Condition of the label shown in this post is.....

[Sylentwulf]

http://i14.ebayimg.com/01/i/04/7b/15/95_1_b.JPG

Now, it is fairly hard to see, I'll admit. But I'm just wondering what everyone thinks of this Smurf RIGC Cart label. If you can see anything wrong with it, or what rating out of 10 you would personally give it.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Not sure about the edge of the label due to the stair-stepping in the image (anti-aliasing would've made it slightly easier to see), but I'm pretty sure I see an indentation in the label - lower left, right above the paragraph of copyright info - that's probably just a screwhole or something. Still, not a 10.

6 or 7 maybe?

[Sylentwulf]

It was from an ebay auction, so it was purposefully a quick and small image to keep loading times short, making the main problem a bit hard to see, but I found it extremely obvious. You might need to look at good label smurf to see the difference.

Here's a comparison photo:
http://www.atariage.com/2600/carts/c_SmurfsRescueInGargamelsCastle_front.jpg

[Fanboy]

Although it is kind of hard to determine condition due to other factors (image pixelation, poor lighting causing a glare) I would agree with PDF and go with a 6, perhaps a 7 if all the mottling is due to lighting/image quality, perhaps a 5 if it is not.

It looks as if the label is intact, though. So a 6 is probably the most realistic rating from what I can see.

Although, if it was going on ebay, I'd have to rate it a 10+++ Mint RARE L@@K!!!!1!

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

Is that an exposed black screw in the middle of the U? I missed that on my first glance.

Downgrade to the 3-4 range.

[chaoticjelly]

Looks like a 6 to me.

[scooterb23]

To me the label looks dirty or something like that especially over the word Gargamel (may be a tear??). Looks like someone colored in the white shadowing on parts of the cart (may be a screw, not sure.

On a scale of 1-10, probably a 5-6, still better shape than the cart I have.

[Hep038]

The bottom right corner looks faded or something, and it kinda looks like there is a little water damage. If I was buying this cart I would expect it to be a 5 or 4 when I got it. But I always expect the worst and hope for the best, that way I am not disappointed when I get it.

[goatdan]

Honestly, you can't really tell with a picture like that. I can't see anything wrong with it, but I also wouldn't expect it to come in perfect condition. It looks like it was purposely taken to avoid exposing anything was wrong with it.

In my world, it would probably be listed as a "poor" label, but again... without seeing it...

[davepesc]

It looks like the white shading is missing over the "URF" in Smurf. Also looks like some gunk on the lower right of the label.

Assuming the gunk is just the camera, the colored-in shading kills any rating, this is a 3-4 to me, only because it appears intact and it is still readable.

But yeah, on ebay this is a "ONE OF A KIND!!!1!!!1!!!" label



OMFG TEH RAREZZZ!!

[Sylentwulf]

OK, so the story goes, I sold this on ebay.
I always take photos in groups of six to cut down on the amount of pics (20 pics instead of 120 pics makes a HUGE difference) and it's free advertising for games I have listed in other auctions. It's NOT to cover anything that might be wrong with the label, otherwise I just wouldn't take pics at all.

There is black pen writing all over almost all of the word smurf. Frankly, that's all that I can remember wrong with the cart, but seeing the pic in the auction, the buyer is still complaining since he asked the condition of the label prior to bidding. I answered "Please see the pic in the auction for label condition". To mee, it's pretty obvious in that pic that SOMETHING is wrong with the word smurf, and it's not picture quality.

I've also been told the end label fell off, but being a coleco cart, the end label is either attached, or ripped off. And it was not ripped off. Maybe the adhesive came undone during shipping.

I believe the person who bought it could be reading this, and I'm just trying to assure someone that this was not done intentionally. No, it's not the best pic in the world. But with dialup users, I need to keep pics small in size, nevermind upload time.

Anywho, I was just curious if it was as obvious as I thought it was, that's all.

[PapaStu]

That pic shows an issue with the Smurfs.... but it is so much nicer to hear from the seller (who can hold the cart in their hands) that there is some decent wear on the Gargamel part, that the SM looks (at least to me) pretty worn. Its your responsibility as a seller to accurately describe the item being sold to those asking questions. How hard would it have been for you to take a loose picture of the game and send it to him? Not to hard I presume. And when someones saying that the picture isnt helping because its to far away and its at a bad angle just take another picture because being told that to just look at the picture isnt any real solution IMO. You want returm business right? Your trying to sell items, get the most you can continue to sell more (to some same customers even right?).

You could be safe if you said item is 'As-is' in the description and the buyer didnt ask any questions about it. But it doesnt seem like thats the case this time.

I've had items that i've won in lots that were strategicaly placed to hide the damage shown. Little did I think that the nice little setup for the handheld and the two boxed games wasnt going to show the massive damage in the one hidden corner of the one box in the picture (and of course the ONE item I needed out of that lot).

[Jumpman Jr.]

There seems to be alot of gunk on it, all over the cart. There also seems to be a big scratch or missing piece between the "M" and the "U". Its hard to tell, because its so far away, but I'd probably give it a 5... maybe 6 out of 10.

[Sylentwulf]

RE: Papa

Actually, I have over 500 individual carts listed per week. Just REPLYING to people takes all there is out of me. Taking individual pics upon request isn't going to happen unless the game is listed over $75 frankly. Yes, all of my auctions specifically say all items sold as-is.

Taking a picture of the item and stating that is has been tested, is used, and the end label is in tact is a lot more than most people on ebay do, even for modern games worth $50 apiece, let alone $2 apiece atari games.

On the 4-5 ocassions that someone flat out says "I'm a collector, I need combat text label in at least a 9 out of 10 condition, I can't tell from the pic you have if it's worthy, what do you think?"
I've ALWAYS responded with "You should wait until someone else lists one with a better picture to make sure you're satisfied as I can't guarantee this will meet your standards (or something similar)

[Griking]

Without being able to see them better i'd say maybe a 6. They look dirty. It might also be a case of the glue starting to show through which makes them look like crap.

Edit:

I gotta say, if someone took the time to email you and ask for the condition of the label before they bid on it it means that the condition matters to them. To just answer with a "look at the picture to see the label condition" is pretty weak, especially since it's not clear by looking at the picture. Sure it may have taken you an extra few minutes to check the label and respond to him but I bet you've now wasted 10 times that amount of time responding to his complaints and posting this message.

[Sylentwulf]

No, it's a fairly run of the mill question that I answer at least 50-60 e-mails per day of "How much is shipping" "What is included" "what condition is it in" "Does it work"

Etc.. etc... etc... I get at least 50 e-mails EVERY DAY with questions like this that are blatantly obvious by looking at my auctions. And they all get a VERY generic answer :)

[qbertandernie]

in your defense, ive posted pictures of the item, instructions and game and stated 'actual item shown' and gotten ridiculous questions like 'do the instructions come with the game?'
so i can understand not wanting to reply to all of these dumbasses emailing...

in this case, though, it seems a quick rifling through the box would have shown that, no, the label isnt mint, theres wiritng on it. case closed. im kind of an anal seller though...and tend to overlist condition because ive been screwed enough times buying on ebay that i dont want to be that type of seller.

[Sylentwulf]

Actually, it would have been EXTREMELY easy, but on the rare chances I do that... this follows:
How about mouse trap, do you have a mouse trap with that label? And I need these 15 games with these label variations. And if you have the manusl to these four, and overlays to these 7 that'd be great, only in perfect condition like this one though, and not the other variations. Let me know by tomorrow morning if you can.

And that's a very VERY TAME example. I'm a collector too, and I understand how it is, but I just sell too much on ebay to sell to collectors. If it's actually rare, or the person says flat out that they're buying it FOR a collection, I might check. Other than that, I do my collector selling/trading on these forums, because then I KNOW what's expected. If you check my last sale/trade post, the pics were HUGE, and I answered anything anyone asked.

[imanerd0011]

I personally think that the pic is fine, but you should just do a little better job of describing your games on Ebay.
If there is any damage, add a note describing it. That way the person who wins won't be disapointed when they receive the item.

[Griking]

No, it's a fairly run of the mill question that I answer at least 50-60 e-mails per day of "How much is shipping" "What is included" "what condition is it in" "Does it work"

Etc.. etc... etc... I get at least 50 e-mails EVERY DAY with questions like this that are blatantly obvious by looking at my auctions. And they all get a VERY generic answer :)

Well, in the bidders defense you DO state in your auction listings that people should ask all questions before bidding. What's the point if you aren't going to give a clear answer? I know that you list a ton of auctions and there definately are time concerns with answering a lot of questions but it seems to me that that's the commitment you make when you go into business.

I have to say that I'd probably be a little bummed if I had won this auction. Its not a lot of money so I probably wouldn't have made a big deal out of it but again in the seller's defense you didn't provide a CLEAR picture of what you were selling, you failed to disclose important details of the item condition in the listing such as the fact that there is writing all over it. And lastly, you provided incorrect information when you described the itesm as having its end label fully in tact. The seller posted clear pictures of the cart in this (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67259) thread.

I don't understand why you didn't just issue the guy a refund since it was only a few bucks. It seems like it would have been worth it to have avoided this becomming public. But then again, you were the one who made it public I guess.

[Sylentwulf]

I hadn't seen that thread, I asked the guy for pics of the cart, but he stopped answering e-mails. Can a mod lock either this thread or that thread? I don't feel like jumping back and forth between topics. I started this one first, and would have appreciated an answer in THIS thread as opposed to a new one. Hell, I would have APPRECIATED an E-MAIL answer since I tried keeping this anonymous.

[suppafly]

IMHO the problem is that you stated in the auction that the label was INTACT. Thats hardly a precise word for a label with ink and chewing gum on it.

Just my 2 cents

thanks!

[PeteyPablo]

I'd say that it was about a 6 or a 7
PeteyPablo

[hydr0x]

i honestly think it's your fault, sorry. you can't write "intact label" and "ask questions" and then reply "look at the pic" if a bidder asks you about it if the pic is as bad as that one

it's that easy, you just can't do that unless you want to piss off people and don't care about your customers :/ i understand you have a lot of work with emails every day, but every business has that, and it's no excuse

sorry if that sounds harsh

[Jumpman Jr.]

The thing is... there is no top-label either. The picture, in no way shows that the top-label is missing.

[anagrama]

The thing is... there is no top-label either. The picture, in no way shows that the top-label is missing.

Read the other thread - there was originally an end-label on it.

[mezrabad]

You don't say:

"I didn't do anything wrong. Caveat emptor. buddy!"

You say:

"Sorry, my response to your pre-auction inquiry was inadequate. I made a mistake, in that I had forgotten the condition of the actual cart and in my haste neglected to describe it accurately. Here is your refund, keep the cart. I hope my mistake doesn't keep you from doing business with me again."

Then you move on and go back to doing business. You don't poll the public forum to see who's right. You take care of it quickly. You've probably wasted more time/money responding to his emails than it would've cost you to write off the transaction.

:roll:

[emumuumuucowgomoo]

I believe the person who bought it could be reading this, and I'm just trying to assure someone that this was not done intentionally. No, it's not the best pic in the world. But with dialup users, I need to keep pics small in size, nevermind upload time.


Hey, there's something you can do about that, though it requires a bit of HTML capability, which you may or may not be willing to learn:

LINK TO SMALL IMAGE HERE (LINK TO BIG SIZED IMAGE HERE)

That way when the ebay bidder wants to peer over the most intimate details of your item, they can - yet your dialup lamers can still be satiated.

Note that this isn't the same as <img size="blahblah"> - that still requires the full, giant image to load. It's one of my personal pet peeves when people do this as a cheap way of reducing the image size.

[Daria]

RE: Papa

Actually, I have over 500 individual carts listed per week. Just REPLYING to people takes all there is out of me. Taking individual pics upon request isn't going to happen unless the game is listed over $75 frankly. Yes, all of my auctions specifically say all items sold as-is.

Taking a picture of the item and stating that is has been tested, is used, and the end label is in tact is a lot more than most people on ebay do, even for modern games worth $50 apiece, let alone $2 apiece atari games.

On the 4-5 ocassions that someone flat out says "I'm a collector, I need combat text label in at least a 9 out of 10 condition, I can't tell from the pic you have if it's worthy, what do you think?"
I've ALWAYS responded with "You should wait until someone else lists one with a better picture to make sure you're satisfied as I can't guarantee this will meet your standards (or something similar)

You knew offhand that the word SMURF was covered in black pen. At the very least you could have replied that to the buyer instead of "look at the pictures" it wouldn't have taken any more time. *cough*Douchebag.*/cough*

Seriously though you have no excuses for being a lazy seller. Your whole post just screams to me that you don't give a shit about your customers. It's one thing to tell someone that they should wait for another auction, but it's another entirely when it's YOUR auction in question.

You seem to think that your shit isn't worth buying, and so treat anyone who would considering bidding on your auctions as stupid. You see where this doesn't make much sense right?

Anyway what's your sellers handle? So you know we can avoid your auctions in the future.

[Sylentwulf]

re: Emumu
Actually, I use ebay's free pic service to avoid uploading and deleting TONS of pics to my website every week. I DO do this with my normal non-single game auctions though.

Re; Papa
My user ID is ElectricQuarter. I'm sure if you'll check over everything I sell and do, and all of my feedback's (Even the negatives) that you'll realize this is an extremely isolated incident.

The day I have to describe every cart I list IN ADDITION to providing a pic, is the last day I ever sell a cart on ebay. My games ARE listed as-is, and well over 99% of the people who buy from me are repeat buyers and have never had a problem that wasn't immediately fixed. But anyone who has ever said "I thought the game would be better than what's shown in the picture" Doesn't get quite as much help, sorry.

Probly my last reply in this thread due to the increasing heat, I fear da flames. The original buyer, or anyone else can feel free to PM or e-mail me.

[suppafly]

My games ARE listed as-is

Then you shouldnt have written the word INTACT in the item´s description!

You shouldnt have rated the game, and just state "what you see is what you get"

Thanks

[Jumpman Jr.]

The thing is... there is no top-label either. The picture, in no way shows that the top-label is missing.

Read the other thread - there was originally an end-label on it.

Ahh... check. ;)

I think, by posting this thread and asking "what is the condition of this label" creates a biased answer. Because we knew that something had to be wrong with it, or else you wouldn't of asked.
I know when I made my statement on the quality of the label, I considered the fact that you were asking us for a reason, therefore sometime had to be wrong.
Its like on Futurama:

Leela: Do you have any idea what the average length of their rein's were?
Fry: Uummmm.... 100 million years?
Leela: 1 week!
Fry: Darn... I knew you wouldn't of asked unless it was really high or really low.

All this aside, I just want to point out that I have boughten things off of electricquarter before I even knew what DP was. And I didn't have any complaints with anything.

[tritium]

in your defense, ive posted pictures of the item, instructions and game and stated 'actual item shown' and gotten ridiculous questions like 'do the instructions come with the game?'
so i can understand not wanting to reply to all of these dumbasses emailing...

in this case, though, it seems a quick rifling through the box would have shown that, no, the label isnt mint, theres wiritng on it. case closed. im kind of an anal seller though...and tend to overlist condition because ive been screwed enough times buying on ebay that i dont want to be that type of seller.

On the flip side, I bought a famiclone, listed as including the fami->NES adapter, and it didn't come with it. Bad description. Really depends on the seller/buyer experiences.

[mezrabad]

Just my last two-mesetas on this . . .

I do think SylentWulf made a mistake in how he handled this incident.

However, this doesn't change the fact that, according to most of his feedback and his feedback forum on here, the overwhelming mostness of the time he's a good guy to deal with.

He sells at a volume I couldn't handle sanely. If this happened all the time he wouldn't have the feedback that he does indeed have.

I've bought from him before and I'll buy from him again.

[squidblatt]

I couldn't tell that the label had ink all over it, and I didn't see anyone else pick up on that either. It doesn't look mint, but it doesn't look like it's in as poor condition as it is. I'd feel cheated if I won the auction, too.

I say you ought to give him a refund if he asks for one.

[nermal]

pretty shitty thing to do as a seller, you put up a shit picture because the game was euchred and you do not answer your emails throughly. Maybe if you took the time with customers instead of giving BS responses you would not have to deal with this


I think it is a sad excuse to say I get 50 emails a day, if you can not handle the emails then maybe you should not sell so many things at once

the least you could do is accurately describe the game because YOU BEING A COLLECTOR know how important the condition of the game is


how would you feel if you were in the buyer's position?

[hydr0x]

I think it is a sad excuse to say I get 50 emails a day, if you can not handle the emails then maybe you should not sell so many things at once

that's the essential statement in here, you know, there are Power Sellers who handle >1000 emails a day on their own and they are not complaining. If you want to make money out of ebay, you gotta work for that and not complain about having customer requests :hmm:

[Sylentwulf]

pretty shitty thing to do as a seller, you put up a shit picture because the game was euchred and you do not answer your emails throughly. Maybe if you took the time with customers instead of giving BS responses you would not have to deal with this


I think it is a sad excuse to say I get 50 emails a day, if you can not handle the emails then maybe you should not sell so many things at once


Someone isn't paying attention to my answers anymore than most people pay attention to my auction details.
I said 50 e-mails a day asking questions that are ALREADY ANSWERED in the auctions. I didn't mention the other hundreds of e-mails from ebay, paypal, and LEGIT questions that I DO fully answer, and who the hell is complaining here? not I.

[jajaja]

Cant belive that a $5 game turned out to be a huge discussion. Why not just return the game and get full refund? :)

[philosophyst]

Cant belive that a $5 game turned out to be a huge discussion. Why not just return the game and get full refund? :)

Amen to that....what a huge mistake from a business prospective. If I were the seller, I certainly would be regretting the way I handled this so far. Seems like a refund would have saved a lot of time and maybe even kept a few customers.

I've bought stuff from both Sylentwulf on ebay and even from the Electric Quarter store and had no problems but I must say, you took a "wrong turn" by exposing this petty problem publicly.

[PapaStu]

Re; Papa
My user ID is ElectricQuarter. I'm sure if you'll check over everything I sell and do, and all of my feedback's (Even the negatives) that you'll realize this is an extremely isolated incident.

The day I have to describe every cart I list IN ADDITION to providing a pic, is the last day I ever sell a cart on ebay. My games ARE listed as-is, and well over 99% of the people who buy from me are repeat buyers and have never had a problem that wasn't immediately fixed. But anyone who has ever said "I thought the game would be better than what's shown in the picture" Doesn't get quite as much help, sorry.

Probly my last reply in this thread due to the increasing heat, I fear da flames. The original buyer, or anyone else can feel free to PM or e-mail me.


Just letting you know, that wasnt me who responded to your response to me. Twas Daria

Continue.

[Daria]

Just letting you know, that wasnt me who responded to your response to me. Twas Daria

Continue.

Oh well you know how much Mr. Saturn looks like a chocobo. Course that would also imply you resemble Paula, but you know, I always thought you were kinda purdy Stu. :D

[PapaStu]

Just letting you know, that wasnt me who responded to your response to me. Twas Daria

Continue.

Oh well you know how much Mr. Saturn looks like a chocobo. Course that would also imply you resemble Paula, but you know, I also thought you were kinda purdy Stu. :D

/me blinks all purdy like and pulls out a fan

Why I do declare

Thus concludes our Gone With The Wind portion of this post. We now return you to your regularly scheduled conversation about a poor picture and someone unhappy with his cart, that should have been dealt with in private.

[davepesc]

OK, so the story goes, I sold this on ebay.

There is black pen writing all over almost all of the word smurf. Frankly, that's all that I can remember wrong with the cart, but seeing the pic in the auction, the buyer is still complaining since he asked the condition of the label prior to bidding. I answered "Please see the pic in the auction for label condition". To mee, it's pretty obvious in that pic that SOMETHING is wrong with the word smurf, and it's not picture quality.



Sorry, but "Please go back and look at the auction again" is not a response at all.



I've also been told the end label fell off, but being a coleco cart, the end label is either attached, or ripped off. And it was not ripped off. Maybe the adhesive came undone during shipping.



Coleco cabels can't fall off, they're one-piece. The label, as shown over on Off Topic was ripped off with a chainsaw. I definately couldn't tell that from the pic.

[mickoz]

That is one problem sometime. Of course it is being pragmatic about value of thing.

However, a bad 5$ deal or a bad 1000$ deal is a bad deal. Often it gets emotional too and both side "are right". People just need to not take this personally and talk honestly and accept the honnest answer even if you don't like it.

The seller claim he wanted picture. He did not get it.
The buyer claim the seller shooted a bad line. I hate when seller or even buyer get "agressive" for no reason (agressivity is good sometime, but not in a stupid way). If a buyer ask a question or give a comment, think before answer fast.

However, both should just talk and settle it up.

And it being 5$ of a deal is not a reason to let it off. If someone go on and rip 1000 person 5$, that begin to add a lot.

I'm not saying anyone is right, just settle it up honestly on both side without hard feeling. Will be better psychologically for both of you! :)

[phreak97]

ill admit, i've only ever sold about four items on ebay, but usually, if the picture isnt big enough, i make the picture into a link and direct it to a high resolution picture.. though you having a billion auctions, that might take too long.

to be honest, if i was buying that, i wouldnt have been able to tell theres a problem past maybe the indent on the right.., i dont know what the cart is meant to look like..

[mickoz]

There will be some kind of sellers in that kind of convo:

a) collector - who care about condition
a.1) who sell junk by trying to throw away junk they have without telling
a.2 who sell junk, but clearly state it

b) collector - who do not care about condition (they collect to play and condition is usually little relevant to them)

c) non collector - who care about condition
c.1) ... (see a.1)
c.2) ... (see a.2)

d) non collector - who don't care about condition and are selling the games mostly.

I probably miss some, but you get the idea. There is either someone trying to just liquidate his junk by hoping it pass and other who just sell anything and don't give much attention to condition and for them smb/duckhunt is the same as stadium events (unless collector). hehe

[punkoffgirl]

Sorry, but "Please go back and look at the auction again" is not a response at all.



I don't know about anyone else, but after reading this thread, and reading the other thread that the buyer decided to start instead of posting here, all I can think is.. If the condition of that ONE game was so particularly important, why did he still bid on this auction after getting an unsatisfying answer? I don't use eBay very much, my feedback hasn't even hit 30 yet and I've had my account for six + years, but even I know that if there's something I want where condition is important, and the picture or description is bad on one auction, then I don't bid. Especially since the auction DID also say "as is." I thought those were two flag words to EVERYONE who uses eBay. *shrug*

[mickoz]

Sometime there is a hot girl. Then you heard she got aid from herself. Then you say it must not be true. Then you believe it. Then you say you will wear protection. Then the rubber break. Then you cum. The day after you want to go back and wonder why you have done that. It is too late. Then you want to kill everyone, including that girl.

Note: this was just to explain behavior of people in life sometime you do it, even on ebay. even if you are supa-smart or supa-dumb.

;-)

That would happen when you got a deal. But I must admit that if someone ask explicitely a question, then chance are he piss you off because you BELIEVE you wrote it in auction and he hasn't read (which often happen... people ask without do an effort) or... you just readed it too fast. If that guy sell that much, he is likely to do such error by responding to mass email as he unfortunately have to take decision for everything and he is gonna take bad decision or "guess badly".

Anyway maybe they have already fixed that up now. Maybe one of the two are dead already. Damn gargamel.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Centre of the "U" in "SMURF" seems to be black, where it may be worn... I'd say that is the first thing that jumps out at me.

The only other thing I can tell from that blatently crap picture (To be honest) is a dent in the bottom right-hand corner, where the label has been depressed into a hole...

[Sylentwulf]

Just a quick note in case he's still reading this thread. I still haven't received any e-mails from you, I'm not sure if you honestly WANT to rectify this situation, but you're making it extremely difficult. If you've sent e-mails, I didn't get them, PM me here if you need to.

In addition, to some of the replies asking why I posted it here and blew it out of proportion etc etc.... When I made this post, I didn't say anything about any auction, any names, or anything else. I simply asked what people thought of the label condition based on the picture provided (not "Is this picture good enough" or "Did I do a good job answering this" or anything else that's been flamed and screamed)

Last post on these threads for me, I just wanted to ask if he was replying or not. Thanx!

[SoulBlazer]

He has'nt made a post on the boards PERIOD since his 'blow up' thread in the other area......Maybe he's ashamed? :P

In any case, I agree with the others that this whole thing was blown out of preportion, that you are a good seller, and that this should have been settled privatly.

[ron_burgundy]

Got my 50% refund we argeed on. All is well.

EQ Is Still Classy,

Ron