Idiot couriers and ebay sellers

[treefrog]

I am coming to the conclusion that buying anything that is not bought from a professional supplier is a waste of time these days with courier firms who only employ ex-Boxers or Rugby Players or sellers who have no idea how to package items, eg if more than one item in package when delicate and heavy, they need lots of packaging to separate them, not a single layer of small bubble wrap to top them being smashed to oblivion. Maybe they think the large red fragile stickers puts some kind of protection shield over said item, whereas ex-Rugby player see this and try to pass the package to the fly half in the distribution centre.....Rant over ......

Have now given up buying anything old and fragile, the saddest part is these items are irreplacable, current item is a vintage amusement sign,previously 60's belly glasses from old slots, prior to that a perfect Allwin and it goes on....

[jingle]

We like pictures on here tom

[treefrog]

Two Arcade signs, one with good graphics and one with poor, of course the one that got smashed was the good one....

I had an allwin shipped from the states about 3 years ago and it was professionally packed and turned up perfect, it is all down to the seller I am afraid.

[widget2k4]

Damn that is a shame.
I have to agree stuff from the States come professionally packaged compared to most UK sellers.

[gameswat]

Tree, get yourself some of the UV curing glass glue. I've used Loctite 358 to awesome effect. The huge difference is you can keep messing around until the glass is perfectly aligned and no air bubbles. If it's not right you clean and start again, then once happy apply the UV lamp and it totally sets in a min or two. And very strong perfectly clear bonding.

I once glued a mirrored backglass back together from 3 pieces and it looked so good in person that I had to point it out to the buyer and all others as nobody ever spotted the repair! Is slightly noticeable in photos though but not in person. And that was a tough job as the small amounts of mirroring did give it away a little as it's impossible to retouch the tiny chipping caused when this glass moved around on the slow boat to Aust. I also placed thin picture framing glass in font of the backglass to further hide the tiny crack lines as you get a perfect reflection that way, and totally smooth to the touch. Was totally the fault of the A-hole dealer in the states who sold the machine to my buddy, as he fitted the brand new repro glass himself before selling. He literally appeared to have picked up a broken splinter of packing wood from the floor and used that one piece to secure the glass inside the headboard. And this was a very wide glass in an arcade game. Originally there was about 12 wooden blocks spaced all around the glass to keep it safely secured, not just that one splinter dead in the middle top of the glass. The game was otherwise superbly packed and nothing should have happened. Except that glass slowly bounced back and forth a few inches along the bottom edge on the 2 month ship journey to Aust! And surprise surprise it cracked right down the middle starting at the one mounting point. The dealer wouldn't admit to any responsibility and and claimed the shipping company was at fault. And claimed he didn't fit the glass himself. But even if he didn't there was no back-door so anybody could easily see how poorly it was fitted. I ended up with the machine free of charge and after a lot of work did well out of it.

[treefrog]

Well I managed after a long time digging out the two signs and got one good one out them, fully working with flasher, looks great.....

Love the plastic signs, passion of mine and have a few. A number are from old floor machines like the sexy lady below from a Shooter game which I believe was in Mablethorpe now owned by a fellow collector. Mine of course machine long gone