Burned on EBAY too many times.

I hope I've learned my lesson. I'm tired of getting burned on raw books on ebay. I bought an AMZ SM #3 that looked to be VG. When I got it I was very happy with the cover, but the pages were brittle and after flipping through the book the spine split on 1/2 the pages all the way to the staple. I wrote the seller and he agreed to refund 1/2 my price, which at the time, I thought was fair: bringing my investment to $96.00 However, after a few more viewings, pages started coming completely out. I can't really blame the seller since I had the opportunity to return the book, but chose the $96 price.

I hope I learn to be smartewr in the future. Buying slabbed books is definitely safer, but you can't read them. What to do? Buy reprints for reading, but its not as much fun. Go figure.