I have an MG-1 bought it around the same time you did on ebay for around £50,
bought the camera and then went to Yashica Guy's website to buy a battery adapter
and started reading about the pad of death, I definitely don't have the patience or time
to fix such a technical issue like that. Luckily my MG-1 doesn't suffer from the pad of death
but I would say if your going to buy off ebay then yashica's in the electro 35 range are
a bit of a risk, should be fine though as long as the seller claims it works properly,
if it doesn't you can probably claim a refund stating the seller hasn't listed it properly.
Anyway great camera, definitely a good bargain for £50, just a bit hit and miss