Hi fellas, Hope you're good. Will cut straight to the chase here - Atari 400 iconic wee machine but when it arrived it arrived with its backside stoved in. Guy apologised (he had marked it FRAGILE but hadn't packed it sufficiently - the rear was totally unprotected) but seeing as though it still worked and he was about to get wed, I felt he had enough stress on his plate already Anyhow, it arrived without a PSU - paid him £110 when it was undamaged so initially it was a good buy. I'm selling it for £100 (incl post) with a PSU (worth £20ish). Someone is welcome to reassemble all the parts - I've still got them. Giving you guys first dibs then banging it on Feebay later when I'm back from visiting mam in hossie. Any questions - fire away - cheers, lads. Thanks for looking, fellas and please respond/PM if yer interested.
Jesus, that has taken quite the hit. Good luck with the sale, you may have to adjust the price a little. All the same, sorry to see it bashed in, lovely little machines..
With the free post and PSU and working... it's hopefully still good value, Paul. - and makes a great doorstop!
That's a crying shame Andy, poor wee 400 The plastics do also seem to go very brittle on them though. I've heard some horror stories about 800's suffering the same fate when being delivered.
Sadly the UV destroys the plastic after years in daylight and makes it incredibly brittle, the normal stories of delivered trashed items is that the packer has not secured the PSU, and it just acts like a wrecking ball during transit Also a reason why retrobrighting is nice to look at but not so good for the plastic..
You guys have both hit the nail on the head, so to speak. Brittle plastic, a bashing or 3 in transit and poor packaging all add up to... not a safe and happy landing this end at all. I've seen 810s smashed to smithereens after a trip in the post - the results aren't pleasing to the retro-collector's / buyer's eye and of course the couriers take most of the blame. What's the solution? Either hand over in person or wrap in a frickin huge ball of bubble wrap and pack in a parcel... inside another parcel - and pray to your god In my case, Lord Oric!
Yep, you almost can't over pack a machine. I make sure there's nothing able to move and its protected on all 6 (not 4, all 6) sides..Bubble wrap is your best mate, even newspaper, hell, anything soft with and expansive nature will do. As mentioned, bulky PSU's are the worst culprit, wrap the hell out of them or send them on their own. As Andy says, try and do a collected buy, meet the person half way, but if we are talking BIG differences then pack like a demon. When I sold my Amiga 1200 (sad day) the buyer left feedback saying that it was a cracking deal, great condition and packed superbly, and he even got a free towel True.. The trouble is when it's just Ebay anything sellers, retro collectors know what to do, people looking for the biggest buck would put it in a Tesco shopping bag if they could get away with it. So if you sell stuff, remember the buyer, they want a whole working item (if that is what it's sold as), not a fecking Airfix kit of broken parts.
Guys - Atari 400 sold tonight - £95 incl postage on feebay to Paul from Cardiff - another Atari nut. Better than a poke in the eye Cheers for your interest, fellas.
Shame about the 400 on your part, glad to see you got a decent price. Hope mam is fine, if I listen and hear a man crying the n I'll know the clutch was costly. (but I hope not) Always the way, you go away, have a lovely time and then life brings you back to earth with a nasty thud..
Al, Just back from Brid, mate. If you'd asked me 24hrs ago how both my mam and the MX5 were doing then I would have answered at the very far end of the negatory spectrum, pal. Both were left high and dry & I felt distinctly scuppered. With mum, we've had days and days (she's been in there 10) of them saying she's medically fit for discharge but there's the carers to restart, the meds to finalise and of course transport home from Scarboro... so we've had day after day of "not today, maybe tomorrow she'll be discharged?" and frankly getting pig sick of it - then this avvy she was discharged - quick as a flash after 2 phone calls out the blue from the hospital and E.R. social workers - and I'm literally just back home from going oop to see her. Gawd, she looks knackered - big dark rings round her eyes, bless her, from lack of sleep and rest on the wards BUT it's a case of she's home now and thank god for that - hopefully she will now get the rest her body and mind are craving. So, primary goal achieved - mum home and safe. As for MX5.... Jeez, talk about making me sweat. With mam being the no.1 concern and no garages having had any free/spare capacity to sort her this past week, I've literally put it on the back burner but yesterday morn I rang the garage (clutch and gearbox specialists apparently) as y'day was the 1st day they could begin to have a look at what had gone wrong when she was towed from Brid back to Hull last Wed. Bout 10am, the garage sec came on the phone with a mechanic in the b'ground: Is that you, Mr B? Well, what can we say, we've had a quick look and you must have had lots of problems before the breakdown? Are you serious? No, I haven't. It's run sweet as a nut since I bought it 2 months ago, nothing wrong with it all. Hmmm... we've taken the gearbox out and it's in a right state. You must have had issues with it? WHAT?! You are saying that the clutch AND the gearbox are kaput? I can't believe it. It's just passed its MOT beginning of Sept with NO advisories and had a new clutch fitted 3 years ago and has done less than 1K miles since. You must have the wrong vehicle... (etc) When they came off the phone promising that they'd get the boss to have a 2nd look at it today, ie. this morning (he was out yesterday and some junior grease monkey had been doing the initial investigation), I was convinced that either I was going out my mind as nothing added up (everything the car seller Jim had told me must've been a pack of lies - but all the invoices, his work he'd shown me doing on the car can't have been imaginary...had the car been playing up and I'd not noticed its little foibles?) OR the garage were taking me to the cleaners - my mate run his AI tool and it totted up what a new gearbox and clutch and dozens of hours of labour would cost and it was coming in at £1.5-2K! Needless to say, I was FAR from happy last night with me mam still AWOL and the car heading for the breakers yard as I couldn't afford to get it fixed... Any road, this morning I get a call from Mike, the gaffer down there: Ah, Mr B, can you please tell me the recent service history of your car. (told him). Right, OK, so it should be fine then... what we've found is that the gearbox was completely flooded (by god it pished it down those 2 days beginning of Oct when I popped to Brid to meet Al and it took me weeks after wards to dry out the boot which was sodden - must investigate this), we've had to flush it out, regrease it and now we're going to refit it and see how we go on... and your clutch, it's just the slave cylinder that failed so that won't be much, does that sound better? TOO BLEEDIN RIGHT IT DOES - many thanks and please crack on! So, mate, to answer your question, mum is home now and hopefully getting slowly back on her feet soon. Haven;t heard any more today but I would hope I hear back tomorrow from the garage that she is ready to collect and hopefully, hate to speak too soon, the bill will be in the low £100s rather than the frickin high £1000s. I will let you know as soon as I've got her home, mate. Many many thanks for asking. Here be the lesson - they're a constant worry, mums...and MX5s. Will Baz get his Silver Dream machine back AND will he get to the bottom of why the bugger is filling up with watter quicker than one of the rare baths he takes once a Blue Moon?? Watch this space..
As you say, Paul, you have a lovely time in life by tekking off on your hols and then you come home and literally crash back down to earth with a couple of pearlers and back to back bad news... ne'er mind. No one died and everything SEEMS to be getting back on track... he says with fingers and eyeballs crossed, spread out touching as much wood as possible. Cheers, guys - really appreciate the good luck wishes with it all.
Both of those sound like the sort of hell that happens to me, glad it's ended a LOT better than expected, those garages are fecking money pits, and often deliberately. Look after mam, sounds like she's needing a good rest. I had all the same crap with Serena being discharged from the secure hospital, was soul-destroying, endless red tape with no one giving a shit except me, Cindy and Serena. Best wishes from all of us...
MANY THANKS, Paul - yep, it;s the way of the world now mate, innit - you either look after yer own and fight yer corner or the whole damn busted shit heap of a system screws you over and doesn't give a damn... it aint easy out there so look after one another, peeps. Cheers, guys.
My pleasure, always hate seeing people being abused by the system..It took 3 complaints reviews that I won all to get a proper outcome for Serena The old saying, don't let the bastards grind you down. You lot take care..
Great to hear your mum is finally home agian Andy. Just keep on top of the social work and care package they put in place, don't let the buggers get away with anything! In the meantime, I hope you take your mam a nice fish supper from her favourite chippy when she feels like it As for the MX-5, glad you aren't going to need to sell your body parts to buy a new clutch and gearbox. It's a stormer of a car and looks like it has just had one of those hiccups that occurs with vintage motoring. I'm already looking forward to seeing it in daylight with the top down at some point next year. Withernsea promenade?
Hi, Al. Only just seen your post, mate. We stayed overnight in Yark on one of those Ghost Hunt tours for our mate's boffday - weather was mild and we ended up crawling round a few boozers looking for spirits too... who would have thought it? As you say, so long as me mam bounces back then metal boxes on wheels will always need some wear n tear repairs from time time and garage bills go with the territory. Mind, if it does begin to become a money pit then I'll be selling, buddy... simple as. Me old Spitfire cost me £1500 and within 2-3 years I'd spent something like £3k on repairs - it became a real bleeder, fella and had to go on to pastures new. Shame, like, as she was also a beautiful car...
Excuse the pun, Al, but she was the "spit" of that one - I'll get you some pics of her later. Just popping out to see uncle Russ.
