27" Untested Monitors on EBay?

[Chunk]

I saw this on EBay, and it looked like it could be a great deal.  Then I saw they were untested, and sold "as is."  The same guy is also selling the same monitors, tested for about 2X the price.  What do you guys think about this?  Also, if the monitor were to have problems, how touch might it be to fix any potential problems (really general question, sorry).  Thanks.

[Chunk]

Boy am I dumb.  Maybe I should post the link.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1097971901

[bullish4]

I would be wary of them.  If you look deep in many of the posts on this board, you will find many unhappy people who purchased doa monitors from him when he was selling directly through his website.  He doesn't answer the phone, emails, etc.  You know, the usual nonsense that will make you regret the transaction.

[tetsu96]

I agree whole heartedly.  Here's a link to a previous posting dealing with these very monitors from this very guy:  http://www.arcadecontrols.org/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=sell;action=display;num=1016252522

I personally think he's starting to sweat because he purchased a large ammount of these monitors from bowling alleys and is finding that a lot of them are either unusable or are breaking after shipping them.

But good luck if you do decide to purchase one, there's probably good ones in that pallete.  

I would be wary of them.

[Chunk]

Thanks for the input guys.  I think I'll be looking elsewhere for a monitor.

[snaaake!!!]

dont buy it>>THATS RIGHT DONT BUY IT>> >
i boutht one and that broke after about a week.i did notthing to it.it was poorly fixed and way too many solder joints on the pcb.i returned the monitors and he wont refund my money..wont return emails and wont pick up phone.i already filed lawsuit against him and his CLOSEOUTUSA.and i will make his store closed forever.i will make him pay every penny that was stolen off my credit card account.DONT DO IT>>>you will regret.

[Lilwolf]

wow... I never heard a bad thing about him when I ordered mine (year ago).  But I heard great things

Mine worked without a problem.  but there were a TON of people that where having troubles with shipping.  And he was double shipping the monitors at the time.  There was one person that received 3 of them before one made it through shipping.

Don't take this as you should buy one.  He may have changed.

But I DEFINATELY wouldn't get one that wasn't tested.  Testing takes 3 seconds *(plug it in).   He probably did test them and they didn't work.

[rgardjr]

Purchased one about 3 months ago through his website CloseOutUSA and I'm very happy with the monitor!  Seems like shipping costs of $125 are a little ridiculous.  He shipped mine on an LTL(less than truckload) carrier for $65.  The monitor did have a couple of scratches in it, but other than that I love the thing in my MAME cabinet.  Keep in mind the monitor only supports 640x480 at 60 mhz.  I could never really get advancemame configured to work.  But mame32 and windows mame work great.  The hardware streching of my video card makes all the games look great.  I think the guy learned a lesson about shipping monitors UPS.  I've talked to a number of people that sell monitors, including the guy at CloseOutUSA, and none of them will use UPS.  I've never had a problem getting a hold of the guy at CLOSEOUTUSA on the phone, but I only called twice.  Once to order and once to check back about a week later to see if the monitor had shipped and to get a tracking number-which he provided.  I'm assuming the higher shipping costs so that the carrier insures the monitor in case it doesn't make it to you in working order.  I didn't sign for mine until I plugged it in and made sure that it was working.  Also, he's selling working monitors through his site for $175.  One adjustment I made to mine was to bring up the brightness a little.  Theres a breakout board that has small pots that adjust for centering and sizing, but I turned the brightness all the way up and still couldn't get it bright enough.  There's another adjustment for brightness on the flyback that I turned a hair and got the brightness where I wanted it.  Again, having pretty recently purchased a monitor through the website I'm totally happy with the experience.  But there's definately a gamble to be taken on purchasing a "untested"  monitor through Ebay.  

[Malenko]

I bought one on ebay about a month ago, and couldnt pick it up until today. The sell had no problem holding the monitor till I could come get it, of course I paid for the monitor mere minutes after the auction ended.

The one I bought was untested, and if the place wasnt closing when I got there I think the guy would have let me test it before I left.

I got it home and all I had to do was enable VGA mode on Win XP and turn up the brightness a bit and the monitor works great.

I have to remove it from the metal frame though, my cabinet opening is 24" and the monitor is 27" with frame, 23.5" without.

All in all Im happy with the purchase, its a step up size wise from the 20" sun monitor I had in there, even if Im sacraficing some picture quality

Thom