I've bought a fair few items from pigletspice on ebay and they were all..
a.) as described,
b.) reasonably priced,
c.) well packed
and d.) quickly dispatched.
Avoid him and you miss out on some great stuff, imo.
He is a businessman, so if he sees something for £20, snaps it up and then sells it the next week for £40, where's the harm in that? If you don't like the prices/practice, you are at liberty to buy elsewhere.. but as we all know these discs are getting harder and harder to find and sellers are wiser to the situation now.
I'd do the same as pigletspice if surround music were my business, rather than my hobby and work to turn a healthy profit on things I find cheap that are sought after and fetch higher prices than I paid for them - that's business. What I wouldn't do is sell items as new when they're not, of course.
I'll add that SACDs I've bought from him described as "new and sealed" have most definitely been that, complete with slipcase/stickers/shrinkwrap intact.
For example, I bought Marvin Gaye's "Midnight Love" from him only last year, for £24.99.
Not the best price ever but when you factor in that it often sells for more now, that it's a UK seller and that i'm in the UK and that these things seldom come up on eBay from UK sellers, it's easy and a no-brainer.
The "Midnight Love" SACD arrived 2 days later, by Recorded Delivery, nicely packed in a padded mailer and was just as he stated in his listing. It was the European version, with card slipcase, shrinkwrap & sticker, all new. At no point did I suspect it was anything but "New", just as he described.
On occasion, items I've bought from him described as "new but not sealed" may well have been used (but very gently! so gently they're good as new) and not new after all and most likely better served by "mint" or "like new" descriptions, which is a bit naughty of him..
..but they may well be new after all. to give him (and others) the benefit of the doubt, there are many instances where new UK stock is unsealed on store shelves.
Over the years most small/independent music retailers here in the UK (for security reasons) have taken to opening their stock to remove the disc and retain it behind the counter, displaying the empty case.
other stores open the case to insert their own security system before resealing with their own sticker, the discs are sold new but not shrinkwrapped (HMV do the latter to this day). so the idea that stock can be "new but unsealed" is not a totally alien concept in this country, it's been common practice for years.
particularly if you are in the UK, thus avoiding long wait times/import duties hassle, etc, I recommend pigletspice.
he is not a shyster by any stretch of the imagination (I'll reserve that for the likes of Simon/dvd4music.com, who should be reported for fraud and put in jail.). there's far worse out there than him, believe me!
