i always shake my head forlornly when i see people bidding good money on electrical goods and computer equipment which is being sold as "untested" or even more cynically "believed to be working".  whenever you see those words, don't think "bargain", think "rip off" and run very quickly in the other direction, clutching your wallet protectively to your manly [or womanly] breast.

i'm not saying that everyone who sells an item as "untested" is a con artist.  i can think of circumstances whereby a seller might indeed have an item that they were genuinely unable to test - for example, if a distant relation shuffled off this mortal coil and bequeathed me an accordian, i might [being the unmusical dolt i am] want to sell it on ebay.  in which case i'd get it out of its box, squeeze it in and out a few times and as long as it made a noise somewhat akin to a cat being put through a mangle, i'd assume it was working properly and put it up for sale, adding the caveat "untested - as i am an unmusical dolt"  [or words to that effect].

this however, is a million miles away from the seller who's offering a laptop worth several hundred pounds for a tenner, claiming that it's believed to be working but they "haven't time to test it" or selling a piece of hi-fi equipment worth several hundred pounds for a similar un-princely sum, again saying they believe it to be working, but that it "doesn't have a plug on it" and they "haven't time" to test it.



yeah right! - please think folks.  if you were the seller and it meant  the difference to you between earning a couple of quid or a couple of hundred quid for an item, wouldn't you take the extra ten minutes to put a plug on and switch the bloody thing on?! i mean a couple of hundred quid for a few minutes work nearly puts you up there in the same income bracket as yer average solicitor. who's too busy going to pass up that kind of cash?

"untested" needen't always mean "broken" - but it usually does!