u/Ok_Tower6618

I am absolutely furious. As a vintage PC collector, I managed to hunt down a legendary, extremely rare International Memories Inc. (IMI 5012H) 10MB MFM hard drive from 1983 for my low-serial IBM PC/XT 5160 restoration project. This drive is a holy grail, and the plastic front bezel with the IBM logo was intact.

The seller shipped it safely within the US, but then eBay's "Global Shipping / eBay International Shipping (eIS)" hub got their hands on it. Their genius warehouse workers ripped open the original secure packaging and threw this heavy, fragile 43-year-old piece of history into a flimsy cardboard box with almost zero protection to save on shipping costs.

Result? The drive arrived in Poland completely destroyed. The original, irreplaceable plastic front cover (bezel) is shattered into pieces, and the internal mounting clips are snapped off. A piece of computing history, gone forever because of corporate laziness.

But wait, it gets worse. When I opened a damage claim, the seller tried to wash their hands of it, telling me to "take the win" because the automated system briefly glitched. Then, a support agent named Kelsee from eIS stepped in and showed peak corporate heartlessness. Despite having clear photos of the shattered drive ruined by THEIR hub, eBay refuses to issue a refund unless I physically ship this heavy, destroyed iron brick BACK to the US before August 27th.

They expect me to waste my precious time running around to a DHL Express point to fix THEIR logistics mistake, completely ignoring the fact that I have a strict, pre-booked service deadline for this machine and am moving to Belgium right after. They destroyed it, they forced me to buy a second drive out of my own pocket just to get a replacement bezel, and now they expect me to do free labor for them to get my money back.

This platform has zero respect for buyers, zero respect for rare history, and zero professionalism. Avoid eBay International Shipping at all costs if you care about your vintage items. They will smash your gems and tell you to deal with their bureaucracy.

[TUTAJ WRZUĆ ZDJĘCIA ROZWALONEJ KLAPKI I SCREENY OD KELSEE]

Hi everyone,I recently uncovered two incredible pieces of computing history from a dry garage, and one of them is an absolute enigma. I wanted to share this discovery with the community and see if anyone has ever encountered something similar.The first machine is a beautiful, untouched 1983 IBM 5160 PC/XT (matching numbers on the board/cables/PSU, low serial number 0055546, original blank cover plate, no HDD config, with an IBM 5151 monitor and Model F keyboard).But the real mystery is the second machine. On the outside, it’s a classic European-spec IBM 5170 PC/AT. However, peering inside revealed a complete period-correct industrial upgrade:Architecture: It runs on a passive backplane with a 16-bit Single Board Computer (SBC) processor card.Chipset: Legendary Chips & Technologies NEAT chipset with original dual Even/Odd BIOS ROM chips intact.Storage: A dual MFM hard drive setup consisting of a Seagate ST-225 and a rare Japanese NEC D5126 connected to a dedicated ISA controller.The Ultimate "White Whale": The Sinfravox ISA CardSlotted into the backplane is a speech synthesis card labeled Sinfravox. After hours of searching the web, specialized retro databases (like The Retro Web), and old forums, there is not a single photo or mention of this card anywhere on the internet.The only academic trace points to late 1980s French medical/scientific papers (the Anapro project), suggesting this card was custom-built in extremely low quantities for audiology, speech therapy, or AI phonetic research in European labs. The card features a large EPROM chip with a white label (likely holding firmware or voice samples) and a 20.000 MHz crystal oscillator.The electronics are in pristine condition with no battery leaks or structural damage. I’m currently preserving the machines as-is.Has anyone here ever seen or heard of the Sinfravox card? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this custom laboratory build!

How eBay International Shipping (eIS) destroys rare 1983 computer history and tells the buyer to "deal with it"

Found an absolute unicorn in a dry garage: IBM 5170 AT Custom Industrial Build with a "Sinfravox" Speech Synthesis ISA Card (Never before seen on the internet!)