Another problem with Facebook Marketplace is that what is presented via photos and descriptions doesn’t quite match the actual condition of the item.
I recently responded to an ad that was put up by someone I had bought from before. It involved a fairly large collection of wooden planes and bodies of metal planes (Stanley No.4 & 5 size). I wasn’t really interested in the metal plane bodies & thought that I could possibly on-sell them. It was the wooden planes that I wanted. Photo’s didn’t show each individual plane – rather they just showed them stacked together from several different angles.
Because I had a previous good experience with the seller, I made an offer that was accepted. Then it was a 100km, one and a half hour drive into Sydney to pick them up.
Perhaps foolishly, I didn’t have a good look at them when I picked them up. When I got them home and pulled them out of the boxes I discovered that a number were in fairly poor condition.
The problems, that I wasn’t expecting were:
- Several were missing wedges
- About 5 were missing irons
- One (shown in the bottom right photo) seems to have been chewed
- A number showed signs of woodworm – fortunately only 3 (bottom right photo is one of them) were significantly damaged
- The top photo has a user repair that has suffered wood rot and is held in place by rusted screws that I’m having difficulty removing.
The lesson for me is that I need to pay more attention to condition and if I can’t tell from the photo’s and description I should ask more questions. I should also be prepared to walk away from the purchase when I inspect it on pickup. Walking away is hard to do when you have committed 3 hours of travel time to the purchase.