Buying an expensive camera on ebay

Has anyone had any good or bad experiences spending a few thousand bucks on

ebay? I've been looking for a 1D Mark II N plus some expensive lenses... there

are some good prices on ebay and the sellers' ratings look good, BUT... it is

SOOO much money to spend with no guarantee. Would love to hear the experiences

of others and how they got over their fear (or regretted their decision?) of

spending that much money on ebay.

DON'T do it, pay a few quid more and get it from a shop, then if anything goes wrong with it you can get the shop to replace it.

I agree with Daniel. Buy on eBay only with money you can afford to lose. Check B&H for new gear, KEH for used.....

Vicky-

 

I am potentially in the market for a D200 (ok not as much $$ as a 1D Mark II & lenses) and I would NOT EVEN CONSIDER buying it on ebay. I only buy serious gear from Adorama or B&H. I realize I may pay a bit more, but trust is priceless...

Some serious shops use ebay too, and sell new stuff with a guarantee... But I agree with all the previous posts, ebay is for second hand stuff, like a game, so don't gamble...

I have bought expensive items on ebay. I bought a Mamiya RZ67, 100-200mm zoom lens and other accessories from a professional photographyer that was changing to digital for abot $1800. The stuff was great and I saved quite a bit of money. I have also purchased bronica sq equipment without any problem.

 

I would be a little more cautious about electronic gear which costs nearly as much to fix as to replace if there is no warranty at all. I think ebay has some sort of buyer protection but I don't know the details. You should check this out. For example, I have had some great buys on computers but a couple of them died after a copule of months. I am still ahead overall. The $2000 laptop I bought a few years ago from an ebay seller is still working. I live in the USA and would only buy expensive items from a USA seller using PayPal, not a money order or check. I find checking feedback is helpful in having confidence in a seller. I also try to read between the lines about the way the description is written and how the item is pictured. For example do they use a product brochure picture to illustrate the item or are there photos of the actual item from various views showing you close up images? The more detailed the description is, including a history of the item's use, whether the seller is the original owner, the reason for selling the item, etc., the more confident you can be that the seller is sincere. You can ask the seller questions about these issues if they aren't mentioned specifically.

 

 

Overall I don't think it is as risky as some people say, but you should know what consumer protections are available to you before you buy. If the price difference is small, say you only save 10-15% over a more traditional seller, than I would probably pay the premium and go with the traditional seller. But if the savings is considerably more, you aren't crazy if you buy on ebay.

I would also agree that there are some too good to be true prices on ebay and one should maintain a healthy degree of skepticism, but this is also true of internet vendors that market directly on their websites.

To reiterate...

 

B&H for new.

 

KEH for used.

Ditto. There are a few constant sellers on eBay that might come close to matching the

reputation and reliability of B&H or KEH. But considering what you are going to buy, why take

the chance.

If you don't live to far away then why don't you ask if you could collect it yourself, and give cash on collection. If there is anything sinister they will say no. Or just ask the question and see what happens.

Thank you everyone for your responses. This is exactly what I needed, as I was pretty nervous about taking a chance with that amount of money. I think the stress I would go through in the process of waiting to see if I just lost a few thousand dollars might not be worth the savings :)

 

I've used B&H but never heard of KEH before... Just to be completely sure, is this the correct place: http://www.keh.com/onlinestore/home.aspx

That's it.

I know there are some horror stories about eBay, but I can tell you of the 150 and more buy and sell transactions I have made on eBay, not a single one ended in a negative manner. I bought a Contax 645 system with 3 lens on eBay, I sold my Apple towers and laptops on eBay, many of the transactions ranged from hundreds to sub $2000. The main thing is you have to be careful with who you are dealing with and it just takes common sense. For example, if you want to buy a camera, the seller has more than 100 positive ratings, but all he sells are widgets and no photography related stuff, then you may want to wait for the next round.

I hesitated about eBay before, but nowadays, I prefer to look for a good deal on eBay before I would buy a new camera/lens.

I buy off of Ebay all the time.

 

With that said, though, I generally buy in lots in which the cost of the individual pieces would be greater than the whole lot. In those cases, I can often keep one or two items I want and resell the individual pieces for as much or more than I paid for the whole lot, thus making those items I keep free or nearly so. There's a lot of risk in doing this, though, and I wouldn't suggest spending a lot of money on this. Most of the lots I buy are under $100.

 

For buying individual items, KEH prices are often comparable or even slightly less than the item on Ebay. Plus, the KEH return policy and warranty is second-to-none. 14 days to return something for no reason whatsoever, and 90 days to return something that's defective.

That is why they call it evil bay. No way.

I've had only good experiences with EBay for about 50 different items but none in your price range. Actually my only bad experience was with a Rollei I bought at a flea market and it felt so solid and the price was so reasonable thatI didn't examine it thoroughly and it turned out to be a dog.

I have bought and sold a lot on Ebay. There HAVE been a few bad experiences. I no longer buy something expensive there if I do not know the seller. You might get a bargain, but don't spend more there than you can afford to lose. SORRY EBAY, BUT YOU NEED TO CLEAN UP YOUR ACT AND INSTITUTE A REAL PROTECTION SYSTEM. Previous comments are correct, B&H and Adorama may be trusted for digi and small film cameras. they are pretty ignorant of large format. For large format go to Bruce's Field Cameras or Midwest Photo.

I've bought a couple of beaters on eBay and have been happy with the results. But then, these are the old cameras that are built like battle tanks and which can be slammed around by gorillas and will still take gorgeous pictures. The newer digital bodies or even the auto-everything film bodies, though, I've come across too many of them where to look at them they were in pristine condition, not so much as a scratch anywhere, like I'd just busted the shrinkwrap on them, but fire them up and their little electronic brains were scrambled beyond viable repair, a toaster would be more likely to get a picture than they would have. Thus I don't trust purchasing such things from anyone I don't know, or stores where I don't know their reputation.

I've never bought anything more expensive than a few hundred dollars. I've only been cheated once. The item was only about $30. Ebay delisted the seller.

Well, I've purchased items into the several thousands of dollars range on ebay without issue.

 

Even real estate.

 

It is merely a large world-wide classifieds section. Come on, one uses the same precaution and common sense they would with any business transaction.

By the way, B&H Photo sells their stuff on eBay also. They are called bh-photo.

Ultimately, eBay is the world's biggest flea market. If you're comfortable purchasing XYZ at a flea market, no reason you should have any higher concern buying it on eBay. But if buying XYZ at a flea market makes you a little trepidacious, then you should have the same concern on eBay.

I sold the most perfect Minolta 9 and lenses on E Bay and bought the most perfect Olympus

OM1 with zoom.

 

For what it's worth.

 

It pays to ask the right questions.