Buying Experience #7: June 2016

On another random search on ebay for a frames, i found this nearly complete set being sold by the original owner. it was auction style and i ended up winning it for $102, so after shipping the house netted about $58. It was only missing a few post covers and flowers which are both the most easily replaced items on the house. also it was missing one lantern. the post covers are brown and broken, but overall the house is…

 She did tell me that shipping was $75 which surprised me since i have always paid $40 with USPS and they have a business account with UPS which should make it even cheaper. so, after 75 of shipping, and $15 worth of packaging and box, the house itself netted for $12.

However, they packed it with the bubble wrap piled on top and no packing material to cushion any of the parts, least of all the post covers, so naturally they were smashed to bits in transit, see photos. 

…so, while i am no longer interested in buying incomplete houses that include the chore of locating or making a bunch of parts, i was curious to see the current prices and not at all expecting a nearly complete house for close to $100. 

UPDATE: I am in the process of renovating this house, so far I have upgraded my own house with: one new wall, 2 upstairs flower boxes, a few shinier screws and some purple flowers. This was the first house I used yellow tape to restore long clear doors (came out great). I did the most extensive repairs to post covers to date. 1 week after buying this another near complete house on ebay sold for only $62. mwa, mwaaa…..

Started off good: nice big sturdy box, I was so excited! 

Ok, nice packing on top, but whats this? No packaging around the actual house parts?? 

I knew already there would be post cover damage and possible window scratches. 

Gross bug dirt. 

35 years of dust accumulation. When you clean these plan on being in the shower for about an hour with parts, toothbrush and lots of liquid dish soap. 

The first step of every reno is to clean the parts, I don't know how buyers just set up the house with this much crud on it. 

this was not disclosed to me in the listing, custom screws in the upstairs flower boxes to secure the in place, while they almost look factory and were properly done, i don't find them absolutely necessary, it presented another Sophie's choice dilemma: upgrade my less white flower boxes fro these, but live with the screw holes, or not. ultimately i ended up trading them out for mine with the reasoning that i can cover these tiny holes with foliage and they are much white than mine. the other sophies choice here was that it came with one very white lantern,  i have 2 rather yellowed ones on my house, so do i trade up just one but they are different colors or just leave them? i ended up painting mine white since i was painting the post overs to this house anyway, so might as well. unless they are getting yellower, i wondered how i didn't paints these earlier, maybe i just wanted a completely unpainted house, not really sure. strangely some parts of this house were whiter than my near mint house but only some parts, not all, =-0

If the seller lifts a finger to "clean" the house before selling, they cant even wait for the garden hose water to dry before putting it up on ebay, here you can almost see the screws rusting away due to a person's laziness and ineptitude.