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I agree for the most part. Some patterns I've gotten have been super delicate and nearly flake off when you try to unfold them. Mostly due to very bad storage. But if a pattern was in that bad of shape I wouldn't buy it anyways. It's just that it does take time to go through patterns and it is kind of a pain in the butt. And I think a lot of people have no idea how much old patterns are worth or that there's even a market for them, or else they actually would go through them.
I have bid on patterns that weren't checked. Most of the time they're there, sometimes they're not- but if I bid on a pattern that might be missing pieces I make sure it's something stellar that I wouldn't mind having to redraft off the back if something's missing. When I first got into buying patterns pretty much no one would check for pieces. Now it's almost required! But the prices are at least 4x (and sometimes at least 10x!) as much, too.
I recently bought a pattern that they said was in FF and it was NOT and was altered. But I wanted it so made do. But I also bought some great NRA patterns that they said they didn't check but I could tell they were probably FF and they wereIt's just kind of a gamble, just like most online purchases of vintage things.
Best bet just to buy patterns that are checked and complete.
I totally know what you mean. Ive run across some patterns that were so brittle they broke in my hands too. But for the vast amount of sellers who say that, then price this 'rare' pattern at $50 to start...come on, I want to know if all the pieces are there.
I guess I left that part out of my little rant. If a seller is gonna say 'the pattern is too delicate to check the pieces' then dont start the listing at $50. Not only is that a cop out of knowing what they are selling, its also a price gouge as they try to milk the market as it is right now.
Grrrr.....
LD
