dave343 wrote:

Has anyone had experience ordering parts off ebay from a Ukraine seller...? There seem's to be quite a few sellers on ebay with 486 hardware, and at decent prices. Maybe I'm wrong but does Paypal and ebay protect? I'm tempting to pull the trigger on a 486 PCI board, but I'm a bit skeptical... that and with the conflict going on how's the postal system affected?

I saw that seller, too... But wasn't brave enough to ever buy one!
Please share your experience with us if you finally pulled that trigger 🤣

Usually the postage is quite expensive.

I bought from Ukraine before the Russia-Ukraine conflict and it was fine, payed 10 Euros for shipping. I did not use any kind of protection though.

How long did the shipping take?

dave343 wrote:

How long did the shipping take?

But he is in Russia. Shipping would likely be much less costly and must faster compared to north america

Same thing: bought some CPUs and cache chips from Ukraine seller (artifact systems, that is), and had positive experience. That was also before the conflict started.

dave343 wrote:

Has anyone had experience ordering parts off ebay from a Ukraine seller...? There seem's to be quite a few sellers on ebay with 486 hardware, and at decent prices. Maybe I'm wrong but does Paypal and ebay protect? I'm tempting to pull the trigger on a 486 PCI board, but I'm a bit skeptical... that and with the conflict going on how's the postal system affected?

This is a very strange question, because you're always protected on eBay as long as you use it to buy stuff. Although you have to follow one simple rule all the time and it's to ask a seller to pack it well.

I did also buy stuff from Ukrainian sellers. Besides having to deal with customs (which obviously slows things a lot) i had no other problems. Shipping cost is quite expensive. But shipping from North America to Europe isn't cheap either so...

If you really want that board go for it.

I bought a VLB Tekram card from Ukraine in the middle of the Russia/Ukraine conflict earlier this year. No problems, received the part in perfect condition in 2-3 weeks. Actually the funny thing is that there was fighting in Kiev live on the news as I bought the card 🤣

I got a few 386 gear from them. It all turned out fine but the packing is the worst. One 386 board was in a bubble wrap envelope 😒 No other protection! But it still worked.

I've had a good experience with that guy too, packaging and communication was fine.

A bit off topic, but years ago - well before the conflict - I bought lots of russian camera gear from ukraine sellers on ebay, never had a problem. My first ebay transaction was purchasing from ukraine using western union money transfer 🤣, luckily the seller was honest.

I have bought from the Ukraine in the thick of the conflict. The packages always arrived. However, be careful of his auctions that claim he does not know if the board works or not. I bought one such motherboard under those conditions and it was dead. It was not damaged in shipping and it was wrapped in a grey-colour anti-static bag (per my request). After the cost of shipping and the goods, I was out approximately $40.

I bought a 286 motherboard from that guy (if it's the same one I'm thinking of artifact_systems) but I have become wary of him in the last year because he now lists his stuff as 'for collection only', which means he probably got some return requests in the past and now does not want to deal with them any longer. If you get something from him and it doesn't work, you'll be out of luck for getting your money back. There's a certain chip vendor from China who has done the same thing. As long as they list the parts as non-working, they can get away with it. If they list the parts as working and they don't, then ebay/Paypal will step in because they were dishonest from the start. Once you pay for it, your money is gone. You might get a working part, or you might get a part that is only good for gold scrap.

It is my fear that this may become a trend in vintage electronic items, where every seller lists his items as non-working just to avoid having to make returns later. Ebay/Paypal can't very well force a seller to accept a return of a non-working item if it is listed as non-working, though they may instead decide to ban non-working items from being sold on ebay if it becomes a problem with too many unhappy buyers complaining. Ebay always bends over backwards to make sure the buyers are happy even if they have to unfairly penalize the sellers and they don't have to. Ebay is the biggest online auction site in the world. It's not as if the buyers have too many other places to go.

I recently purchased a cheap display adapter (an Expertcolor S3 card, just because it is accepting my Scenix M2 daughter board) from an Ukrainian seller without any problems. Shipment was ok, too (though I live in the same continent, that's for sure.. 😊 ). Ordered on 05.11 and delivered on 15.11.

Just because some rebels/governments are at war does not directly imply the entire country turned evil and hostile... right?

jwt27 wrote:

Just because some rebels/governments are at war does not directly imply the entire country turned evil and hostile... right?

Yeah, but how do you really know who you're buying from when they're half a world away? This guy could be a pro-Russian separatist for all we know and the money you're sending him could be being used to help arm the rebels. You can never really know for sure. I personally prefer to stop sending my money to countries that are in the middle of a civil war.