I just went back and read the original seller's post, and I missed the part about the retainers not being part of the deal. My mistake, thanks for pointing it out. However, the plastic rails for the ashtray are not mentioned and are pretty hard to come by. And by the looks of the original pictures, they are there.
As far as making repairs, I have a console here already that was repaired, and for some reason, the repaired areas are glossy, even though it was painted with semi-gloss paint(out of a gun by a pro). I guess I could just paint it gloss and it would look fine? Looks awful to me, those spots stick out like a sore thumb.
As far as the price, i paid $100 for the console, and another $25 for shipping from OH to PA. The seller was apparently OK with the selling price or else he wouldn't have accepted my offer. So am I to understand, if I paid the full asking price, I would have gotten a better packing job? The only newspaper used was to wrap the top plate, there was no other packing material in the box. The box was flimsy and barely held closed with a strip of clear packing tape. There was a lot of room inside for the console to slide around in. Also, what I paid for was exactly what was being advertised by the seller. Yes, it was a 30+ year old part, but it wasn't all busted to crap. And like I mentioned before, those 2 spots aren't the only damage.
I see a lot of variation in the responses to the post, that's why I wrote it. To see whether or not I was out of line in my thinking. So, is anyone interested in a broken console, how about you Stroker? I'll make you a heck of a deal and I promise to send it to you the same way I got it, LOL! :-D
Anyway, thanks for the replies, both good and bad. That was the purpose of the post, to get some other viewpoints.