Moronic Ebay Sellers

Background, for those that don't know, Kapton is a DuPont tradename for a polyimide plastic film used for many purposes including flexible circuit boards. For this use it will come clad with copper on one or both sides. The industry standard terminology for the thickness of the copper layer(s) is in oz of copper/square foot. 1oz = 0.0014'' thickness.

We all have buttons that are sensitive. Here are a couple of mine. I buy a lot of stuff on Ebay. It bothers me when sellers omit information that any credible buyer is going to want to know. Example: 5 hp electric motor for sale. No mention of DC, AC, voltage, 1 phase or three phase. You get the idea. Another thing that bothers me is to craft a clear concise question(s) and not get a complete, relevant answer or at least an unambiguous''I don't know''. Sometimes I'm driven to just throw in the towel. Now for your chuckle: In the last 24 hours I was looking at a group of five similar Ebay listings from the same seller for copper clad Kapton film. differing mostly by thickness and whether single side or double clad. No mention of clad weight or whether the listed thickness was overall or just of the Kapton. Here is the series of exchanges trying to get information: My first question addresses this Ebay item:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...E:B:AAQ:US:1&viewitem=&item=260064107176&rd=1

Doug to seller:

Hello,
For this auction and your similar auctions, is the first dimension, e.g., .005'', the thickness of the kapton plus copper clad or just the thickness of the kapton material? If the later, what is the thickness of the copper layer(s). OK if you tell me in terms of weight, e.g., 1/2oz, 1oz, etc., clad. Thanks

Response received from seller:

it is the overall thickness of the item(s)
Mike Knopfler / Complex Plastics / o

Doug tries again:

What is the thickness (usually measured in oz weight) of the copper clad on each side of the kapton? Thanks

Response received from seller:

TYPICAL IS 1 OZ
Mike Knopfler / Complex Plastics / o

Doug tries again referencing this item:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...E:B:AAQ:US:1&viewitem=&item=260064107136&rd=1

OK, yet another set of questions from me. I have looked at all five of your current Copper clad Kapton listings. What is the overall thickness and the copper clad weight on this one? Clearly not 1oz since a single layer of 1oz runs about 0.0014''. Also I note that your listing titles include a mysterious to me Rx, R2 in the case of this auction. Is this some form of cladding weight or flammability rating system of a type with which I am unfamiliar? Thanks.


Response received from seller:
i don't remember what the r2 means
if the copper weight is not stated, it is 1 oz
Mike Knopfler / Complex Plastics / br

Doug throws in the towel and sends the following to seller:

Mike,

I reread the description of this auction carefully and copper weight is not stated. Since 1 oz copper is .0014'' (trust me, it is) then with copper on both sides the copper alone is .0028''. If you have figured out how to put the kapton between the two layers of .0014'' copper and get a total thickness of .002'' then can I be you business partner? I think we could figure out how to make some big $ with your technology!

Best Regards (and future business partner?)
Doug

BTW, I actually got a response, but as you might have expected, it
contained no useful information

Yeah, it makes you wonder if they are trying to cheat you, or if they are just dumber than a box of rocks.

Lightmeup said:

Yeah, it makes you wonder if they are trying to cheat you, or if they are just dumber than a box of rocks.

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See if they sell the stuff, the only thing dumber than a box of rocks is teh person sending money to them.

Back in the old days (day before yesterday in the computer world) I remember when it was easy to find things selling well below retail price, now I buy more mainstream things from Amazon because the price is the same or less, the shipping is free and the return policy is constant.

This reminds me of the time I was looking for some full spectrum CFLs on eBay. One seller had a good price for bulbs he described as full-spectrum. However, the picture in his auction of the packaging the bulbs were in had no indication that these were really what I was looking for, and it was too small to read all the lettering. For example, such bulbs usually have things like natural sunlight, 5000K, high CRI, etc. in the list of features on the package. Still, the price was good and I was ready to take a chance. However, I decided to ask the seller just to be sure these were what I was looking for. I asked something like is there a 5000K or some other number followed by a K anywhere on the bulbs or packaging. He simply said the packaging said "light like an incandescent". Enough said-these were the same yellowish type of CFLs available in any retail store. How on earth the term "full spectrum" found its way into the description is beyond me. Now when I'm looking for such bulbs I just use "5000K fluorescent" for the search. I may miss some auctions where the seller describes 5000K CFLs as full-spectrum but I'll also avoid the idiots who think CFLs which give an incandescent-like light are also full-spectrum. For those who are not aware, full-spectrum is a term loosely applied to lights with a color temp around 5000K to 6000K and a CRI of at least 90. 2700K standard CFLs with a CRI of about 82 obviously don't fit in this category.


Another thing I hate is when you'll ask a seller a detailed question which wasn't really answered in the auction description only to get back a curt useless reply like "As stated". Do these people even bother reading the question?

jtr1962 said:

Another thing I hate is when you'll ask a seller a detailed question which wasn't really answered in the auction description only to get back a curt useless reply like "As stated". Do these people even bother reading the question?

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Yes, they read them. They have ABSOLUTELY no interest in spending the few minutes it would take to actually get the information you want.

There is no shortage of A-hole sellers on eBay. Many take an 'offended' tone if you ask them a question; like they think you are out to cheat THEM. (how)

I try to avoid buying from eBay. If there is something I can't find elsewhere (and let's face it: there's a LOT of stuff on eBay you can't find anywhere else...unfortunately); I go over the feedback record with a microscope.

I have sent dozens of messages to people that read like this "I was going to buy xyz item from you, until I read your feedback. You've screwed x number of people in just the last month. Obviously, you are a lying ******* who will do anything to sell the crap which you deceive people into buying. Too bad.

It's amazing what some of these losers will write back. Again, they get all offended and blame the buyers (you know: the ones who never received the item, or it wasn't as described, broken, wrong numbers, etc., etc.)

It's never their fault as a lying *******. OH NO. Unfortunately, anyone with a computer, a digital camera, and an IQ of about 76 can sell things on eBay.

On the other side of the coin, I love seeing sellers who really want satisfied customers. Their auctions have long paragraphs about how they will do just about anything to make sure you are happy with your purchase. They have feedback records at or almost 100%, and they want to keep that record.

Pity there aren't more of them.

I read an article in my local newspaper about a year ago about buying from eBay. It ran every day for a week; lots of good info for newbies.

They quoted a law enforcement agency (can't remember which one) that estimated 2-4% of all items on eBay were stolen. The article really blasted eBay for not doing a better job of policing the auctions, and the bad, and outright crooked sellers.

Basically, eBay makes billions on auctions sales. It's privately owned, and they make the same money whether you get screwed, or buy stolen merchandise, etc. Sad but true.

what's the kapton?

greenlight said:

what's the kapton?

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Speaking of not reading descriptions