I seem to beginning a trend with Amazon resellers selling Military Surplus. I ordered a Polish Lavuu tent and it has turned up today. It wasn't even Grade 2, it was full of holes in the fabric (tents full of holes don't work too well) and dried leaves and dirt fell out when it was unpacked.

New unissued Polish Lavuu tents aren't particulary rare items as shown here.

This is not the first time this has happened. I always order 'unissued/new' description when purchasing military surplus. It would seem these Amazon resellers are taking advantage of those folks not weary of purchasing mil surplus.

Has anyone else come across this.

My experience with Amazon Marketplace has been very positive. Surely Amazon will make them take it back?

Yes they will, but I'm getting tired of having to send these Amazon Mil surplus items back, arrange postage etc. I haven't yet received any Mil surplus described as new or unissued so far using Amazon, grade 2 or worse (in need of repair) always seem to turn up.

Amazon isn't the problem, it would appear to be the resellers using Amazon to palm off their grade 2 rubbish off as new to unwary buyers who assume because the items they have purchased are mil surpluse, this is what you can expect.

Somehow I am not surprised that some dealers in mil surp are rather shady. As a starving student, I bought a lot of mil surp and it worked fairly well - I could see the goods and select good stuff.

In general, civilian items are better for outdoor pursuits unless you are planning a conflict. There are a few exceptions,like the P38 can opener. I have a great mountain cook set, vintage 1951 (!) that I prize, and I fondly recall a pair of snowshoes, all of $7.50, that served quite well. But most mils surp is low grade, heavy, and rather clunky.

I probably would have frozen in Korea walking guard if it were not for the insulated civilian underwear thankfully sent from home...

Totally agree with you there. The Polish Lavuu was an interesting design consisting of two poncho halves which are buttoned together. It was purchased so it could be modified easily with it being made from cotton canvas. I was going to install a zip to accommodate a removable 18 inch cotton canvas skirt onto the base to raise its height so it could be used with a BCB camp cot. So weight is really a secondary issue as I already have a number of lightweight tents available.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dPsRW0zjrs

The Polish Lavuu would also allow me to experiment with the concept of the super Shelter etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoP9nAZGCY8

Other modifications I was going to make would also to include something like a frontier stove or even something similar such as the Titanium Goat WiFi stove to make it a Winter hot tent.

http://www.titaniumgoat.com/stove-WiFi.html

two poncho halves buttoned together.....sounds familiar. Didn't (doesn't) the US military have the same system?

Almost: half of us had buttons on the shelter half, and half of us had snaps on the shelter half. . . .

Sorta off subject. I can count on 3 fingers the times I used my shelter half. That includes 2 times in schools, once on an exercise.

Most shelters were my poncho and your poncho snapped together to make a tent. My trick was we slept parallel to the openings, and pulled out the hoods to give us more room. Rucks went down the center. If it rained, and it always did, an od space blanket (the heavier one) was placed over the end the rain was coming in from. It's not a big trick to make shelter like this, all US ponchos fit all others. I refused to sleep in the larger tents, too noisy, too many people. At one point I used a camo civilian dome tent. The bosses didn't care as it was camo.

I am always a little leery of purchasing mil surplus. Always considered getting the 4-piece MSS. After enduring this cold spell we are just starting to emerge from here, I'm really motivated to save up for one before next winter to keep in the vehicle. Quite a few, from time to time, show up on AMZN, some "unissued", some used.

Another fine point about "unissued" is it does not necessarily mean undamaged. I saw a post recently (can't recall where/what forum) but the person received an "unissued" cot that had what looked like duct tape wrapped around one of the supports.

Based on my experiences and reports from others -- including yours -- at this point, I'll save for a few months and try to find a new or new unissued one. Hoping price may even be a little better off-season.

In your case, it sounds definitely used and was misrepresented. Curious, was the purchase source a well-known seller with a good rating?

Hopefully you can get some satisfaction through the return and I would definitely send a few critical emails to both the seller and AMZN -- after you get your refund .

Or, if you get another one, you can try this with it.