Pipswich wrote:I suggested he follow ebay policy and not try to use shipping to avoid ebay fees in the future.  I also reported him to ebay under the excessive shipping charges for both auctions.  I reread his feedback and decided this was not a unique occurrence based on the neutral.  So I gave him his first negative with corresponding dsr's.

i think i would have given him the opportunity to come good with the shipping before doing that, but yes, i would have done exactly the same. what an idiot.

way to go pip. hope your next purchase is a better situation than that one!

Al

Fantasy Role-Playing in Heathen Russia



I was happy to win this one as this book is very hard to find and at .99 cents I thought it was a steal.

Till it arrived anyway.




** expired eBay auction **




Sellers feedback rating should have warned me off.

301ford2000

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.d ... =25&page=1



I sent him a note regarding my dissapoinment but dont expect a possitive result.

I am not shipping it back at my expense to save .99 cents.

Wish you had mentioned the water damage and mildew throughout the book in the listing.
Even though I am only out $6 I am not happy at all, the book should have been described better.

. wrote:Chargeback through PayPal. Not as described. Leave negative feedback.
At the end of the day, you're only $6 out of pocket. I missed it, and would have paid the $6 for the op' to cut the spine off and scan the item, then I'd have binned it. If I've got stuff coming over from TX in the future, I'll give you $6 for it, and send you the PDF when I'm done.

Aside... Was it worth looking at? Any good reading or base material in there?

If you are into Russian History and legends, then hell yes, it was worth way more than $6.
Written by Mark Chapan and Joe Caruso and published in 1990.

It has a lot of information taken directly from Russian history and legends.
Plenty of data that can (with some work) be converted to any RPG System.
The game system is based on actual political system and christian doctrines active during the time period.
The book centers upon life in the Northern reaches of Rus circa 900 AD and the comming of christianity to that region (Blurb from the front page)

Magic seems to be centered on Either Sorcery, or Elemental Magic.
Cold is obviously a heavy factor since this is the northern portion of the world.
No scantily clad amazonian warrior princesses here as the warm temperatures stated for the months of May and June at around 27 Degrees Celsius (The warm months) and the book covers cold protection factors in great detail.
The book includes Spells and Monsters galore.
There are new Magic Items and weapons (25 pages worth).
There are tables for encounter ideas in various settings (Forest/Village)
There are tables for determing the liklihood of various monster encounters for area and climate and time periods (Quite detailed)

Dragons come in nine different categories, with two subtypes in those sets (Younglings and Adults).
The Hatchlings are:
Snow Worms
Flame Spawn
Kraiks
Brimstone Winglings
Steam Worms
Sand Worms
Stormling
Swamp Worms
Poison Spitter

The Adult Dragons are:
Frost Dragons
Dragons of Flame
Serpents of Perun
Pit Dragons
Vapor Dragons
The Parched ones
Storm Dragons
Serpents of the Hellswamp
The Unwholesome ones

Dragons have NINE different breath weapons.
Frost
Flame
Lightning
Sulphur
Steam
Hot
Wind
Mud
Phlegm.
Each Dragon Type (Really every monster) has stat blocks with details much like the Monster Manuals from TSR.

There are many other unique monsters too.
Many of them will be included in future adventures in my games.
One such creature is a Polevik.
It is a Demi-Demon being a cross between a demom and human.
They inhabit Cultivated Fields only and never stray far from the fields they protect.
They are tolerated by farmers and landowners as they jealosly protect the wheat, rye, or oats from Crows, thieves and peasants who try to steal its precious grains.
Most farmers in fact have pacts/agreements with the demi-demons to do so.
This monster comes directly from Russian Folklore and legends....
Its a scarecrow with teath and claws.

There are two seperate short adventures in the back.
Woe to Mikhailov (Name of a village) and The Mound of the Serpent (Dragon).

Yes, its only $6 and so I am not unhappy with the cost as the data is well worth that amount and more (IMO).
What ticks me off is the lack of honesty by the seller.
No matter the winning bid amount, the seller is an asshat for selling a book with mildew and water damages from the front cover all the way through to the rear cover, and not saying so in the description.

I was already thinking of doing as you suggested and cut the binding off and scan it all.

The mildew and water damage ruined my plans to post to the fun finds thread.

I think I may have an extra.  There was also a module and character pad.

Gnat the Beggar wrote:
I was already thinking of doing as you suggested and cut the binding off and scan it all.

The mildew and water damage ruined my plans to post to the fun finds thread.

Careful though. Mold is a matter of spores and they can come off in your scanner and get on paper products you use later. You might want to put the pages in a clear plastic holder when you scan them.

Just did a bin on a vecna lives. The seller wanted $2.99 for shipping. After I asked how he planned to package it (turns out he was just going to drop it in a bubble envelope and let my post office and mailman bend the hell out of it) I asked if he would put stiff cardboard in it. He will but now wants $5.99 for shipping.

This pisses me off. I've been getting a number of packages where people are just dumping modules in manila envelopes, no plastic , no cardboard, not even a 'do not bend'. So now I ask each seller how they plan to package it.

Some of these sellers take this as an excuse to double the shipping cost and I'm getting sick of it.

JasonZavoda wrote:Just did a bin on a vecna lives. The seller wanted $2.99 for shipping. After I asked how he planned to package it (turns out he was just going to drop it in a bubble envelope and let my post office and mailman bend the hell out of it) I asked if he would put stiff cardboard in it. He will but now wants $5.99 for shipping.

This pisses me off. I've been getting a number of packages where people are just dumping modules in manila envelopes, no plastic , no cardboard, not even a 'do not bend'. So now I ask each seller how they plan to package it.

Some of these sellers take this as an excuse to double the shipping cost and I'm getting sick of it.

Ask him again what his plan is for shipping!  $5.99 sounds like a bargain.  

JasonZavoda wrote:Some of these sellers take this as an excuse to double the shipping cost and I'm getting sick of it.

Hey, Jason . . . I'll need to charge you another $4 for shipping.  Cardboard doesn't grow on trees!  

Badmike wrote:
I've almost given up purchasing magazine lots on Ebay.  Inevitably the pile of 20+ mags are dropped into a box with no padding or protection, and when the box arrives at least one side is caved in (once I was just delivered a box with no mags and a torn up side) or the mags have slid around inside so much they have torn themselves to pieces.  I cannot even begin to tell you how many times this has happened....I now email explicit instructions when I do purchase a mag lot in hopes of forstalling the inevitable damage.

Mike B.

Yeah, this burns me. All they need to do is to put the lot in a plastic bag, a supermarket bag is fine, then tape it solid. If it goes in a box, just use newspaper to pad it. If you use an envelope, just thick cardboard on both sides with the corners taped so they don't get dinged. Its cheap and its easy to do.

If there are a bunch of mags, just make small solid packs of them. If they don't have supermarket bags they need to go to a dollar store and invest in a box of small trash can liners (they are about the same size as supermarket bags but have no handles). They go for about a box of 30 for $1

So far it is like pulling teeth getting some of these sellers to tell me how they are going to ship a package.