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Questions about box damage and tape seals


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I had the guy that I bought the stuff from send me another message saying he had 2 falcons and another Star Wars item for me. $350 worth of store value for $100. He said he got it from his aunt who works at the store and gets the stuff cheap. It all sounded to good to be true, so I told him show me a receipt and we would do the deal. He said he could not find the receipt and was upset that he spent the money and now his son is out formula because I would not buy the stuff from him. This really felt bad really quickly so I told him to return them both and I was done......

 

That's all I need is to be caught up in someone else's crime/drama....... A word to the wise....."If it seems to good to be true, it usually is!".....

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I just noticed on a FB group he is trying the sell 1 Falcon without a box for $50......and states that he has other SW LEGO items......He did send me a pick showing a Jaba's Sail Barge that he has.....but wonder if they are all out of the box. If they are it tells me they were put in a bag or backpack and walked out the door of the store. It is just funny how I said if he gets any larger sets to give notice and within 3 hours he had more stuff.....

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I just bought two sets, 75005 Rancor Pit and 70809 Lord Business' Evil Lair, still sealed bags and instructions but no box. What value should I put sealed unboxed sets at?

 

I paid $25 for both sets.......

 

Thanks for your advice!!!

When I read this yesterday I was wondering why a 70809 would have no box unless it had no mini figs as well.

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Today I received a fire brigade that I won on ebay advertised as new in a factory sealed box. It came in an oversized box with no extra padding to stop it from bouncing around. When I took it out of the box, both ends popped open and I had a pile of lego bags on the floor. The seals seem to have lost all of their stickiness and won't hold anymore.

So did I buy a box that had been opened and the seller lied about its condition? Or did rough handling during shipping along with the outside heat cause the seals to come undone? Can that even be the cause? (I also got a Simpson house from Amazon that arrived with the seals open and unsticky). I checked carefully and all of the pieces are there. I'm fine with keeping it as I plan on building it but I also don't want to feel like someone "got away with one" over me.

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If all the pieces are accounted for then I really wouldn't worry about it. It's been discussed at length in other forum topics, but some sellers will open the seals to verify that the box contents are all there before selling - the question is, do they tell the buyer if they did? There have been many reports about Lego sets purchased from brick and mortar stores that have had the figures removed and returned. Seals are carefully sliced and re-taped or peeled and stuck back on (sometimes the thief even glues parts of the box shut).

 

It's also simply possible that the seals just failed. Excessive heat or cold could cause the seals to move while being handled. If they move too much, eventually the stickiness will go away. Also improper stacking of heavy sets can cause the seals to pop under the load of the settling Lego. Maybe while putting the seal back on, they handled the sticky with their fingers? You just don't know.

 

If I were you, I would take an inventory of the contents. If you google the same name + "review" you'll often find the contents laid out for all the world to see. Also, we have an open thread http://community.brickpicker.com/topic/10178-number-of-sealed-bags-in-each-lego-set/?hl=sealed+bags which may contain the info you need. If something is missing, absolutely contact the seller. If you really feel like you were misled, contact them and let them know to give them a chance to remedy the situation.

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Thank you both for the replies. I was already pretty much decided on keeping the set and not making an issue of it. I don't want to be the kind of buyer that makes me scared to sell things on ebay. I did contact the seller and she responded quickly and was apologetic, but reassured me that it had shipped to me sealed.

So I'm thinking it was just a seal failure then. It shipped from Texas so the box was out in the heat the past couple of days, combined with being thrown around.

And the first thing I did was make sure it was all there. This page has been a great resource since I rediscovered lego a month ago.

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Good decision. Being a seller on eBay we are graded by how many cases are opened against us. Too many (6?) Will reduce our account if we are a top rated seller which I worked Six months to get. EBay is very butt oriented, so we rely on ebayers to be honest and willing to work with us.

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Good decision. Being a seller on eBay we are graded by how many cases are opened against us. Too many (6?) Will reduce our account if we are a top rated seller which I worked Six months to get. EBay is very butt oriented, so we rely on ebayers to be honest and willing to work with us.

 

 

Quoting this before you edit it, because it's one of the best Freudian finger slips i've ever seen.

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Hi all.  I received my two batcaves from Amazon BOGO 40% but one was beat to hell so I'm returning it.  On the other set, one of the seals looks like this.  Does this look like it was tampered with?  I can never really tell because some of the plastic tabs on sets have that smudged look underneath and the edges of the tab don't look like they were picked at or lifted up.  Not all look super clean.  Sometimes the flaps get moved around and they aren't always applied with care from the factory.  What do you guys think?  Should I return this one too?  Thanks for the input.

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Looks fine to me, the taped seals tend to move around a bit.  I was worried about this on one of my SSD's but consensus on the forum was that it was fine.  Just another reason Lego needs to look into another method to seal these boxes.   4 peices of tape to seal up a set is not enough.

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Yeah, the rest of the seals look okay and it sounds okay when I shift the box around.  I don't hear anything loose moving around.  I guess since this came from Amazon and I've been reading the horror stories of missing minifigs and pieces, the paranoia has gotten to me.  I just don't want to have a previously returned set that someone screwed with and then I ended up with it.  My gut is telling me it's okay.  The box looks clean otherwise except for a slight dent in the bottom right hand corner.  I'll include that pic as well.

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So if I get a scale I can just weigh them and it should pretty much be dead on?  Can it be off by a bit?  And if so, how much?

I mentioned this in my PM to you but just to put it out there, the readout your scale gives you may not be exactly the same as the weight listed online. It should not be off by much though. What's more important is ensuring that all copies of a set in your inventory have the same weight- there should be little to no variation when all are being weighed on the same scale.

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Looks ok to me. The seals tend to get stretched out if they are moved around a lot. I had a similar situation with a GE but it weighed out to the gram compared to another one I have that was minty so I'm not worried. Sets shouldn't have more than a few grams difference in weight at most

Sent from my iPad using Brickpicker

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Thank you all for your input.  I'm going to get a scale on ebay.  I appreciate you taking the time to answer.  You all have been very helpful.

 

You don't need ebay, just get a cheap digital kitchen scale at the store.  That's what I use to calculate shipping, weigh boxes, etc.  No need to get fancy ;)

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