Electronics: pre-purchase judging points

For electronics the two failures that come up most are these: a serial that matches the box but not the device firmware region, and accessories that are pictured in the listing but absent from the shipped set. Both are decided by photographs a seller can take before dispatch, which is why the points below start where they do.

Electronics attract the closest customs attention and the least forgiving cover terms, so declared value and serial evidence carry the most weight.

For electronics, 6 distinct things have to be visible in the set a seller sends — beginning with one photo of the device beside a handwritten note carrying the day's date and the last four characters of the serial:

• one photo of the device beside a handwritten note carrying the day's date and the last four characters of the serial
• the full set of photos read together rather than one at a time, checked for surface, background and light direction
• one photo showing the screen powered on with the device's own marking and the packaging label together
• a written reply in the platform message thread that states the photographed unit is the one that will be sent
• one macro photo per port taken square to the opening, with the matching cable fully inserted, plus one of the same port empty
• the inserted-plug photos, plus a short video of the seller rocking each plug gently from side to side

Asking for that set in one message is what the photo request wording is for. When a seller skips one of these shots, the gap surfaces first at photo provenance: whose unit is in the frame?, which is why that point sits at the top of the list above. What each angle can and cannot show is set out on the photo limits page.

Electronics attract the closest customs attention and the least forgiving cover terms, so declared value and serial evidence carry the most weight.

5 gauges cover this category, listed beside this column with the date each parameter set was last read. On electronics orders the line that moves first is electronics attract the closest customs attention and the least forgiving cover terms.