Buying synths online..

There are a few things you should be aware of when buying second hand synthesizers on ebay, for that matter not only on ebay but through the free ads, whether its loot, sound on sound or the plethoror of others available. As you're probably aware many of the synths listed are quite old, some dating from the 60's or earlier. Enviromental conditions take their toll on the internal components of the equipment. Even if externally the synth looks great, chances are that there are problems inside(though this is not always the case). Unfortunately sellers don't usually supply photos of the inards of their instruments and quite often report to never having opened them.. not always true! Oxidisation or rust, degradation of circuit boards(the obreheim 8 suffers terribly from this. As the seperate layers of the pcb slowly seperate, voltage leaking occurs, whichmeans MALFUNCTION). Bodge jobs : bad resoldering, broken trace bypasses. I can't remember the number offuses I've seen replaced with wire/aluminium foil. The list goes on. Keyboard contacts wear and cause intermittant loss of control. Sliders, switches and rotaries become worn. As well as the older synths the newer still suffer from all sorts of problems, a direct result of mass production sometimes means cheaper, inferiorquality components are used. ic's (intergrated circuits) fail, transformers, regulators, capacitors are all prone to damage. So its important to remember that at least when buying from a retailer new you have cover through the warranty supplied by themselves and usually extended through the manufacturer themselves. A security you will not often have whenbuying through auction. So with all that can go wrong and all the risks are there any reasons why you should actually buy one? Of course, there's plenty of equipment up for grabs at the right price and many honest, informed sellers, somethimes there really are bargins to be had.Ok so to minimise the risks of buying a rotting, rusting pile of junk.. Theres always a risk.. make sure your maximun bid is sufficently low to allow for repairs if nessecary, but high enough to actually get the thing(ok, a bit obvious that one) look for actual photos of the equipment, not grabs from vintage synth, turnkey or some similar site, google image search is a good source for synth imagery... Study it carefully, if something looks amiss or not as decribed, ask the seller a question. Do your research, what inherent problems do the synths have, what price should they go for roughly, how much whould it cost to get them fixed. The usual trader guidelines as always apply, watch for ratings, and actually scan through the feedback, what have they been buying, selling etc. see ebays help pages Make sure the seller packs the gear properly, there's nothing more annoying that getting adamaged (once perfectly working) synth in the post. Plus you'll have to go through the insurance process which can be drawn out sometimes and means one of the 2 of you will be out of pocket for a while. Obviously make sure the post is insured. If when delievred the packageIS damaged,take photos and mark the posties signature sheet with 'DAMAGED' or similar. Refusal of delivery may also be an option, depends on who's delivering. Hope this helps a little, do your research and dont let the bidding fever take control of your better sense. Most of all ,enjoy the synth when it arrives.