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Author Topic: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?  (Read 1617 times)

MrBoho

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Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« on: January 25, 2006, 03:12:49 PM »

Longtime lurker, I thought I would make my first post a bit more exciting than this, but so it goes...

I figure there a lot of ebay'ers here, including folks who grab reel-to-reel tape from there from time to time. I just purchased 4 reels of 1" Ampex 456 as a favor to a friend for an upcoming recording project via buy-it-now, and the seller is quoting me $55 shipping for the 4 reels via 3-day Fedex saver "with insurance". This seems like a ridiculous amount to me. First of all, I do not need express shipping for the items. Using the fedex shipping calculator widget, I estimated fedex ground for a 12" x 12" x 8" package @ 20lbs (my estimates), $160 declared value, and come up with only about $15.

Any thoughts from you e-bay denizens out there? I'm planning to at least ask for a different quote using fedex ground. Am I underestimating the weight or amount of packaging that will be needed here, or is this e-bayer trying to pull a fast one with the ship costs?

Joel N.
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scottoliphant

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Re: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2006, 03:41:24 PM »

once you get the tape in a box, it has to be larger than the tape container so you can put some foam peanuts or something in there. I only say this because I just shipped 4 reels of 1/2" gp9 and it was way more than i thought it'd be. maybe i got taken at the pak mail, but, when you go to ship a 20-30 lb box via anything other than ups ground, it starts to add up.

Les Ismore

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Re: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2006, 04:59:48 PM »

If this is older used tape (which I'm guessing it is) it probably will be no good. Most if not all of the old stock 456 tape needs to be baked just to play the stuff that's already on it. The baking helps to get the original audio off, but it is not really good tape to start a project on. It will start to fall apart again soon.
I would be sure to get a money back guarantee with it. If it is recent tape it would be called Quantegy 456 not Ampex 456.
I think you probably just bought a bunch of bad tape. Sorry.
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MrBoho

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Re: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2006, 05:48:44 PM »

Well, I pushed the seller regarding shipping, and he came back with a much more reasonable $20 for fedex ground.

Re: the tape itself, the reels were represented as "new, virgin, and never used!". The person I'm buying for told me that his machine tech told him that if the tapes are as represented in the original cellophane, they shouldn't need any baking. My inference from this is that if they are NOS w/o the original packaging, they may need baking. So we'll see. This seller has been registered since Jan 02 with 98% positive feedback out of 159 transactions, so I'm hoping that this bodes well for the tapes to be as represented.

I will send another inquiry re: a guarantee, as suggested. I'll mention the Quantegy vs Ampex thing, and try to ferret out just how new this stock is before I send any $$$

Thanks for your help..

Joel N.   


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Les Ismore

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Re: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« Reply #4 on: January 26, 2006, 01:35:29 AM »

It doesn't make any difference if it's NOS or not, if it's from a certain era it will be no good. It just doesn't stand up over time. Tapes from the 60's are better than tapes from the 80's and 90's. They used faulty tape binder formulations (or something or other). Ampex, 3M, etc. All goo. I've got dozens and dozens of these. There all useless. I've had better luck with 1/4" from the same era, but all the 2" I have is bad, and 1" is most likely going to be the same.

Sorry dude.
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James Perrett

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Re: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2006, 08:49:19 AM »

Get the seller to give you the batch code which will be on the box. As far as I remember, the first two digits are the year. If they are earlier than about 95 then they will probably need baking. All Ampex 4xx tape seems to be deteriorating with time, not just tape from the late 70's/early 80's - the date codes on bad tape seem to be getting later and later with passing time. Sometimes leaving the tape in a warm, dry room for a few weeks is sufficient to stop the problems but usually they'll need baking.

Cheers

James.
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MrBoho

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Re: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2006, 03:27:11 PM »

Well, following up on the Ampex vs Quantegy thing, I've emailed the seller asking about the approximate vintage/manufacture date, and also asked him to guarantee the performance of the tape with a money back guarantee if we find the reels shedding/in need of baking. I haven't heard back yet...

So...I'm hoping that the seller will agree to money-back terms  here. Even if he is not willing to do this, I believe that there should be recourse for us if the reels turn out to be a mess, in that we can make a case to Ebay that the item is "Significantly Not as Described" (ebay-ese), i.e. a "new, virgin.." tape would be expected to not need remedial baking to be usable, and, more importantly, such a a tape would definitely not be suitable for new recording projects, as Les Ismore pointed out.

I think I will recommend to my friend that we bite the bullet and spend the $90 or so per reel for new-stock Quantegy from a reputable media vendor for his new project, and, provided the Ampex reels aren't a total disaster, use these for less critical stuff (rehearsals, tracks that will be transferred early on to digital).

Thanks REP'ers for your insight on all this --- I just wish I headed over here before pressing the 'buy it now' button!

Joel N.
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rankus

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Re: Ebay vets: ship costs for 1" tape, am I getting taken?
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2006, 06:24:52 PM »



For the record, the original $55 shipping quote sounds about right.... Tape is heavy.. and the boxes are large....
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