rhys wrote:
You know, Peggie, while there's a lot of things I would consider
buying on eBay, I think I speak for a lot of sailors when I say a
marine head isn't one of them.
Getting free advice from helpful people online like yourself is one
thing...but the phrase "wow, a cheap old toilet!" ranks up there with
"wow, a paper mache hammer!" in terms of utility.
Not necessarily....I do occasionally see something worth bidding on. For
instance, if you can get a PH II, used or not, for about $150 that only
needs a $35 rebuild kit, that MIGHT be a good buy. A Wilcox Skipper or
Imperial would be an excellent buy for $200-$300, even if you had to put
$100-$200 into it, 'cuz those are $1000 toilets built to last at least
100 years. A company called Fore & Aft Marine has sold a couple of brand
new Lectra/San MC's on eBay...they went for about $100 less than in the
catalogs, making 'em a good buy.
Otoh, somebody else had anothr Lectra/San on eBay recently..." appears
to be new, never been installed." And from the photo, I'd agree. It sold
for about $400, which sounds like a great deal. Except the controller
was the original dial that's been obsolete for at least 15 years--you
can't even get parts for it any more, which means this unit has been
sitting on somebody's shelf for at least that long, maybe even longer.
It's gonna cost the "lucky" bidder more to put it into working condition
than he'd have to pay for a brand new one. When he finds that out, he'll
prob'ly put it back up on eBay to get his money back from another
unsuspecting soul.
I've seen "new" Mansfield (that brand went out of existance when SeaLand
bought Mansfield in 1984) VacuFlush toilets and TDX Type I MSDs (SeaLand
redesigned it and changed the name to SanX around 1990) on
Ebay...SeaLand manual toilets--SeaLand hasn't made manual toilets since
1986...toilets that are missing the pumps--just the bowl on the base is
left...toilets so obsolete I don't even have a clue what they were or if
all the parts are still there. The only value any of it has would be to
someone who has one of these systems and needs hardware parts that
aren't available any more...but unsuspecting bidders drive the prices
too high to even make that worthwhile.
So it's not just cheap old toilets, but allegedly brand new equipment
that you have be wary of buying on eBay. Occasionally, there ARE good
buys, but not often...so ask me to take a look before you bid.
--
Peggie
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Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://www.seaworthy.com/html/get_ri...oat_odors.html