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Bought a $380 "avionics pinning kit" from a guy on Facebook and 9 of the 14 tools were junk
Saw a listing back in March from a guy in Wichita clearing out his late father's hangar, and the photos showed a full pinning kit with the extractor set I'd been eyeing for a while. I sent him $380 through a money app, no receipt, no nothing, because the pics looked legit and he answered fast. When the box showed up, 9 of the 14 tools were either rusted solid, missing the plunger, or cheap stamped copies that bent the first time I got a stubborn pin out of a cannon plug. The extractor I actually wanted was there, but it was a no name brand with a tip so soft it deformed on the third connector, which I found out the hard way on a King Air job at 11pm. I ended up buying the real set from the supply house for $190, so I'm out $570 total for one usable tool and a lesson about buying avionics tools off marketplace listings. The guy ghosted me the second I asked for a partial refund, which I should've seen coming. Curious if anybody here has a go to way of vetting sellers before sending cash, or do you just refuse to buy pin tools used no matter how good the pics look?
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karen_hart24d ago
Ouch, that one stings. Here's a thing nobody thinks about with these estate sale listings, the guy selling his late dad's stuff may not know a cannon plug from a spark plug, so when he says "full kit" he's just going off what the box looks like, not what's actually in it. That's not even a scam most of the time, it's just a guy clearing a garage who genuinely can't tell a good extractor from a bent one. The problem is once you send that money app payment it's gone, so your only real shot is asking for a short video of the tool in use on a connector before you pay, and if he won't do that you walk. I'd also ask what brand is stamped on the tools and reverse image search his photos, since fakers lift pics from old forum posts all the time. And yeah, refusing used pin tools unless it's a known brand with the name visible in the pic is honestly the safe move.
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