I had the same sort of problem with this seller
I knew the 130.00 shipping was pretty high for a little four piece
even without the total junk cymbals the cheap non original bass pedal
and the incomplete but original snare and cymbal stand
This seller was ill prepared and unwilling to make the effort to lower that shipping cost
I could also tell this fellow would not be receptive to any advice in how to do any of that, so I did not even try.
we jousted back and forth with messages
I sent an offer of 200.00 for the kit plus the sky high 130.00 shipping
He counter offered at 250.00 which was okay
if not for the cracked wrap on the floor tom
I tried to stick at 200.00 plus but without success
It was clear the fellow was being guided by refrence to this thread
and all the talk about rareity of the wrap and the Noble badges all of which was true.
My last written message was a frustrated thing about how I could suggest at least five things he could do to lower the shipping cost
but that there was no sense in me trying to beat a dead horse
At that point I was DONE!
a day or so later I got a reminder from ebay about his 250.00 plus counter offer
And as much as it annoyed me to do it I caved and responded to the counter offer
I figured in the long run that the cool factor of the wrap was worth the extra fifty clams
as was my not having to deal any further with this seller
I sent the bread, he sent the drums and hardware in two huge boxes UPS
And that was that .
One of the deciding factors
was the missing tom mount is an oddball size not found on many kits
I knew I had one that would work perfectly in my surplus parts
so the cost and time to find one was not an issue
so the drums cost 380.00 to my doorstep
worst of it is still the floor tom wrap having the big ugly crack
along with that, the bass drum hoops are both warped
two of the long T rods were badly bent right at the hilt
One inlay was taped together and the batter side snare drum hoop is cracked
The wrap did clean up beautifully, the hardware will take a shine but not without some pitting and chrome loss
the originl sound master heads save for the bass drum were all beat to death
my surplus tom mount worked perfect as I had expected
Though I was disapointed that the unique Noble script badge(plastic letters)
faced inward toward the drummer on the 12" tom something I have run into before but always makes no sense to me