What's wrong with eBay?

[jim_carney]

I agree totally with Hiroshi. I have never bought anything on e-Bay becasue the bids always got higher than the price locally or from B&H.

Me thinks the people buying new stuff on e-Bay are not very smart shoppers

[nolan woodbury]

I agree with you Todd, for the most part eBay is a pretty handy deal. I've been using it for a few years now and have only had two bad experiences...just about on par with used camera stores or buying stuff through the newsgroups.

 

eBay is handy in more ways than just buying and selling gear; I use it as a search engine as well. Many is the time I've gotten an email from someone asking about this camera, a book, or a motorcycle part (whatever) and I've been able to locate an identical item on eBay (usually with pics) and pages load pretty quickly too. Its a lot more popular now than it was two or three years ago, but the informed buyer can still obtain a good deal. eBay is a solid, valuable part of the internet, IMHO.

[thomas_diekwisch]

Some more e-bay experiences. Good and bad ones; overall I agree with the posters above that ebay is a valuable addition to the market place.

 

The worst: A 35mm Minolta Shift CA Rokkor advertised in excellent condition but effectively falling apart. No repair shop in the States so far has been able to repair the beast. Rings stuck, screws loose, and major damage from a heavy fall. Image quality when taped still excellent however. A $500.- loss. The seller: a lady from Baton Rouge with the interesting affix "zebra..." in her code. She had an interesting pattern of leaving retaliative feedback if anybody left negative feedback on her. I obviously didn't do my homework to check on her feedback pattern. I am guilty myself of leaving positive feedback since I was afraid of earning negative retaliation.

 

The best: Greg G (I am not sure whether I should mention his full name) from New York. I complained about receiving a 6006 Rollei back instead of an advertised 6008i back. Greg apologized for not knowing the difference. Within a day, he went to a shop, bought me a new one, and overnighted it! What a gentleman. Made me regain my trust in ebay and the world (...).

 

Some other good ones: A German guy I believe from Arizona or New Mexico who had bought up Samy's Rollei stock and was selling it close to purchase price. Everything was like new. An Indian guy (if I remember correctly) with the interesting pseudonym of "Gigglypuff Gold" who was selling Schneider and other large format lenses new at incredible prices.

 

The best thing ebay did for me: was to help me upgrade my old Linhof Kardan Color for super wide angle photography.

 

About ebay's high prices. An older Linhof Super Rollex back received an amazing $400.- auction price. The highest bidder complained he didn't see that it was the beige color and that he was getting this one in NY for $300.-. I sent him a check for the difference because I was astonished about the $400.- as well.

 

Overall: Many ebay prices, particularly for Rollei items, are above the prices of good used camera stores. You are ready to pay ebay prices only if you don't get an item anywhere else (such as the used 2.8/35mm Shift CA Rokkor).

[chris_klecinter]

Ebay success formula

 

1. Choose only sellers with no negative and no neutral feedback. If you choose to do otherwise, email all involved parties and get both sides of the story concerning negative or neutral feedback.

2. Choose sellers with more than a hundred feedback replys email half of them. It takes about 15 minutes if you cut and paste the same email. Hasty positive feedback on a seller will have had time to cool off when you email customers from months back in a sellers history.

3. Use escrow, it is well worth the peace of mind on high dollar items and long distance deliveries.

4. Use credit cards, they come with a host of dispute resolution vehicles and fraud protection.

5. Before bidding, insist on a phone conversation. This is no guarantee, but combined with all the above you can tell a lot by talking to someone on the phone versus just email.

 

I have only been screwed once on Ebay. Using the above steps, I have repeated successful purchasing of many different items on a regular basis. I just purchased a new Mamiya 7II for half the price and have had incredible service. I will continue to frequent this same seller. Contrary to popular belief there are good sellers out there who want to develop a repeat customer base.

 

Best Wishes

[nolan woodbury]

I agree with you Chris, that one should check the pos/neg history and avoid sellers with spotty records, but a couple of negative or neutral feedbacks doesn't always mean the seller is un-trustworthy. Example: I bid-on and won what looked to be a pretty solid Minolta SRT 101 and when the camera arrived, it was a total piece of junk. I didn't ask for a refund, but I did write the seller to tell him I wasn't happy, and left him neutral feedback...then he left ME neutral feedback! Basically, my feedback rating was spotted for revenge, after I paid my money in good faith. I know of some sellers who won't leave negative feedback for fear of the same, so what is the use? Truth be known, a negative or neutral feedback from time to time may only mean the seller/buyer isn't afraid to speak his mind.

[timberwolf1]

Rules: If the item is "untested, sold as is" that means it needs repair.