That would suck so bad if you were waiting for your gear, got no email and not even excuses for then saw all the stuff you were supposed to be getting being sold to other people by the 'can't do a business transaction because of my landlord or respond to emails or answer a phone' guy on ebay.
If its really them bokken, you might want to try emailing that address. I think it would be a good way also to express your opinions of the business practices as well using ebay.
Tell the legals about it, they might be able to do something about the money going to them from the sale and divert some of it into your refund if you hurry.
They've been dumping inventory on ebay. At least I'm pretty sure it's them. As a long time customer of Santelli I recognize a lot of the items. When I first noticed the listings a couple of months ago it was pages and pages of stuff, now it's down to just a couple of pages.
If they were, they're not now. The equipment bags have either the Blade or Physical Chess logo on them.
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John Matus
Anchorage Fencing Club
I looked but only saw individual items for sale - used lame (with somebody's name on it!), an old mask from the NYC days (which probably should never be used after being up in somebody's attic). No sign of an inventory dump on eBay that I could see.
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"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, theory and practice are different."
Jeff, if you do a search using the seller's name, SVENKE007, you can see that he(or she) does have a lot of new equipment-and an ebay store. Just didn't see any Santelli stuff.
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John Matus
Anchorage Fencing Club
That makes sense. I tried by searching for "Santelli", and found out that there is a Richard Santelli, but he's selling "The Big Book of Blues". Sounds interesting, actually....
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"In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, theory and practice are different."
If you look at the stuff that he has already sold, you will see some Santelli uniforms and he even uses the name Santelli in the description, also some of the pictures from the stuff already sold is right off the Santelli web site. I also see Physical chess Items as well. I noticed that some of the items have a different location. Some of the items are located at Morris Plains and some are located at Hanover. Maybe this guy is just an outlet for the various fencing equipment vendors who want to unload merchandise that isn't selling.
Does anyone have any recommendations as to where to buy equipment? Throughout my entire career I've purchased from Santelli (and been very happy with the quality of their equipment), now that they've disappeared I can't say I have much experience with other suppliers. I'd be much obliged if some of you could let me know which dealers you've had a good experience with, and who seems to sell the best quality equipment.
Last edited by Illini5596; 12-06-2004 at 05:13 PM..
Same here, I've always used Santelli as well. I switched to the fencing post. I live in Hawaii and shipping has always been a problem, most of the equipment vendors will only ship UPS which is quite expensive to Hawaii, the fencing post gives you a choice of UPS vs U.S. priority mail which is pretty inexpensive and only takes 4 days.
I've always believed the Santelli had some of the best equipment around -- and bought a new practice jacket about 3 months ago.
I'm on the West Coast, and other than Santelli I've had very good luck with Fencing Post and American Fencers Supply. Both companies are in California.
Illini, I have bought from just about everyone. My current favorite at the moment for personal kit is LP USA but we buy most of our club equipment from Blue Guantlet in Jersey. They have had some turnover recently and we have had some problems with missing or wrong items in orders but they always make it right in a timely manner. I have also have good luck with The Fencing Post (some of the best prices in the US on Uhlmann gear) and with ELI Sports, although we just started using them. You should also check out the product reviews section as their is an area in there for rating vendors and you can see some other folks views on them.
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Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!
Yep, that is them. Their very cheap body cords are actually nicer than the more expensive ones made by BLD/BG and others. The cases fit well, the strain relief stay sin place, the clamshells hold the cords in place with pressure points to reduce strain and the prongs have a cool locking mechanism for the wires were the wire goes all the way through the side and the screw tightens from the back of the prong. The prongs themselves are the like the old style Uhlmann ones which I actually tend to prefer.
As to their other items there inexpensive test box is nice, although the buzzer is a little quite and of course StM blades are pretty decent. The guards for the sabers are a bit thin and will most likely not hold up super long but the price is great and they are very light weight. I like their sockets better than the BG ones as the notches for the screwdriver tips are wider meaning you can use a normal screwdriver. The German epee and foil tips are nice also, although I am pretty sure they are not Uhlmann tips but simply "German pattern" (I could be wrong on this) and a very good price, although I am not sure about the wires for the points. They are very thin this makes them easy to install but I am not sure yet about the durability. Their foil and epee guards are pretty strong for the price, although they are not rolled edge. The gloves are a little low rent but would be fine for a beginners program or backups and they seem to run a bit tight in the wrist.
On the down side the packaging with a little low rent and amateurish but everything arrived in good shape so that is what matters. They also charge a 3.5% surcharge for credit card orders that I think is a bit high if you are doing a large order. I can't comment on anything else they carry, as the rest of my order has not arrived yet.
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Just another lost soul saved by the (hit) First Church of EPEE!