Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[med6753]

I'm trying to do a deal with a seller on Gumtree who is in Buckinghamshire for a TEA item. I asked if they would ship it to me, and they said yes and got a quote for shipping. I agreed the price and said that I'd pay them that and more on top to cover PayPal fees, and then I received this reply and my spider senses are tingling like mad.

"i dont like the principle of PayPal, they hang on to the money and if the total in the account is below their threshold they retain it until you get more. not the sort of deal i buy into. but i will accept a bank transfer." I have been using PayPal for years and have never ever had anything like that happen to me. 

He’s probably got burned by a seller hold on eBay. So he’s either inexperienced or disreputable. I’d walk away.

That is what I'm doing, I told him I have had bad problems with bank transfers in the past, so PayPal or nothing, I'm not prepared to drive to collect it.

Either way, this is nothing to do with eBay so that past problem if true, should not happen this time as I'm sending it direct to him via PayPal.

Gee, is the UK nothing but a bunch of dickhead sellers? Never any issues here with Ebay, CL, or whatever. Always above board and honest. Maybe I'm just lucky. I've even gotten messages from sellers thanking me for purchasing from them and check out the other items they have for sale.

[mnementh]

   Now you're sounding like a hardcore audiofool memn !        Some of us just want something to play our music library and not care if it doesn't come out as orchestra quality. 

That's exactly what I'm saying! The "quality" was never there to begin with... CDs are and have been an unconscionable dicksore to use for decades now. The only excuse for them to exist anymore is so I can buy them for $2 each at the Thrift and rip them to iTunes.

You know, where they're actually convenient to use and can be drag & dropped to whatever device I want to play them on. 

mnem
 

This. I ripped all my CDs years ago into iTunes and sold the whole fucking lot.

Then I got fed up of carting the data around and managing multiple people’s libraries and have subcontracted it all out to Apple Music. Can’t be fucked with it all. I’m happy with my magic box that plays literally anything I tell it to in acceptable quality when I shout at it 

Yeah... half the time anymore I put a "Station" on the "Included" Amazon Music. Commercial-free, and it learns what sucks for the privilege of waiting til doomsday for me to give the occasional  when it wanders too far away from the selected artist's music DNA. I have no problem sharing an occasional "Fuck You!" with Bezos...

But iTunes will probably be a forever thing for me, I'm afraid... my wife needs her Giga-iPod for her work, and the UI of iTunes is geared directly towards her natural method of curating her music for fun and work.

mnem
 

[tautech]

I'm trying to do a deal with a seller on Gumtree who is in Buckinghamshire for a TEA item. I asked if they would ship it to me, and they said yes and got a quote for shipping. I agreed the price and said that I'd pay them that and more on top to cover PayPal fees, and then I received this reply and my spider senses are tingling like mad.

"i dont like the principle of PayPal, they hang on to the money and if the total in the account is below their threshold they retain it until you get more. not the sort of deal i buy into. but i will accept a bank transfer." I have been using PayPal for years and have never ever had anything like that happen to me. 

He’s probably got burned by a seller hold on eBay. So he’s either inexperienced or disreputable. I’d walk away.

That is what I'm doing, I told him I have had bad problems with bank transfers in the past, so PayPal or nothing, I'm not prepared to drive to collect it.

Either way, this is nothing to do with eBay so that past problem if true, should not happen this time as I'm sending it direct to him via PayPal.

Gee, is the UK nothing but a bunch of dickhead sellers? Never any issues here with Ebay, CL, or whatever. Always above board and honest. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Yeah when you think about it once the UK send all their thieves, rogues and vagabonds to Oz so maybe it's time for repeat of such exercises ? 

[cyclin_al]

I'm trying to do a deal with a seller on Gumtree who is in Buckinghamshire for a TEA item. I asked if they would ship it to me, and they said yes and got a quote for shipping. I agreed the price and said that I'd pay them that and more on top to cover PayPal fees, and then I received this reply and my spider senses are tingling like mad.

"i dont like the principle of PayPal, they hang on to the money and if the total in the account is below their threshold they retain it until you get more. not the sort of deal i buy into. but i will accept a bank transfer." I have been using PayPal for years and have never ever had anything like that happen to me. 

Sounds like a scam to me ...

Our local buy/sell platform Kijiji has specific warnings about such scenarios.  There is no protection with bank transfer; once the money is gone, it is gone (at least it works that way in the GWN).

[cyclin_al]

I'm trying to do a deal with a seller on Gumtree who is in Buckinghamshire for a TEA item. I asked if they would ship it to me, and they said yes and got a quote for shipping. I agreed the price and said that I'd pay them that and more on top to cover PayPal fees, and then I received this reply and my spider senses are tingling like mad.

"i dont like the principle of PayPal, they hang on to the money and if the total in the account is below their threshold they retain it until you get more. not the sort of deal i buy into. but i will accept a bank transfer." I have been using PayPal for years and have never ever had anything like that happen to me. 

He’s probably got burned by a seller hold on eBay. So he’s either inexperienced or disreputable. I’d walk away.

That is what I'm doing, I told him I have had bad problems with bank transfers in the past, so PayPal or nothing, I'm not prepared to drive to collect it.

Either way, this is nothing to do with eBay so that past problem if true, should not happen this time as I'm sending it direct to him via PayPal.

Gee, is the UK nothing but a bunch of dickhead sellers? Never any issues here with Ebay, CL, or whatever. Always above board and honest. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Yeah when you think about it once the UK send all their thieves, rogues and vagabonds to Oz so maybe it's time for repeat of such exercises ? 

So you are suggesting that they did a good job at exporting, but they never stopped the production line once they met their export quotas?   

[beanflying]

I'm trying to do a deal with a seller on Gumtree who is in Buckinghamshire for a TEA item. I asked if they would ship it to me, and they said yes and got a quote for shipping. I agreed the price and said that I'd pay them that and more on top to cover PayPal fees, and then I received this reply and my spider senses are tingling like mad.

"i dont like the principle of PayPal, they hang on to the money and if the total in the account is below their threshold they retain it until you get more. not the sort of deal i buy into. but i will accept a bank transfer." I have been using PayPal for years and have never ever had anything like that happen to me. 

He’s probably got burned by a seller hold on eBay. So he’s either inexperienced or disreputable. I’d walk away.

That is what I'm doing, I told him I have had bad problems with bank transfers in the past, so PayPal or nothing, I'm not prepared to drive to collect it.

Either way, this is nothing to do with eBay so that past problem if true, should not happen this time as I'm sending it direct to him via PayPal.

Gee, is the UK nothing but a bunch of dickhead sellers? Never any issues here with Ebay, CL, or whatever. Always above board and honest. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Yeah when you think about it once the UK send all their thieves, rogues and vagabonds to Oz so maybe it's time for repeat of such exercises ? 

So you are suggesting that they did a good job at exporting, but they never stopped the production line once they met their export quotas?   

I think it is the miserable weather that has aided in the evolution of that type as the dominant strain, now with 200 more years of that select inbreeding clearly has resulted in a superior version.

[mnementh]

No, they just don't have the organizational skills anymore. The people who used to run organized crime have moved into politics, where the real money is... so all you have left is sheep being molested by pikeys; literally and figuratively.

mnem
*toddles off to ded*

[mansaxel]

There are good alternatives though: I married an EE, and she is a packrat too. Although not working in the EE field, she understands that packrat urge, up to the point of schlepping 'think you will like this' bits and bobs my way when we jointly visit ham fests.

 

So you married a unicorn.  Damn!  That's awesome! 

Duocorn perhaps. Mine does the same. She's also the reason I've got a DE-5000, should we wish to revisit that discussion...

[mnementh]

My unicorn buys me sillyscopes and water-cooled GPUs. Well, GPU as in singular, but still...

mnem
 

[mansaxel]

Ehhh... you know, things change. Some of that change is objective, but most of it is subjective. I mean... sure, there are a few really great CD-decks out there; as good reproduction as the format is capable of. But objectively, what is the best CD player that ever was really worth as a music machine? Not a plucking null off a PONO's arse, that's what. Well, as long as they still worked.

The format was a hack-job bodge from day one, designed not with quality reproduction in mind, but rather to be mentally accessible to crusty old bastard music producers who made up the RIAA; the format only exists because it could be explained to their little pea-brains as just another form of pressed vinyl, and those same bastards demanded a change to soft acrylic to ensure damaged-disc turnover similar to that of vinyl. Since, they have repeatedly strangled all attempts to make a better "standard" in the crib until they were forced into the digital age by decades of customer demand and the allure of zero-factory-required music production & distribution.

Fuck CD, except as a means to get older music into iTunes for cheap.

mnem
 

There are obvious problems with CD -- agreed. The disc longevity is one. The sample rate is another. The capacity is a third (although I think it from pop music focused artistical raisins is too long, way too easy to get bonus tracks in.)

A sensible format from a music technology perspective would be 24 bits 48KHz and 1h+ length, all given the limitations of the early 80s. This aligns a lot better with the environment where music and other sounds are produced, skips a few SRC steps, no truncation of word length and would be useful for most professional purposes too.

Finally, not until arrival of FLAC and similar (non-encumbered) technologies do we have a format that is up there with linear 16-bit audio in terms of quality.  We can gripe all we want about the limitations of CD as-built and more effectively so with the 2021 (sic!) hindsight, laughing at 1982.  But nearly 40 years on, being on top of the quality stack for so long (in a consumer low-maintenance carrier/player platform) is a remarkable achievement.

Slightly related links:

Compressed music test: https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

Snake oil debunk:

[Robert763]

I'm trying to do a deal with a seller on Gumtree who is in Buckinghamshire for a TEA item. I asked if they would ship it to me, and they said yes and got a quote for shipping. I agreed the price and said that I'd pay them that and more on top to cover PayPal fees, and then I received this reply and my spider senses are tingling like mad.

"i dont like the principle of PayPal, they hang on to the money and if the total in the account is below their threshold they retain it until you get more. not the sort of deal i buy into. but i will accept a bank transfer." I have been using PayPal for years and have never ever had anything like that happen to me. 

He’s probably got burned by a seller hold on eBay. So he’s either inexperienced or disreputable. I’d walk run away.

FTFY
At best it's a clueless seller, worst it's a direct scam.

[McBryce]

Somebody here from Köln (Cologne)?

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/amateurfunk-konvolut-messgeraete-hewlett-packard-rohde-schwarz/1739640352-168-18670

They are still there... Just starring at me, willing me...

McBryce.

[wkb]

Ehhh... you know, things change. Some of that change is objective, but most of it is subjective. I mean... sure, there are a few really great CD-decks out there; as good reproduction as the format is capable of. But objectively, what is the best CD player that ever was really worth as a music machine? Not a plucking null off a PONO's arse, that's what. Well, as long as they still worked.

The format was a hack-job bodge from day one, designed not with quality reproduction in mind, but rather to be mentally accessible to crusty old bastard music producers who made up the RIAA; the format only exists because it could be explained to their little pea-brains as just another form of pressed vinyl, and those same bastards demanded a change to soft acrylic to ensure damaged-disc turnover similar to that of vinyl. Since, they have repeatedly strangled all attempts to make a better "standard" in the crib until they were forced into the digital age by decades of customer demand and the allure of zero-factory-required music production & distribution.

Fuck CD, except as a means to get older music into iTunes for cheap.

mnem
 

There are obvious problems with CD -- agreed. The disc longevity is one. The sample rate is another. The capacity is a third (although I think it from pop music focused artistical raisins is too long, way too easy to get bonus tracks in.)

A sensible format from a music technology perspective would be 24 bits 48KHz and 1h+ length, all given the limitations of the early 80s. This aligns a lot better with the environment where music and other sounds are produced, skips a few SRC steps, no truncation of word length and would be useful for most professional purposes too.

Finally, not until arrival of FLAC and similar (non-encumbered) technologies do we have a format that is up there with linear 16-bit audio in terms of quality.  We can gripe all we want about the limitations of CD as-built and more effectively so with the 2021 (sic!) hindsight, laughing at 1982.  But nearly 40 years on, being on top of the quality stack for so long (in a consumer low-maintenance carrier/player platform) is a remarkable achievement.

Slightly related links:

Compressed music test: https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/06/02/411473508/how-well-can-you-hear-audio-quality

Snake oil debunk:

Amen to that! Also good to remember the "tech" that preceded the CD: a pointed nail scratching its way around a modulated scratch pressed into a piece of black plastic. Longevity? Everytime that nail ran its course the fidelity got worse.

I had the pleasure of attending multiple training classes at Philips NatLab, the birthplace of the CD, in the late 80's / early 90's.  A truly fascinating place. In development at the time: HD TV, still on CRTs and massive magnetic tape, SatNav for cars. The latter was called Carin, a small 19" rack full of logic in the back of a small van etc. 

Moaning about what should have been does no justice to the tech at the time.

Wilko

[Saskia]

@mcbryce if you intend to pick up this stuff, I would be interested in the Sartorius scale.
And if by any chance, there is an EK56 in the lot ...

[McBryce]

@mcbryce if you intend to pick up this stuff, I would be interested in the Sartorius scale.
And if by any chance, there is an EK56 in the lot ...

There will be serious discussions with the wife later today.

McBryce.

[beanflying]

@mcbryce if you intend to pick up this stuff, I would be interested in the Sartorius scale.
And if by any chance, there is an EK56 in the lot ...

There will be serious discussions with the wife later today.

McBryce.

Sell what is most likely two Standard inductors and you should recover circa $100USD each. Cost reduction enabling 

[BU508A]

@mcbryce if you intend to pick up this stuff, I would be interested in the Sartorius scale.
And if by any chance, there is an EK56 in the lot ...

There will be serious discussions with the wife later today.

McBryce.

Sell what is most likely two Standard inductors and you should recover circa $100USD each. Cost reduction enabling 

You mean like this?

McBrcye wife : "What is that?!?"
McBryce: "Our next vacation, dear."   

[mansaxel]

@mcbryce if you intend to pick up this stuff, I would be interested in the Sartorius scale.
And if by any chance, there is an EK56 in the lot ...

There will be serious discussions with the wife later today.

McBryce.

I'm in for a RF gen (preferably going to 500+MHz), a Nixie -hp- counter (I think I saw a 5245L, it's OK without plugins, I'm looking for a way to display 10MHz in style), and I think I saw a VLF receiver, which, given SAQ, is a must every Christmas day.  All this, of course, subject to availability, and repairable condition, and a successful price haggle. 

Take your wife out for dinner once that is possible, and you've made some profit. Tell her that men and women crazier than you have helped to create this celebration.

[McBryce]

@mcbryce if you intend to pick up this stuff, I would be interested in the Sartorius scale.
And if by any chance, there is an EK56 in the lot ...

There will be serious discussions with the wife later today.

McBryce.

Sell what is most likely two Standard inductors and you should recover circa $100USD each. Cost reduction enabling 

You mean like this?

McBrcye wife : "What is that?!?"
McBryce: "Our next vacation, dear."   

Forget the vacation. It's her birthday this week and she has been dropping hints about a Cartier Watch! 

McBryce.

[tonyalbus]

Guess the quality is gettin'better, little by little.. look who is checking me out.

[BU508A]

@mcbryce if you intend to pick up this stuff, I would be interested in the Sartorius scale.
And if by any chance, there is an EK56 in the lot ...

There will be serious discussions with the wife later today.

McBryce.

Sell what is most likely two Standard inductors and you should recover circa $100USD each. Cost reduction enabling 

You mean like this?

McBrcye wife : "What is that?!?"
McBryce: "Our next vacation, dear."   

Forget the vacation. It's her birthday this week and she has been dropping hints about a Cartier Watch! 

McBryce.

Yep.

You are doomed.

 

[bd139]

Cartier watches shouldn’t even exist. They don’t do anything better than a £5 Casio.

Rolex too.

[wkb]

Somebody here from Köln (Cologne)?

https://www.ebay-kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/amateurfunk-konvolut-messgeraete-hewlett-packard-rohde-schwarz/1739640352-168-18670

They are still there... Just starring at me, willing me...

McBryce.

"Who dares wins"

Wilko

[Ice-Tea]

Cartier watches shouldn’t even exist. They don’t do anything better than a £5 Casio.

Rolex too.

Attract golddiggers?

[bd139]

Cartier watches shouldn’t even exist. They don’t do anything better than a £5 Casio.

Rolex too.

Attract golddiggers?

That’s a very good point.

My sister was actually married to a Rolex wearing meat sack. I think it also signifies that you have your priorities wrong in life.

Choose your investments wisely as they say.