Spent $60 on a 'vintage' lamp from FB Marketplace and the wiring was all frayed inside

I saw this really cool 70s mushroom lamp on Facebook Marketplace for $60. Looked perfect in the photos, seller said it worked fine. Got it home, plugged it in, and it sparked real bad and tripped the breaker. Opened it up and the wires were basically crumbling inside the plastic. No way they didn't know about that. So I'm out $60 and now I gotta rewire the whole thing myself. Anyone else get burned by "vintage" electronics that were clearly broken?

2 comments

2 Comments

coleman.christopher4d ago

Ngl that's classic "just needs a new cord" logic but they said it worked fine which is straight up lying. I've noticed vintage sellers on Marketplace have this weird thing where they think "vintage" means you're buying problems not a working lamp. Like if you're gonna sell old electronics at least be honest about the condition so people can decide if they want a project or not.

spencer_wood4d agoProlific Poster

The real issue here is that "vintage" has become a catch-all excuse for selling broken junk, and buyers are expected to just accept it as part of the charm. @coleman.christopher is right that honesty matters way more than the label, but I'd add that most of these sellers probably never even tested the lamp in the first place (they just assume old = works fine). It's a lazy hustle, not a misunderstanding about the definition of vintage.