Every drive I've ever blown looked perfect on the outside before it broke. The ones that broke without driving the upper gears through the top cap even looked perfect externally after breaking. I'm not trying to bust your balls at all, but if I were purchasing a used drive I would have a list of questions... 1) What is the year, model #, serial # of the drive? 2) How many hours on it total? 3) Has it ever been rebuilt? If so, how many hours since the build and who did the work? 4) What kind of power and hull has it been run behind? 5) What kind of gear lube do you run in it and how often do you change it?

I can tell you that a drive that looks OK externally and even internally to the untrained eye can turn into a mess of scrap metal in seconds after a small impact with something in the water or a part failure. Point is, maybe the guy didn't know the drive had issues, maybe it didn't have issues when you got it, or maybe the signs of impending doom were there but you didn't ask the right questions. Whatever the case, I know it sucks and hope you have better luck next time.

I can show you 2 drives right now that look 2 weeks old. They have 600 hours on them from a fishing charter boat just since may.

Like I said advertised as great condition , lasted 3 hours
How is this any different than a Johnny boatman drive ?

Well, much like you when you received them and installed them, maybe he thought they were in great condition.
You said yourself that they looked good from the outside and, without tearing them apart, how would one know?

Well I would expect the one selling it would know because that's how it was advertised .
I believe the listing said 30 hrs ,
How much should a drive that lasts 3 hrs cost ?

wow do you have any record of correspondence asking him where the drive is.after a week. i would go after ebay and paypal on that as well that you did not recieve the part stating you did not get the drive for a month. generally when a serial number is not there, it has been stolen and ground off.
what happened to your drive. i would not have waited a month for a drive to show up in the middle of the season

Serial numbers are just stickers on drives

Typically when you replace an uppercase it won't have a serial number on it, unless somebody transfers the serial number from the old the case. if it's built from parts from scratch, typically it won't have a serial number.
EBay's garantee has a lot of small print. Keep talking with ebay there maybe a loop hole that will help????

Any pics of the damage?

They are stamped as well. every bravo i have seen has number stamped in it somewhere

I'm going to pick the drive up this weekend I will post pics
As for eBay they told me that a dispute has to be filed within a month of the end of auction, and since i received it after a month I should have filed a dispute after it didn't show up on the estimated arrival date which was like a week , take note of that people .

I still believe the drive was put together wrong by the seller after a rebuild