of time until somebody starts selling bootleg thread.
But OTOH I see tons of sellers selling things that are fakes, reproductions and counterfeits, and many of them have very good FB.
There are few instances where I would even bid on a 98% FB seller's item. Usually anything below 99.5% is too low for me, but I can be flexible - usually if a seller has FB under 500 it's easy enough to see if the low percent is the result of a single neg, and the result of a simple mistake.
I bought a huge roll of 1/4" twill tape from this Chinese guy from NYC on eBay. The ad said 100% cotton. But it wasn't. It had a good amount of poly (I did a burn test). I emailed him immediately. He wrote a profuse apology, told me to keep the tape, and refunded the entire amount including the shipping. He also took the 100% cotton out of his ad--- at least for a time when I was looking.
I do see a lot of crap on eBay and it always amazes me that people actually buy some of that stuff. Apparently a great many people have not learned to be suspicious of too-good-to-be-true ads.
Yeah, I think it really varies. I try to stick to the same range you do. How many recent bad ratings is also very revealing. You can kind of tell when someone is just slacking off.
Failed delivery is a common enough problem that people should expect it to happen now and then, and insure anything over $50. Stolen mail is more common than it used to be. Ever drive down the street and see mail on the ground beneath everyone's mail boxes? I have.
Phae
Check this out: Do you know who parrothead88 is? L-o-o-o-ng time power seller, he was the first 10,000 FB seller.
Good grief... how terrible. I'm so glad I look before I bid.
A terrible thing, perhaps the seller died....
That does not help the people who purchased items in good faith, though...
A real shame. me
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