Why do people list dirty items?

prettyflamingo

theoretica wrote: »

Some things - not everyday clothes, but antiques or specialist items - I would far rather buy unmessed with than have some ignorant seller doing their best to a lower standard than mine.

this is definitely the exception to the rule- i collect vintage clothes and accessories and I would prefer to handwash vintage clothes myself to reduce the possibility of an item being ruined! of course i would ask for details on any obvious marks on the item before even thinking about bidding though.
for most other things i would inspect the description and photos closely and ask any questions about the item before i bid on it, and i would never pay that much for an item from ebay anyway just in case (i have made a couple of purchases that were disappointing when they arrived so am more wary now).

Innit_2

lol. people are so different.....

annie-c

I can understand that you wouldn't want antique silver to be cleaned as that would lower its value, but for the kind of items the earler poster describes eg plastic children's toys, the mind boggles as to why they would not give them a wash in mild detergent before listing them.

Crowqueen

Yes, obviously using judgement based on what the item is is reasonable.

I'm really fussy over collectable books, for instance - I hate Oxfam's system of sticking Gift Aid barcode labels onto something, say, fifty or sixty years old (such as a nice mid-Soviet-period book of Hungarian fairytales). I know they have to do it somehow, and it's beneficial for them to keep track of what gets given to them by people eligible to make Gift Aid donations, but they don't come off easily. I met someone who works at our local shop at a harvest dinner last year and told her that - and she said they had had a lot of complaints about that.

I am on about something that is only a few years old and sold by someone who is not an antique dealer though. There really isn't any excuse for modern items not to be cleaned.

kiwi_fruit

I must say it's something I've been wondering about too. Just recently bought a cardigan- it arrived clearly unwashed with dirty armpits/cuffs etc, truly disgusting. I can't possibly believe somebody would wear something until it smells and is visibly dirty let alone sell it and send it unwashed. I was livid.

gravitytolls

Yuk! There's often listings stating 'small rip in seam, missing button.... easily repairable....' Well why not repair it then?