STIHL,
Could you offer any pointers on how to identify promising molds of FleaBay? I'm serious...
About ten years ago I ordered two molds from FleaBay. Learned my lesson. One was an RCBS with handles for about $80.00. Still have problems with that mold releasing anything. Glad I got the handles, though. The second one was Lyman 429somethingsomethingsomething round nose that was so badly galled at the sprue plate and beat up at the faces I had to throw it away. Came from a storefront shop. Picture and description seemed good. I wasn't aware how I could complain, so I wound up swallowing the fifty bucks.
Well times have come a long way in 10 years, pictures are better! I look for really nice pictures of all sides of the mold, ones with very clear images where you can see the cavities, some sellers know what they are doing, and they know what to show a potential buyer. If it’s one as the above pics I just look at the overall condition and the cavities. Although could have been better, the mold seems to be in good shape and with a little careful cleaning should come back to life. I also look at the handles and see how badly the are abused. Normal dents as dings, a scratch or two ok, beat to hell and handles missing or falling off, It better be dirt cheap or I’ll pass. Price, I make up my mind this is my “to my door price” and I bid that, not a penny more. That’s how I keep from getting caught up in the auction setting.
Also look at the Sellers other items if he has 1 mold and 1000 other junk items likely he has no idea what it is other than bullet mold. If he has molds, gun parts and other loading equipment, it’s likely he has better idea of what he is selling. Good descriptions are a plus too. More detailed a description better off it is. Sometimes you can get lucky in someone’s ignorance, let’s just say it has a number, but no caliber or weight because they didn’t do a 2 min google search that can help if it has good pictures. It will keep some of the peoele who are also to lazy to do a 2 minutes search. The rest of us know what a lot of mold numbers are and what they are. This allows for a better price at times.
As far as being sure there is no guarantees, but I just look real close and take a gamble. So far that gamble has paid off. I have 1 a Lyman 358-429 I think. That needed to be surfaced and needed a new spruce plate, it’s getting one anyway, casts fine, just needed a little work. It’s still in pieces waiting to be put back together, but I cast several hundred with it before I took it down to do a refurb job on it. That’s th worst one I have bought so far.
I’ve been looking for one of those too. Only issue is they all want too much for them when they do pop up. Of course I may be wrong as to what they are actually worth. 
