My 8880 Super Car: Quality criteria for potential buyers?

Question

A couple of years ago I bought a used 8880 Super Car for around 50 Euros. I thought it was an exceptional bargain but now I am not so sure any more. I want to sell the set and want to avoid a disappointed buyer. The picture below shows the most obvious show-stoppers: stickers, prints and yellowing of the wheels. The stickers are more or less OK, headlight prints are very good. The round plate is only a "reference white" for comparison. There is some yellowing on the wheels, but it is moderate, same for the gear plate.

My question is: What else would you as potential buyers of this set consider important, before bidding?

Answer 1

First of all, let me congratulate you, that was indeed an amazing deal you made back then. This 8880 seems to be near mint condition, and should fetch you a nice return should you choose to sell it.

Speaking both as an experienced buyer of used LEGO sets as well as an owner of an used 8880, my personal priority list of criteria is the following:

1. Completeness: are all pieces present, are they the correct ones (color, part design, prints, stickers)?
2. Physical state of the pieces: are the rubber parts cracked or still flexible, do the bricks have scratches, teeth marks, scribbles, or ...gasp... maybe even glue on them?
3. State of the prints: were they preserved in a good condition, or have they chipped, faded, discolored, etc?
4. State of the stickers: are they even applied at all or still on the sticker sheet, if applied then how precisely, did they fade, discolor, crack or chip?
   41. For STOMPs (STicker Over Multiple Pieces): were they applied correctly, were any torn or were they cut neatly, is there maybe dirt or dust on the strip of sticker exposed between two pieces?
5. Instruction sheet(s): are they present, in what condition: earmarks, tears, binding, have they been doodled upon, have they faded or discolored?
6. Box: Is it present, does it show any damage due to storage, water, mold, shipping, was it opened carefully or torn open?
7. (Disclaimer: This criteria is actually a lot more important than many above but it can almost never be known or judged before buying.) Shipping: Does the set ship with adequate packaging that ensures no pieces get lost in transit (I have received boxes that had holes in them large enough for smaller pieces to fall through), does the seller use appropriate amounts of packaging material to ensure the pieces don't get scratched up too much during transit?

Note again, these are MY PERSONAL priorities, and thus reflect my attitude which priorizes function over looks, over collectability. Other possible buyers might not care for the exact design of a half-bush or the correct generation of a 8T gear, but might place more emphasis on the stickers or the box for example.

Answer 2

Besides the obvious quality checks, something that is quite important to me when buying second hand: in what state of assembly will the set be shipped?

Unless it's a set I'm desperately searching, I will almost certainly forego bidding if the set appears to be shipped entirely assembled.

Partially disassembled is even worse in my opinion.

Also not acceptable is the set entirely disassembled but all pieces thrown together, I believe this causes scratches on the pieces and makes it easy to have pieces missing (with the mistake possibly happening on my end while resorting the pieces).

Ideally the set is shipped entirely disassembled and the pieces sorted in zip-lock bags in a logical way: large pieces with large pieces, smaller with smaller... In such a manner that it's easy to check for completeness and I'll have fun rebuilding the set.

Problem is that the shipping manner is seldom described in any online advertisement, one needs to ask for this...