Sold an ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro on eBay, buyer claimed it was defective...

Posted by Divergent5623@reddit | vintagecomputing | View on Reddit | 32 comments

I sold an ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro on eBay. Tested it thoroughly beforehand. Buyer messaged me saying that it was defective. I asked if he had connected the floppy power connector that it requires. He said that he didn't know what that was, so I asked him to send me a picture of the inside of his PC and this is what he sent me.

I guess if you're determined to make an AGP card work in a PCIE system...

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Accomplished-Camp193@reddit

Such a waste of an AIW 9700 Pro in the hands of an incompetent idiot.

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LeetyMcLeet@reddit

Wow! :D

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URA_CJ@reddit

That was my dream card back in the day - RIP AIW Radeon 9700 Pro.

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Fright-Train-Rider@reddit

It hurts only looking at this mess....

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MrVulture42@reddit

If stupidity was painful, a lot of people would live in constant agony.................

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Ok_Fix3639@reddit

What on earth did they think they were buying?

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Divergent5623@reddit (OP)

Based on my conversation, I think they were actually trying to use this as a modern video capture system 😭

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AppropriateCap8891@reddit

That actually was a pretty good solution for that.... in the NTSC era.

I sold tons of those to people in film schools and making early YouTube content as well as other things like archiving. And unlike other solutions like Matrox and Canopus almost anybody could afford one.

But I sold mine of about two decades ago, because I knew the limitations.

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mwdmeyer@reddit

A Radeon RX 9070, they thought they got an amazing deal. Lol :/

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SubPrimeCardgage@reddit

I'm pretty sure this card isn't much cheaper. They are pretty desirable to the right buyer.

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brimston3-@reddit

150 USD v 700 USD. It's a hefty jump. Maybe as much as 200 in-box with the capture cabling kit.

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borgie_83@reddit

I sell retro PC parts on eBay occasionally, and because of stuff like this, I include a simple printed installation guide, a link to the driver download, and I send photos or videos of the product working. Since then, I haven’t had any complaints. If someone did claim it wasn’t working after that, I’d give them a refund and then send them my turd in an envelope.

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SexyHotPants@reddit

But who has the time for all that

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MacAddict81@reddit

Depends on how much fiber they have in their diet, they may be fairly regular /s

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borgie_83@reddit

You make a good point. Maybe I should started messaging buyers about their diet prior to sending.

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MacAddict81@reddit

Didn't know how to lean on this one. I thought about pointing out that sending biological material via the mail is prohibited, and then I remembered the last time I took a ColoGuard test.

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borgie_83@reddit

Not sure how it’s prohibited. I mean, like you, I sent two of my daughter’s turds in for testing. I suppose what we can gather from this is that biological material is okay to send, as long as it’s in a tube. Good to know.

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borgie_83@reddit

Me, because if a buyer returns an item, I don’t get refunded for the initial postage cost, and most of my items are sent overseas, so shipping can be $30–$50 AUD in many cases.

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zidane2k1@reddit

They even mangled up the case trying to force it in

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guitpick@reddit

Some people simply don't believe in having buyer's remorse.

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No_Illustrator5035@reddit

Awh, you can't fix stupid.

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aussiepunkrocksV2-0@reddit

I hope you aren't out of pocket for this 'user error'

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GGigabiteM@reddit

Ebay will side with the idiot buyer every time. All the buyer has to do is lie and say it didn't work, even if their idiocy destroyed the card. Been there, done that.

When Ebay removed all seller protections 15 or so years ago, I stopped selling there. They went from a garage sale type of platform to a curated marketplace where they expect everyone to be running a storefront and selling high volume.

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wootybooty@reddit

Reminds me of the time I worked at an Apple repair shop. Lady brings an iBook in and says the CD drive (slot loading) doesn’t work, and all she does is write journals on it. It was cheaper for us to just buy another iBook, upgrade and swap the drive in. Was so proud to hand her an even better looking/functioning machine. She thanked and left.

She comes in a couple days later saying the CD drive still wasn’t working, and proceeds to show us by STICKING A BUTTER KNIFE INTO THE SLOT LOADER TO SHOW THE STUCK CD. We tried to tell her we cannot warranty fix that since she literally in front of us just damaged the laptop. She screams, said she writes for the local paper and would be telling everyone how corrupt we were. 🤦‍♂️

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