clubconsoles wrote:The Curious thing about Mr Fred Abel is that he has over 7000 transactions on eBay (alias "thebentcoin") and NOT ONE negative in all that time of trading.
Now don't get me wrong, I am certainly NOT condoning what he is doing in his chop shop and butchering all this stimulators with phoney jackpots and fake strips, but you cant deny he has lots of satisfied customers on eBay.
To bad, but it seems there are so many collectors out there that don't do the research or due diligence before they buy, or maybe they just don't care that the restoration is not correct, who knows?
All quite sad in my Opinion.
Glad to see that others, besides myself, are keeping an eye on the Butchers doings, to keep these postings alive, and hopefully alert new collectors
of his constant shenanigans. Way too many have been burned with his Fantasy machines. I have personally talked to several collectors that had been
burned, but found out about what they purchased, much too late to do anything about it. They usually find out from someone else, whom then directs
them to me, to go over the details of how bad their purchase was. There have been 2 or 3 persons, that have made Fred take the machine back, for a
full refund, and hopefully others, that I haven't heard about. He may have a large feedback number, but most of it is for nickel & dime sales. He does
have a couple of negatives that don't show any longer, because of ebay's new policy of resetting the feedback to 100%, if you stay negative-free for the
following 12 months. I remember one negative being given because he sent someone an original slot award card, that got bent-up, because of his poor
packing. There was also a person that ended up with one of his bastardized machines, that gave him a neutral, which does no good. That should have
been a BIG negative.
Grant you, he does sell many original parts, which helps restorers complete a machine, when needed. Only drawback here, is when he lists a recast
part, and doesn't say what it is, as he knows full well, because he had them made. He just plays Dumb, with his 'Estate Sale' B.S. Some buyers that may
know an item is recast, have to be pretty desperate with most items, as the castings are atrocious. Have you ever noticed the jackpots, and back doors
that he must sand with 40 grit, and polishes, so that it looks even worse? Apparently many people do not use the magnify-feature on eBay listings, to
check his 'crappy-doings' out.
As you say, "there are so many collectors out there that don't do the research". How very true! That is the reason for trying to alert as many newbies
as possible, through the postings & photo's of his junk on this Forum. The sad thing, is all the ones that either don't find out what they are bidding on
soon enough, or as you say, "don't care".
I did notice one good thing recently. Since Morphy took over the VCA auctions, there was not a lot of the Butchers Crap on the block. But, there was one
trade stimulator that was listed. It was one of those Caille "Jr. Bell" fruit machines, that he turned into a 'Fantasy BaseBall' version, that never existed.
Keep up the good work, that some of you are doing, in tracking the Butchers doings. It seems that the only thing that is going to stop this clown, is when
he finally messes with the wrong person, that is going to have him fitted with a cement overcoat, and matching shoes!