18mm M-D Chromed Bait/Boat Guides - (2x) - #SL030

Here's a matched pair of nice guides from the German collection we picked up last year: medium duty, chrome plated bait or boat rod guides.  These vintage (NOS) guides are beautiful and frames are finely formed The sizes noted are merely approximate because only one guide from the batch was measured; The chrome plating varries mildly within the lot from bright to a semi-matte and the representive photo reflects this as best as possible.  Included in this lot are:

2x 18mm OD x 12.5mm ID; 0.990" tall x 2.150" long

Value for these fine guides?  $2.00 - $4.00/each.

To our valued eBay Buyers,

Please read this up-dated letter. First, thanks for a great year in 2006! Here’s looking forward to another good year in ’07, for all of you, and for both of us at GW. After flirting with expansion, Erica & I have come down firmly on the side of running a literal mom & pop operation and we downsized back in 2005. It’s still just us, with no additional staffers. This means you’ll get first-hand, personalized attention from the owners of the company. It also means that, on occasion, we’ll have to ask for your patience. We try to respond to eBay related inquiries and send out a round of new and/or up-dated invoices once each business day. If you don’t hear from us within one business day, please check out our NEW Golden Witch website or our new, 2007 downloadable PDF catalog (available on the front page of our website) for our vacation schedule. We do take a few long weekends and a couple full weeks off during the year and we do our best to pre-post these dates. If ever you write and don’t get a response from us when we are in the shop, please consider that either a) we didn’t receive your message for some reason or b) our response to your message was bounced by your server; in other words, we try very hard to respond to every single email that comes in. If your email refers to non-eBay items or contains tech questions, we will ask you to post your question to our regular company email address at info@goldenwitch.com. Please work with us to keep the eBay forum dedicated to eBay matters.

Before reading on, please keep in mind the dictum that your mother whispered in your ear: if the shoe fits, wear it. And of course, if it doesn’t, then our blunt words aren’t meant for you and only our kind and appreciative words are. Thanks to everyone for making eBay a success for us!

Having fielded dozens of private inquiries regarding three particular topics, we would like to explain our shipping policy, our combined Golden Witch retail/eBay order policy, and our eBay ‘code of ethics,’ for lack of a better term, to all of our valued eBay clients.  Erica & I want you to understand where we stand. 

Shipping Fees: Let us say with the utmost politeness that if you’re inclined to complain about shipping fees, you shouldn’t buy from us. We have instituted a policy of blocking bidders who gripe about shipping. We spend a small fortune on all the expenses related to our shipping and handling fees, so complaints of this sort are flatly annoying. We’re sorry to have to state this so bluntly, but it has become necessary. There is no special treatment for anyone regarding shipping fees, not even you, despite that fact that we very sincerely value and appreciate your business. In many cases you have the opportunity to buy a GW or ACW component on eBay below retail, so that certainly should offset some of the modest pain associated with the shipping fees. In other cases, you have the opportunity to win or buy unusual, antique components that are rarely available anywhere else in the world; we have made significant investments in materials and in shipping them to our location, in storage facilities – both warehouse space & shelving, and on the list goes, so please don’t complain about a few dollars of shipping & handling expense. Our U.S. shipping fee covers Priority Mail service, which is quick and reliable, plus Delivery Confirmation, so we can track lost packages if need be.  We want our buyers to receive their packages sooner than they expect, which eliminates a lot of headaches spent tracing ‘lost’ packages which, in fact, are only delayed by the mails.  The fee also covers packing materials and the expense of paying ourselves fair wages to professionally package our auction items.  Last but not least, it helps us to recoup a portion of the listing fee, the final value fee, and the PayPal fee.  At the end of the day, we make no money on the shipping fee, but it does allow us to operate a professional service and have some hope of being in this business for years to come.  We are not in the game of discounting, either through eBay or through our retail shop, primarily because Erica and I do plan to remain in the component business for a lifetime. 

All of our auctions are up-front about U.S. shipping fees and we do allow, and encourage, folks to combine wins over any seven day period which usually will result in a much lower shipping fee (nickel silver bar stock and a few other items are exceptions).  Overseas shipping will be by Global Priority or Parcel Post Air if GP is not available. Global Priority Mail cannot be insured but it is fast and generally reliable – choose this option at your own risk or ask us to quote Parcel Post Air.  Shipping fees are non-negotiable; if you have questions regarding overseas or Canadian packages, please get an estimate prior to bidding. This is your responsibility.

We sincerely hope you find some merit in this explanation.  Further, we hope the service we provide outweighs the cost and that you’ll continue to do business with us.


GW Retail/EBay Combined Orders:  Please understand that Golden Witch and our eBay operation are separate entities.  All eBay auctions are listed from the computer that is distant from the GW inventory.  From this computer, Erica & I have little access to the GW retail shop inventory so we cannot answer shop-oriented emails here and will always refer GW inventory and/or technical questions back to the GW shop email address.  Furthermore, we have no interest in violating eBay’s policies regarding the use of their venue to sell products outside their venue.  While we are more than happy to combine shop orders with eBay orders, it must be done through the shop, not through eBay/Paypal.  To combine orders, please DO NOT pay by Paypal because we will package and ship these purchases almost immediately and cannot go back and add them to a shop order even if that is placed the same day.  Instead, place your shop order and let us know at that time which item(s) you have won on eBay.  It is your responsibility to let us know your eBay username, the item description, and the lot (or item) number for items you’d like combined with your retail order.  We have opened an eBay store and over time we will list a growing number of our retail products on this website.  If you need regularly stocked components at retail prices, check here first; if there is something from our regular shop inventory you’d like us to add to the eBay store, please let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate you.

EBay Ethics:  First and foremost, please do not ask us to violate eBay policies – we will not do it, nor will we respond to questions of this sort any longer.  We will not, ever, close auctions early unless we discover that the item we’re listing has been broken (cracked agate, snapped blank, etc.) since it was originally listed.  We will not mis-label parcels, regarding either contents or value, when shipping overseas.  We will not tell you what we’re going to list next on eBay; All eBay auction transactions are a gamble for us and we generally choose to take this gamble only on overstock or close-out merchandise, all of which has been formally removed from the GW shop inventory.  If you need a specific product, please call the GW Shop – or visit our new eBay store -  and expect to pay retail; only by charging retail on most goods can we afford to operate a small, service oriented shop, the benefits of which accrue in heaps to all of our valued clients.  If you read our feedback, you’ll see quite a few kind words about our packing and shipping – that’s a tribute to our concern for your components and tools. 

In the end, we want you, our Buyers, to be happy with us as your Seller.  We work very, very hard to constantly earn our good reputation and insofar as you extend to us your business, we will remain in business to extend to you our good products and good service.

With kind regards always,

Erica Gooding

Russ Gooding