Why a blaster worth $60 was only $29

On Friday I popped into the local Kmart to check out the clearance bin and saw a Stampede that was returned.
The yellow sticker on the box listed the fault as darts jamming, so I snapped it up to give it a new home.
I test fired the blaster when I got home

I grabbed my screwdriver and opened it up to find the cause of the fault.
Below is a picture of the faulty component:


This spring controls the plunger retention catch. In this case the spring was bent and jammed, so the catch stayed in the open position and the plunger was free to move with the plunger tube when the blaster primed.
I replaced it with a spring from a Recon clip lock.
Now the blaster fires without jamming.

nice find. i'm always trolling for bargains in those clearance racks. some of the mark-down reasons are really stupid, I read on the other day that said "darts won't fit" on a recon. sure enough, someone had just jammed a sucker dart in the clip and ended up getting it stuck inside.

as a worker of retail i really cant be surprised. if the customer has a problem with it and its within the set period, we take it and refund. should see the shit that gets returned at officeworks ._. makes me cry on the inside the way people treat computers and associated tech

I think it was a manufacturing fault.
However the Stampede was a 100 round bonus pack and 37 of the darts were damaged beyond any use... bent, torn, chunks missing, missing heads.

You can pick gen1 stampedes brand new for $30 on ebay with free shipping, tho they dont come with clips or darts, nice find tho!

Good score on the stampede OP, I managed to pick up a Longshot for $10.00 under similar circumstances once...