BVM-20F1E Shipping?

[Jademalo]

I've been on the lookout for one of these ever since I saw the spectacular thread about it, and finally I may have a chance to actually purchase one. However, it's ~350 miles away from me on the other side of England, and if I was to pick it up in person would cost me ~£100 in petrol and take 13 hours. Probably not the best or most fun of outings...

Because of that, I've been looking at trying to get it shipped. I'm willing to pay a decent amount, but as of right now I'm not having much luck finding ANYONE who can actually ship it.
Apologies if this is in the wrong place, but does anyone have any experience getting a big heavy CRT the length of england? I'd really appreciate some advice as opportunities like this don't seem to come around too often.

Thanks!

[Ed Oscuro]

Shipping adds the potential for breakage and bustage. Taking it yourself will eliminate the worry about having this hard-to-find equipment destroyed by a disinterested and underpaid loader.

I don't know if there is enough data on here about people who have had things destroyed in shipping, and whether 350 miles in-country makes the difference. For what it's worth, I had a PVM shipped about twice that distance and it seems to have fared well, so if the convenience is important and you're willing to spend some time on a return or repairs if necessary, then it's okay.

How the seller packs the thing is vitally important also.

[BubbaMc]

If I were you I'd do the road trip

How many hours are on the unit btw?

I had a BVM-A20F1U shipped halfway around the world without issue, worked out to $550AUD from California to Australia.

[Jademalo]

Not totally sure on the hours, waiting for the seller to get back to me on that. The preview shots looked good though, and I think it may even come with a 21D board.

The more I'm reading and the more I'm struggling to get a courier that will do more than 25kg, the more worried I'm becoming. Equally, a 13 hour road trip with £100 worth of fuel doesn't sound like the most exciting prospect... If the unit turns out to have both the 21D and low hours, I might take the trip. If not, I'll see if I can get shipping for £30ish.

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any benchmark hours of quality? I know ~50k seems to be average, but what should I be looking for, and what should be avoided?

[BubbaMc]

Mine has 9000 but I think 100k or less would be fine.

[Jademalo]

Daaamn, that's insanely low. I can't think of an application that it would have been used for that would have that few, it's impressive. Thanks.

[BubbaMc]

The A series are 2007 models, so most would have low hours. They do pop up on ebay every now and then, could be another option for you if you wanted to wait for one.

Problem is they don't come with RGB/component inputs as standard, and the input cards and controllers hardly ever show up on ebay.

[Jademalo]

What is the tube like on 15khz sources in comparison to the normal 20F1E? I've barely heard anything about them and searches don't tend to show much. Since I'm only really wanting this for 15khz older consoles, I'm tempted to go for this one. Especially since the addin cards for PAL/NTSC seem to be a bit easier to come by.

[Ed Oscuro]

The A series are 2007 models, so most would have low hours. They do pop up on ebay every now and then, could be another option for you if you wanted to wait for one.

Problem is they don't come with RGB/component inputs as standard, and the input cards and controllers hardly ever show up on ebay.

There are also reports of these not display Neo Geo MVS output.

Also, the prices are crazy expensive.

[BubbaMc]

^ Interesting.

What is the tube like on 15khz sources in comparison to the normal 20F1E? I've barely heard anything about them and searches don't tend to show much. Since I'm only really wanting this for 15khz older consoles, I'm tempted to go for this one. Especially since the addin cards for PAL/NTSC seem to be a bit easier to come by.

For 15khz only I'd get the one you're looking at.

[Jademalo]

Alright, the more I'm looking into this and the more I'm thinking about it, the more I'm considering taking the trip to pick it up. The cost of the trip would be negligible compared to shipping anyway, it's just the 13 hours it would take.

Now all I need to do is win...

Thanks for the info guys!

[BubbaMc]

Ebay is it?

Good luck. Consider using a bid sniping site if you're determined to have it.

[Jademalo]

Bid sniping site?

I've actually never bid on eBay properly, normally I've managed to get Buy It Nows or best offers. Would something like that not be against the terms of service?

[BubbaMc]

No it's not against the terms of service.

[plasticxo]

The best would be to go and test and pick it up yourself. But I guess it depends a lot on the price before shipping.

You'd be more comfortable when powering it up at home. If it arrived with flaws which were not listed when you bought, there would be no way to know if you were scammed or if it was handled badly during transport...

[Ed Oscuro]

If you're going to go through the trouble of going to the site to pick up the item, I don't know why you'd pass up the opportunity to test it there, rather than deal with getting it home and then find out it's got problems. I would take some little piece of equipment along to test (though you will probably need some BNC connectors to do that).

[Jademalo]

Yeah, I'm considering doing just that.
It may be a bit more difficult though, since the guy said he could potentially meet me halfway, though that's just a possibility. I'll try and grab an RGB scart to bnc cable and get an RGB scart cable for my megadrive, that should be fairly easy to get ahold of.