Page 1 of 3

W4/G4AGV Martyn / Radio Mart - Buyers/Sellers Beware

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 1:08 am
by kn2m
I purchased some Collins equipment from Martyn before I read the feedback about him on EBay. Lots of people calling him dishonest, etc. Here is what he did to me. I saw a 516F-2 cabinet that he described as "exceptional". I paid a fairly high price for it. It was received missing the rear feet and included a Radio Shack speaker in it. Both items pretty much rule out an exceptional piece of gear, or maybe it does? More importantly, a WE 75S3-B receiver was purchased. It was advertised as being an exceptional example, and the best one he has ever seen. The radio stated looked exceptional and had no scratches and original paint. The case lid was a botch job repaint and even had brush strokes. An optional filter included was said to be intermittent (his spelling not mine). The filter not only did not work, but it rattled with loose parts. Martyn said in email to me the radio was as advertised and he never addressed the cabinet with missing feet. I have informed him he is either uninformed as to the condition of his equipment or he is selling things with dishonest and illintentioned advertising. This is really a shame. He will not deal with me in any resolution process. I have sent this on to mediation. I would suggest any hams interested in doing business be very wary of his descriptions of equipment. If exceptional means missing feet, I guess then I am wrong and stand corrected. Please refer to ebay items 3069158932 and 3069159123 for more photos and description. I was taken.

Martyn (Collins Sales )e-Bay Ripoffs

Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2004 2:56 am
by k8pjq
This character needs a seeing eye dog. Everything he advertises on e-Bay is near mint, and of course always used by him in his collection for ______(fill in the bogus time period) , and found to be perfect operational condition. His photographs are cleverly taken in questionable lighting conditions and background to give the best appearance. I got burnt by him a long time ago ,and yes, its true he makes no amends for complaints. Suggest you give negative feedback and notify e-Bay fraud division like I did. Good luck

Radio Mart

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:45 am
by wr0t
I can't say that I have ever bought anything from Martyn but I have sold him thousands of dollers worh of gear. I always trust him to send me a MO and he does without fail.

He drove to my QTH which is about 800 miles from him and bought all of my tube stock.

No problem at all....... on this end.

A few people know that I used to be one of the larger Collins collectors around with some 53 pieces of gear until I decided to start operating gear instead of trying to keep it working. That is however another story.

My point is the condition of gear is different in the eyes of the seller and buyer. No two people have the same opinion, never have never will.

Some paint work on a lid and some problem feet does not mean that you got ripped off. BTW, the Radio Shack speaker is the AUTHORIZED one from the CCA. It is actually a much better speaker. I probably have a dozen or so Collins speakers in the garage left over from when I restored Collins gear, I always replaced the speakers. That is unless I have already thrown them away.

Mint is still in the factory box and never opened. There is NO MINT COLLINS gear.

If you want true mint, free of dust, and not requiring anything but plugging it up and playing. RUN, DO NOT WALK FROM ANY COLLINS DEAL AND BUY NEW GEAR.

It is foolish to think that you are going to find any mint Collins gear and unless you have the skill and time to work on it. Stay away from it.

Martyn Allison

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:31 pm
by kd0pd
Hello Everyone,
I'm glad to see somewhere that other buyers can say exactly what they want to say about Martyn Allison of Sadieville, Kentucky. I've been burned by him over the last 5 or so dealing I've had with him. He is a crook, cheat, thief and liar of the lowest class. He constantly mis-represents his radio gear on all of his ads on QTH and e-bay as well. I have reported him to every authority available but of no consiquence I'm sorry to say. He just keeps on doing his thing and taking advantage of serious and honest people. If you think you are good at getting a fair purchase from him, think again! He has made and art out of cheating others and is real good at it. Every single piece of equipment I've gotten from him is the last year or two has been highly mis-represented. I suggest you watch out for yourself whenever you deal with him on anything.

Sincerely,

Kd0pd

Re: Martyn Allison

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:42 pm
by KA9FOX
kd0pd wrote:I've been burned by him over the last 5 or so dealing I've had with him. He is a crook, cheat, thief and liar of the lowest class. He constantly mis-represents his radio gear on all of his ads on QTH and e-bay as well.
I don't mean to offend, but what kind of person gets burned, then goes back for more... 4 more times ????????

- Scott KA9FOX

Ripped

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:26 pm
by wr0t
Well, Scott beat me to it. I could never see anyone getting ripped five times. For me once is enough. There is a fellow on Epay as well as QTH that is a junk dealer in CA who has a half a dozen names and Epay ID's. I see prases being posted about him which is fine for some people. He ripped me one time and that was enough.

I went to Epay and looked at the two items in question. I can see nothing wrong with the listings and I see no attempt to deceive. On the feet issue. They cost a whole 1.00 each maybe he does not have the access to them that I do and maybe he does not have the time to change them.

As to the rig, that price was a STEAL, I would have never sold one at that price. I think the lowest I ever sold even a "fixer upper" was 1100.00.

As to buying on Epay, you are not going to get top of the line stuff there period. If you wanted a "top of the line" piece of collins gear, I suggest you contact the CCA for a referal to a restoring dealer. However, be prepaired to pay about 2K for the same thing in "plug and play condition"

As I have said many times before the collecting and use of vintage gear such as Collins is not for the newby or a non technical person. It is for people that like to share and preserve history.

Hmmm.

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:47 pm
by K4ICL
When a fellow ham advertises a piece of equipment as being in excellent condtion I DO NOT EXPECT TO FIND THE FEET MISSING, CRYSTALS MISSING, TUBES MISSING, MISALIGNMENT, SCRATCHES ON THE CABINET, ETC. ETC. ETC.

No excuses... if it is NOT excellent, he lied.

Vintage Gear

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:42 pm
by wr0t
Geez guys. We are talking about 40 and 50 year old radios here, not just produced 30 days ago gear. People need to get real.

I checked the feedback of the guys doing the griping on EBay. Feedbacks of 1, give me a break, they are newbys to EBay buying. I see no problems with the listings, the price or the terms, or the pictures. They should have bought new gear and left Collins collection to the well informed and those with the technical ability.

You will NEVER buy a piece of gear on EBay that you do not have to do something to unless it comes from a ham dealer, still sealed in the box.

Like I said before those prices were steals. One of the reasons that I flat refused to sell Collins gear to anyone if they were not a collector was to avoid this kind of uninformed thinking and crap.

I am not necessarly defending Martyn but I hate to see a well respected ham ragged on by a couple of guys that are not informed on vintage gear and probably had buyers remorse about trying to justify the price and finding out that vintage Collins gear does not really perform that well today.

Go ahead and file your EBay fraud compaints, but you will get no where as what you are complaining about is purely subjective and differences of opinions.

The thread is going no where and is not accomplishing anything except for smearing someone. Go to Ebay and play your games there.

There are probably a dozen or so guys that will sware I cheated them or ripped them off over the years and a few others that have never even heard of me will chime in with the same crap and in 40 + years of dealing in ham gear, I have never had even one complaint.

So if you feel that you were so wronged, take the gear to a well known service shop, pay to have it inspected and verified aginst the pictures and the EBay listing. Get signed and notorized statements attesting to the condition.

Have Professional pictures taken of the areas of complaints and have them notorized and signed as well.

Prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the gear arrived to you in that condition, and then go hire a lawyer and take him to the cleaners.

Until that is done enough of these childlike games.

I guess what I am really saying, to phrase it bluntly is. PUT UP OR SHUT UP.

Prove what you are saying with documents, dealer reports, professional pictures or SHUT UP.

Trust me, if I were Martyn, this would have all already been turned over to a llawyer..

HuH?

Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:15 pm
by K4ICL
"Geez guys. We are talking about 40 and 50 year old radios here, not just produced 30 days ago gear. People need to get real."

What does the age of the equipment have to do with the condition that is stated in an ad to sell it? It does not matter if it is one day old or a hundred years old; if it is is said to be in excellent condition, it SHOULD ACTUALLY BE IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.

If we accept the logic that the age of equipment is an exceptable excuse to say it is excellent when it is not, then all old equipment should be rated as EXCELLENT, regardless of what condition it is in. This is nonsense.

I repeat, there is no excuse for lying about the condition of equipment when offering to sell it.

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:14 pm
by k4kk
I've sold equipment on QTH and eBay. I try to be honest. I've bought on both as well. I've been burned twice. Once I got nothing for a fairly large investment ($1500) in a crook's retirement fund. Another time I got a piece of crap in trade that was explained to me as "excellent." I have it on eBay right now (Item # 3073366242). It did not sell on QTH and off it went to eBay. I will try to recoup some of my loss. I try to be honest and think that listing is honest.

It seems rather telling that the complaints are from those that have purchased from Martyn and the support is from one that sold to him! It would appear that the clear lesson to be learned is that he is a good buyer but questionable seller!

Seller or buyer

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 11:41 pm
by wr0t
Yes, I have been a seller to Martyn but I would buy from him sight unseen any time based on what he tells me.

I want to address this issue of the "junk" 75S3B and 516F2 cabinet.

As I said before, these prices were a STEAL. If I were still in the business of restoration, I could take the receiver, repalace a 50.00 filter, maybe repaint a lid if needed, align and test and sell it for upwards of 2000.00 any day of the week as I have people still calling me wanting gear and I have been out of it for almost 2 years now.

As to the 516F2 cabinet, I would take the speaker out as it was a customer mod. Collins never at any time ever produced a PS cabinet with a speaker stuck in front of it. NO NEVER. After a good cleaning and buffing, I would make a couple of calls and get 500.00 for it anytime.

I went to the attic and pulled some of my old Collins design info and wanted to share these little known facts.

The only time a 516F2 cabinet is furnished with rear feet is when it is shipped with a 516F2 power supply either installed or shipped with it.

As to the filter issue. The ALS of the 7/16" square filters used in the later S lines was 12 to 15 years. ALS= Acceptable Life Span. I have had a Collins mechanical filter fail and rattle from moving a rig 12" across a table. It seems that the adhesive holding the filter assy to the bottom of the case dries up and breaks. I was even surprised that it had 2 filters in it, it would not have left my shop like that.

Of course handling in shipping could never cause that. SURE....

Now for the paint issue on the lid. I bet it came from Collins like that. Some of the worst paint jobs I have ever seen came straight out of the box from Collins and yes, I saw many hundred straight out of the box S Lines.

I still contend that these newbys had no idea of vintage gear and was expecting a factory fresh rig and there is NO such thing in the Collins line.

The CCA grading list is not all that accurate in the grade excellent also.

Like I said before, if it will shut these guys up, send me an address and I will send you a couple of NOS Collins feet.

Geez, am I ever glad I quit restoring Collins while I still had a mind. This kind of crap is not necessary. Know what you are buying, make a personal inspection, have it shipped to a dealer for inspection but above all remember this is 50 year old stuff.

If these guys are so unhappy, list them on EBay with the "defects" they claim and see what they will bring. It will be a chance for them to make some $$ and quit griping about nothing.. :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

Martyn Allison

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 1:59 am
by W0LPQ
As unpopuilar as it may be, I have to fully agree with Mr. Diamond, WRØT. I have also bought and sold from Martyn, and have NEVER had a problem. We chattet on the phone and met him in Cincinnati. Nothing was ever misrepresented either via e-mail, telephone or in person.

Regarding Collins, I retired in 2002 from them after 30+ years. What Bill says is pretty much the way it is and was.

Would I deal with him again, sure would. No questions asked.

73

Bill, WØLPQ

UPDATE 02-15-04 All eBay listings by Radio Mart disappear!

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2004 11:40 pm
by kn2m
This is not an editorial. At about 3PM today, all listings by Radio-Mart on eBay suddenly disappeared. It is presumed, eBay directed by complaints might have pulled all the listings. Radio-Mart is also no longer a registered user, according to eBay. I think it would be unlikely for him to pull them himself and withdraw as a registered user. I just thought some of the people with either positive, negative or other experience with Martyn might be interested in the latest news.

Radio Mart

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 1:41 am
by w9gc
I don't know anything first hand about Martyn's past dealings. I do see his being narued form ebay as interesting. Also notice that he is still running ads on qth, but now his name doesn't appear anywhere. He always used to put it on his ad's. If the heat gets to high, I guess you have to get out of the kitchen?

His current ad is for a "perfect condition" rig, yeah right!

John Lovallo
W9GC

Martyn Allison

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 2:14 am
by kd0pd
To Whom It May Concern,
Martyn Allison doesn't know what perfect is. He's never had anything perfect. If he says it's very very nice, it's rough, if he says it's very nice, it's very very very rough and if he doesn't say, it 's junk. He's nothing short of being a bare faced liar. If you deal with him you had better add a little for risk and if you can afford to add a little for risk, you can afford something better. I won't trust him with anything he says. I'm the dumb jerk who's bought may items from him and got the short end of the stick in every case. You wouldn't believe the war stories on his dealings. The truth is now comming out. Just watch yourself if you buy anything from him. He will, yes will pick your pocket real well.

Jerry Wells kd0pd

I did once .. but never again!

Posted: Thu Feb 19, 2004 10:10 am
by W8AMR
Now that Martyn has been disconnected from Ebay, he may show up more here so ... BUYER BEWARE!

I paid him $1100 for a MINT Henry 2K4. I drove to Sadieville to pick it up and met Mr. Martyn. He repeatedly lied to me about it's condition. The best was that it had been rolled to the door waiting for my arrival. When I asked to see it powered up he claimed that he didn't have 220 available. His whole house air conditioning was running fine .. must have been running on 110!

Got the unit home and HV was dead. If I had known there was a problem earlier, the photos that he shot and sent to me to show the inside, clearly showed the HV transformer secondary disconnected. The bridge rectifier was shorted. When I asked him about a statement that he made regarding seeing HV of about 3100 volts on the HV meter, I asked him which meter he saw it on the right or the left. He very confidentally said the right meter of course. HV is read on the "left" meter on the 2K4.

I would not buy anything from him, at any time or under any circumstance.

and if you were the guy that sold him the 2K4 that I got .. shame on you too!

--Larry

Re: UPDATE 02-15-04 All eBay listings by Radio Mart disappea

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2004 4:14 am
by KA9FOX
kn2m wrote:At about 3PM today, all listings by Radio-Mart on eBay suddenly disappeared. It is presumed, eBay directed by complaints might have pulled all the listings. Radio-Mart is also no longer a registered user, according to eBay.
radio-mart has been reinstated at eBay -- he is no longer suspended. And check out his feedback:

http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.d ... radio-mart

C'mon guys, he has had over 3000 feedbacks, with over 96% positive. If he was some rip off artist, how could he get feedback like this?

- Scott KA9FOX

Martyn Allison Radio-Mart

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:10 pm
by kd0pd
Come on Scott, 120 or more negative e-bay feedbacks reports are not exactly on the plus side. How many others didn't complain because of the fear of getting a negative feedback report from his reply. He does that in every case you know. Use your head a bit. If you want to put up with him, that's your business but as long as he has a place to sell his junk and do his lying, cheating and thiefing ways someone else with get hurt by him.

Jerry Wells kd0pd

Ebay

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:46 pm
by wr0t
Sure wish I had a 96% positive feedback on Epay back when I was on years ago.

What do you think the feedback rateing would be for AES, R&L, Ham Station, HRO etc? It sure would not be 100 % because I would have personally given every one of them a big fat neg for business practice.

Every day as I see feedbacks, gripes etc. I have to ask myself what has the internet done to Ham Radio??

It is so easy for someone to buy something that has a loose screw or is .00001Hz off of alignment and smear someone with a keyboard...

In the good old days, stuff was sold to hams at hamfests ( no offence Scott) and if somthing was not right, you would see the seller at the next fest and you talked about it and worked things out like gentlemen.

If not there was always the old Arkansas "redneck" way, ya meet out back and settle it...

Come on guys lets let this thing die it is getting boreing....

There is not a business in the world that has had 3000+ sales without a few complaints.

Next time you get ready to buy a car for 40,000 ask for the dealers feedback first. Yea right............

I am not in any way compareing Martyn to Christ but look what happened to him when a few people didn't like him.

I personlly think that Martyn is being a true gentleman by not blasting, the complaints on a public forum with his side of the facts.

As to revenge on feedback, you bet, if I got a unfounded neg, they got one also.

If you look at Ebay in general it is an "eye for an eye" With very few exceptions a neg always gets a neg.
:roll: :roll:

Martyn

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2004 3:40 am
by AB3L
Let's see, do a google search for "multicomm2000" go under "Bry's" pages for dealers.

Is this the same Martyn?


Now, what was mentioned about something that is ruining ham radio?

Martyn Multicomm2000

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 5:01 pm
by AB3L
I bid for and won a manual for a R-390 or A, described as an "original" that he was selling on Ebay. Picture wasn't the greatest but I went for it anyway. He claimed the manual came with a radio he had gotten from Rick Mish. I contacted Rick and he knew of no such radio.
Turned out it was a copy manual. Now, if I want a copy, I can think of about five different vendors to get one from.
It took a bit of going back and forth to get out of the sale, despite the threats from him.

As for his using other's reputation to aid his sales as in the Mish reference, he also used Howard Mills name in his sale for some black box items recently. Once Howard found out about it he traced the serial numbers of the advertised radio's with his records and found that he never touched them. He contacted Martyn to have the reference wording changed.

In my case I was lucky it was a low buck item. I figured if he could'nt get the manual info correct then how is he describing the big buck items? No thanks........

Thank you for the medium to express the facts!

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2004 1:45 pm
by beliveauj
I have to take back what I said about Martyn.I had him mixed up with someone else.Martyn did buy something from me and I had no problem with anything at all and would deal with him again anytime.To Martyn I want to say that I'm very very sorry. Jim

Martyn Radio-Mart Multicomm2000

Posted: Wed Jul 14, 2004 11:48 am
by AB3L
An update to this thread: Radio-Mart is no longer a registered user with Ebay.
The Multicomm2000 webpage that was referenced to in a prior post is no longer available on the WWW.

Lately there was an Ebay dealer named "Gottahaveit1995" selling ham gear. The pictures for the sales had the same red cloth background as Martyn used in the "Radio-Mart" sales. Same form of listing "look". Also based out of Kentucky. This dealer is now an unregistered user also.

I just checked the feedback for "gottahaveit1995" and apparantly it was Martyn as a negative feedback states that apparantly Martyn was bidding on his own items sold by Radio-Mart.


Hopefully the later buyers didn't get nailed.
As I found out with another seller who became unregistered after our transaction, Ebay won't do anything about my crushed 32V-2 that was damaged in shipment.

radio mart again

Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2004 10:39 pm
by N9AMI
Guys this is the same guy I just got a foot up my butt from him. I sold him a radio that we had a problem with shipping. It got lost came back, he called the local police to say I was commiting fraud. Anyhow he got his stuff and now is trying to extort money from me for his "stress" on waiting for the radio. He was mad because I left him a note letting him know what I thought of him. I didnt know what was up untill it was to late or I would of never sold this to him. I got lots of info today on this person and feel so much better. I guess alot of police agencies have files on him. I am forwarding everything i find to my local police and printing everything I have for my records. Guys feel free to email with what happened to you and I will print and put that in the file also.

John W9JCM 73

Post subject: Martyn (Collins Sales )e-Bay Ripoffs

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 8:18 pm
by pa2db Marcus
Hi all, i bought two times a Icom 756-pro2 from Martyn through Ebay. I must be honnest and tell that the shippment was quick, good packed and that booth TRX's where exactly as described. Also his feedback on Ebay was not that bad so i take the step to do it. After reading this forum i still will buy from Martyn but will make good appointments:-) 73's marcus pa2db