Klarinet Archive - Posting 000734.txt from 2004/03

From: "Don Hatfield" <dhatfield------.org>
Subj: Re: [kl] Buying expensive stuff on E-bay
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 15:47:46 -0500

Two very good rules. I try to give a thorough description of an item when i
list it, without being too "wordy", and always add the line "please email
any questions before you bid," and try to answer any i receive within 24
hours or less.

I also take extra digital shots. Depending on the price you're trying to get
for an item, it's not alwasy feasible to add all kinds of pictures, so I add
an item to my description that they're available if you ask, and am more
than happy to email them to anyone who does. Even then you can't please
everyone. I sold a Blayman mouthpiece once, and because I had three
identical ones, mistakenly sent a different one from what I had pictures of
in the auction. And honestly, it was a cleaner mouthpiece, and in clearly
better physical shape than the one pictured...but don't you know the buyer
must have examined the photos under a microscope, saw a couple of
differences from the one he received, and even though he really got a better
mouthpiece than he paid for, complained and asked me to switch them out.
Which I did, for the extra shipping just to prevent any negative feedback
and griping.

But you'll always get plenty of thanks from folks when they receive an item
that's exactly what was pictured and described, and if you communicate
promptly and clearly. Honesty, honesty...and twenty years of retail
experience pay off.

To add one thing about Taxijazz...and I looked in detail at his many
websites on my lunchbreak, what a clarinet sound on that metal clarinet...I
repaired a Goldbeck clarinet mouthpiece once, very cleanly, and touched up
the tip and rail where the corner had broken off, with Hot Stuff super glue.
It looks wonderful, plays like it did before the booboo, and has held
together with some use for four years. But I would NEVER try to sell it to
someone else without a full understanding of what they were getting in
advance.

Don

> - I check the description very very carefully. >

> - If the photos are lousy, I ask for more. If I don't get them, I don't
bid.

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