I have more than 400 stars and have purchased hundreds and hundreds of items on eBay.

I have had some occasional troubles and lately, more than before.

But even though the last story is worth a laugh (at my expense but only some tens of USD and at least I have very nice example of Chinese counterfeit gone wild) today's story is more of the "grieving" kind.

As some of you know, I've been bitten by the speed demon again. I want to play with discrete ECL gates and I need the fastest scope I can reasonably get (as if I needed an excuse to get the best gear for my lab). No DSO for me, because I don't trust them enough (at my price point at least), and it seems the fastest analog scope can reach 500MHz for some theoretical reasons (damned RC constants !). But even if I can't fully exploit the 500MHz "bandwidth" of the AF240, there can be all sorts of "very fast" circuits to design in the foreseeable future. For example, I have 250MHz SSRAMs and the lousy FPGA I use are rated up to 350MHz.

Recently I found an amazing deal: a Tektronix 2465 with original probes, anno 1995 is perfect condition, for a very affordable price and the shipping+customs was nice too. Sorry, no name, it was the last one of a batch... Very fast shipping (5 days from order to delivery), well packaged (sheets over sheets of bubble wrap), works great and will do for the coming 20 years (if I can hack the backup battery). Price: 150 USD, shipping: 42.64 USD, customs: 38.49USD. Total : 231.13 USD with expedited "international shipping program". A steal. Tek-love at first sight.

But 4×300MHz doesn't cut it and I have no idea what signals I'll have to treat in the coming decade or two. I need an analog speed demon. I looked around and the suspect is the Tektronix 11302, a modular "boat anchor" capable of 500MHz with bells, whistles and even a drum. The last of a long lineage of Tektro tradition. I found the service manual, looked at forums to get an idea and browsed eBay.

I found one in Italy (close to my French home) for about $300 and $60 shipping. Nice but only one 11A32 (2×400MHz) module. That doesn't scratch the surface. Looking at spare modules, I see that the price will climb quicky if I want to populate the other 2 free slots (one slot cover is missing, which is "no-no"-ed in the service manual, but that's a detail).

Then I found a well-equiped 11302 (not 11302A) with 2×11A32 (same 2×400MHz as above) and one 11A71 (1GHz@50 Ohms, yipeeee) in the USofA (but no probe). Seller writes: "Garanteed" and "use ebay's global shipping program". So I "bid in confidence". And win !

I'm elated by the 2465 and happy that it has a big brother, gotten for barely more: around 180$ only ! The seller has thousands of stars, the unit works, so what could go wrong ?

Let's start with the time taken to decide about shipment, which added a bit of suspense.

Some pictures:

I find a peace of plastic while I remove the flakes. What can it be ? Oh, a foot...

The unit still in the box, most of the flakes have been removed: there is only one layer of thin bubble wrap in the frond and in the back. One more layer around.

Surprise: another foot is missing !

And the case shows a bump

The unit sitting on it side. The screen is "falling" inside its frame. Not good!!!

The broken screen

The tube is not repairable. Changing it requires a complete recalibration, if I ever find a spare part, which, for price, the would come as another complete unit...

The scope was obviously improperly packaged.

The cardboard box sustained most of the damage but was slightly deformed. Sorry I didn't think I should take a picture because I thought it was well protected inside.

The big mistake was with the filling. The unit should have been copiously wrapped in a lot of thick bubble wrap sheets. The previous scope (2465) came with bubble wrap only. Not only did protected the scope, but also created enough "pressure" inside the box to keep it rigid.

On the contrary, the flakes behaved like a "fluid" and moved around the unit instead of protecting it. They are nice for light and small items but their density is insufficient for large and heavy items, so they buoy. Bubble wrap doesn't move.

There can be improper handling during shipment but who cares if there is no "FRAGILE" sticker ? Not even an "up/down" indication, because it shouldn't sit on its front face or the backside.

I still wonder how one foot has been broken, and how the other has simply vanished.