i just missed out on a bid for a spice. boy howdy am i relieved. the seller answered my questions quickly and straight. he seems like a good guy. there were no problems that i was worried about and it had not been abused by running on the charger w/o a battery. he had even used it a bit over the past couple of months, with a 9v battery. i wrote back using capital letters and the words "no" and "never" a lot. he swore to never do that again. i do not know that doing what he did will whittle away at the standard fourscore and ten years which an hp calc is due but; i made a lowish bid based on my private knoledge and missed. did i mention relief?