eBay Otari MX5050BII 2 that may not be what it said in the description

There were other members who bought an Otari tape machine from eBay at a good price with the seller claiming it is well taken care of machine but find out it will cost a lot more to get it to proper operating condition.

Here's an ad with a title "Unused MINT" Otrai with BIN price of $1870 (it had no buyer at BIN $2000 last week):

http://cgi.ebay.com/Otari-50-50-BII...pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item20ba1dd7ea

Furthermore, the ad states:

"It is ABSOLUTELY MINT
BRAND NEW

Used to master only 1 project when it was first bought,
it has had no more than 15 hours of tape run on it.

It is in brand new condition,
a fact that can be confirmed by contacting Reel Pro Sound,
the shop that checked the deck to be sure that it was in perfect shape and to make sure it was lubricated properly.
Reel Pro is one of the top facilities in the USA that specializes only in reel to reel decks."

First of all, if it was used even on one project, it is USED and not BRAND NEW.

For a machine that had "no more than 15 hours of tape run on it," the first photo shows massive razor marks on its headcover worthy of editing the entire Beetles Abby Road tape collection.

Secondly, the serial number with 183XXX tell us that it was made in 1983. I don't think the sell knew how to interprete the Otari numbering. For any Otaris made in 1983 and used only 15 hours would have frozen pinch roller pivot almost thrity years later - a common issue on all Otari tape machines due to strange lub they used that hardens over time.

Let's say, you should stay away from this one.

If I was Reel Pro, I would not want to associate with this seller...

Agree with Amir's assessment. At first, I thought there was something strange to have the first photo with a single Akai type hub and the rest of the photos showed original BII type Otari hubs. Considering the first photo has the usual eBay water mark symbol on lower right corner and none on the other photos, it's two different machines.

Just goes to show you...you never know what you gonna get until you get it from eBay.

Bruce B said:

Yeah... I'm confused. The first photo is not the same as the others. Too bad it doesn't have a "hour" meter.

Click to expand...

Well Bruce, having the hour meter on master recorder in most cases will not be the sure thing to represent the machine's actual use hours.

Studer A80 family of master recorders can have their runtime hour meter disconnected during operatin and show very low hours.
Studer A810s' runtime meter can be reset manually or will be reset when the MPU board battery is changed
Sony APR 5000 series machines' runtime hour meter can be modified to run backwards... getting younger by the hour.

Thus even with the machines with runtime meter showing very low hours...by the time it gets to you, you don't know what you have still...

On the other hand, one can generally look for wears on tape lift guides and of course the heads if they are original to gauge its usage history. (It reminds me of my very first car - used Ford Galexy 500 from the used car lot with low mileage... but with worn out brake paddle.) ;-)