'Vintage' does not mean 'rusty'!

Lynn LeFey · **on:** January 05, 2018, 07:39:42 PM

Dear ebay sellers,

The word 'Vintage', at it's most charitable, means 'of some meaningful age'.

It does NOT mean 'crusted with rust from having sat in a river for 3 years'.

Let me give you a 'for instance'. You REALLY can't call a Leatherman Wingman 'Vintage'.

Some other useful meanings of words: 'new' does not mean 'broken, and covered in roofing tar'
'Rare' does not mean 'available on Amazon at a lower price than I'm charging'.
'Hand-forged' does not mean 'I slapped mycarta scales on a blade blank'.

Anyone care to add a few more definitions?

Poncho65 · **Reply #1 on:** January 05, 2018, 07:59:52 PM

You have covered some good ones already

People always want to add words to make something seem better than what it is these days

EBay is worse than other places because it is individuals I guess

WoodsDuck · **Reply #2 on:** January 05, 2018, 08:14:07 PM

I see a lot of Steel Warrior and Rough Rider knives described as "vintage."

Vintage 2014?

Lynn LeFey · **Reply #3 on:** January 05, 2018, 08:36:49 PM

Quote from: WoodsDuck on January 05, 2018, 08:14:07 PM

Vintage 2014?

Ohh... yeah, they're using 'Vintage' there like a wine vintage. Bumper crop, vanilla overtones, pairs well with pork.

styx · **Reply #4 on:** January 05, 2018, 08:48:44 PM

good stuff Lynn

gerleatherberman · **Reply #5 on:** January 05, 2018, 09:00:15 PM

I bought a tool "gently used". Pics turned out to be of someone else's MT listing. Gently used ended up being flattened plier teeth, bench grinder sharpened blades, and stripped out screw drivers. Oh, and a broke can opener.

Needless to say I used the buyer protection policy to the fullest and returned it.

cody6268 · **Reply #6 on:** January 05, 2018, 09:47:42 PM

I guess I'm another whose had that issue. I recently bought a SwissTool listed as "hardly used". Used hard would be more like it. The pliers had not only one ding, but three, the chisel was chipped, and the side with the chisel is stiff. Really should have returned it, but I remedied the issues myself with little effort.

To get antique tags on a car in Virginia, it has to be 25 years old. That's what I call vintage. Antique is 50 years or older. Beat up doesn't mean old.

Sparky415 · **Reply #7 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:17:11 PM

Lynn

ColoSwiss · **Reply #8 on:** January 05, 2018, 10:55:25 PM

A personal peeve is sellers who make up model names for knives. "This is a vintage 1950's Victorinox Zermat"; on a current Spartan

styx · **Reply #9 on:** January 05, 2018, 11:32:08 PM

Quote from: ColoSwiss on January 05, 2018, 10:55:25 PM

A personal peeve is sellers who make up model names for knives. "This is a vintage 1950's Victorinox Zermat"; on a current Spartan

my socks are more vintage than that

ReamerPunch · **Reply #10 on:** January 06, 2018, 11:23:44 AM

"New" does not mean "we sold it to someone, he scratched it, chipped the paint, sent it back to us, and we sent it to you".

ReamerPunch · **Reply #11 on:** January 06, 2018, 11:26:27 AM

"Leatherman" does not mean "any folding pair of pliers".

Pacu · **Reply #12 on:** January 06, 2018, 01:00:43 PM

Forced patina- means I done messed up the original factory shine and it didn't turn out like the other cooler peoples stuff so I wanna dump it for slightly more than it's worth.

Character marks - I dropped it in a wood chipper, shiddle buff out.

Syem · **Reply #13 on:** January 06, 2018, 01:19:10 PM

Something I've noticed applies to many situations is "If you have to mention it, it's probably not true". (does not apply to what I just said, nor that, nor that, nor...)

Lots of good examples of this in this thread.

Also applies to people giving you a fully detailed apologetic explanation when you didn't yet ask for it.

Same thing applies for people wearing clothes that have the word "sexy" written on them.

Another example is at the end of a video game match; there's often one player that will say ez/izi/easy/too easy after having actually had a hard time or being last in their team.

Bottom line is be like Saint Thomas. Only trust pictures and if the tools are closed assume they're all broken or in the worst imaginable condition. Also, be suspicious when seeing superlatives in a description.

The thing that annoys me the most (besides lack of good pictures) is the overcharging of shipping fees. I often see something worth CHF 5.- at the most go for 1.- but with 9 or 10 or sometimes 15 francs of shipping. Or those smurfs that charge you 7 (package) but send you a bubble envelope with a 0.85 stamp. I don't mind paying for the envelope and rounding up for the trouble but that's just being a huge smurfing smurf.

ThePeacent · **Reply #14 on:** January 06, 2018, 01:54:17 PM

this is a real big pet peeve of mine. I've found thousands of examples throughout my years of searching on the net, some of my all time classics are

"Original" meaning that the tool has an origin
"Leatherman" because it's a tool, and it has pliers
"Custom knife" because the owner messed up the blade by grinding it and completely mutilated the thing and was so terrified of the result that it had to go away and disappear by whatever means or ways
"Well used" meaning that the tool is FUBAR
"Slight marks of use" when the tool seems to have been thrown onto a diamond bladed meat grinder and left in the dirty water sink with the dishes for a couple decades

and of course the "perfect" tools that show all the implements (but the closed ones in the pic are broken, lost or bent), "immaculate" tools with dents, cracks, missing springs or misaligned parts, etc...of course, usually accompanied by a "seller doesn't admit returns"