Wizzard
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Registered: 22-3-2010
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Fun, short Ebay story
Quick and to the point, just sharing some information.
I purchased a small amount of "Osmium crystal" on Ebay, from a seller in Greece.
Osmium is pretty easily identified, density in the hand and it's blue tinge... What I recieved did not have these features.
So I took to a chemican analysis, having a scale which lacked the absolute accuracy, and not a definite way to accurately measure the volume of the
sample (it was 2x the size, and weighed the same ~.23g as my personal sample).
Visually, it was a metal, soft and brittle. White, crystalline, but no shaped crystals.
I took a small piece (1/2 the size of a grain of rice) and put it in a small vial, added 2 drops of 34% HCL. No reaction at elevated temperatures.
Added 1 drop of water, and 1 drop of 70% HNO3. Reheated to around 70*C, and it developed a yellow tinge, and dissolved the metal.
On cooling, the liquid was stirred with 2 drops of water - a white insoluble precipitate formed - Sb2O3. Exactly what I thought.
So I contacted the seller, he's a bit clueless but will be sending me a full refund (I told him he can keep the shipping - It seems to me he was
ripped off by whomever he purchased it from).
Just a cautionary tale, buying rare samples on Ebay from blurry pirctures from people who don't deal in chemicals 
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hissingnoise
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| Quote: | | Just a cautionary tale, buying rare samples on Ebay from blurry pirctures from people who don't deal in chemicals. |
A careful perusal of the seller's feedback is always a good idea . . .
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Hexavalent
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Did you see NurdRage's video where he showed his "rip-off" manganese dioxide, which was cut with sand?
On another note about eBay, look at this....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GLASS-GLASS-GLASS-/251211381097?pt...
half a pilot chemical production plant!
"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." Winston Churchill
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sbbspartan
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This doesn't really relate to the story above, but speaking of eBay, has anyone ever brought up the idea of maybe making a thread that is for eBay
related items only?
As in, if you found an interesting chemical or piece of glassware, or even a seller, you could make a post about it in that thread to share it with
other people. It seems like there is always a thread popping up when someone has found something interesting on eBay. If it was all concentrated in
the same thread, it might be easier to find stuff and easier to share with other people. Especially if it was a sticky.
Sorry if this idea has already been discussed. Just a thought... 
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Wizzard
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Feedback was all fine, he wasn't a chemist And I didn't spend much, but it was a
bit frustrating.
Hex - That's a huge lot, for certain!!
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