Fleeced by ebay?

[nikon grrl. . .]

hi guys. i could really use some advice here. i saw a bargain that was too good to pass up

the other day on ebay. a professional photography studio claimed that they were going

digital and therefore wanted to sell off their film. i couldn't resist! i ended up buying a

bunch on kodak 3200 B&W and tons and tons of kodak 160 portra vc 220. now, i just got

the stuff and guess what! the film expired in 2002. so now i think this 'conversion to digital'

claim was really just a way of these guys getting rid of old film. they say they've had it frozen

the whole time, but my question is, it's so old, does it matter if it's been frozen or not at this

point? did i just spend hundreds of dollars on a bunch of junk film? what should i do???!

please help. thanks.

[anupam]

The film's fine - especially if it's been frozen. Ignore the expiry date. But the seller should have mentioned that it's expired.

[michaelging]

I agree that the film, if frozen, should be fine.If you want to check worst case scenario , develop a roll of the 3200 without exposing it and see if it's fogged.

[robert_young9]

You weren't fleeced by eBay but by a seller on eBay. They should have either said something about the date or you can ask questions of the seller. When in doubt, ask BEFORE bidding and if they don't asnwer or don't answer satisfactorily, walk away. The Watch List is a very powerful tool. There will be another gilded ceramic surfing monkey for you to bid on later. ;-)

 

If the film has been frozen since 2002, it is probably fine. Even the thawing during shipping is OK. Keep out a roll for testing (or sheet or whatever) and refreeze the rest. If possible use a good deep freezer and not the crummy one on the top of your refridgerator.

[jim_appleyard]

Hopefully you used PayPal! You can do like others said (the Portra 220 is most likely still good, but don't know about the 3200) or contact PayPal and get your money back. If PayPal won't do anything, your credit card company will. You can also give the seller some negative feedback if you wish; they should have told you the film was outdated. You should be able to get your money back one way or another on those grounds alone.

 

Contact the seller, PayPal and your CC company all at the same time.

[john_stockdale2]

I was defrauded by an ebay seller and I left negative feedback. Now I notice that the negative feedback that I left has disappeared. My enquiry to ebay remains unanswered.

 

I now feel that in my 50 or so transactions I have been very lucky to have had mostly very good vendors, but I'm giving up now.

[frdchang]

even if its expired, you won't notice a difference.

maybe in slide films you will notice a little bit of a color shift...especially if you are in the marketing department of coca cola and the coca cola red isn't correct like your used to.

 

so the point of my statement is:

 

don't worry, shoot your film with as much love you would give to new film.

[frank.schifano]

The Portra VC 160 should still be fine if indeed it was kept frozen. I don't hold out much hope for the TMZ P3200 though. That stuff doesn't age well. I know, becasue I've had some frozen and dit's gone past date two years now. It is still useable, but it's not as good as it was when fresh.

[grinder]

I bought a huge lot of chemicals developer and such on E**** about a year ago. The guy told me it was fresh. I get the box and the newest can of chemical was 1967. So I am keeping it for display purposes it was like 40 lbs of almost 40 year old chemiclas. He sold 8 lots, I bought 2 of them. Talk about cleaning the closets out. Some of the reall old Kodak and berger cans look really cool, but he basiclly lied to rid him self of them and after me and the others pay he was all of a sudden no longer registered user.

[grinder]

I will add I have had over 400 good eb*y experiences and 3 bad.

[nealcurrie]

it happens. if i didn't know how to dismantle lenses i would have been screwed 3 times by now (out of 17) - even after asking direct, detailed questions.

[jon_shiu]

The 3200 film will probably be a bit fogged, but may be okay if you shoot it at 800... I think I read that here on photo.net a while back.

[lex_jenkins]

Several years ago when I bought a camera from a fellow photo.netter he threw in several rolls of film, gratis, including some good but discontinued Kodak medium format color negative film that had been frozen. It was up to 10 years old at the time and still provided very good results.

[wbowman]

Although it has been stated above, I think it is worth repeating the Ebay did not fleece you. If

you bought something from a newspaper add that was not as advertised you would probably

not blame the newspaper. Auction sites are not like Walmart - the buyer and seller have full

responsibilities to ask any and all relevant questions about the transaction. Only when the

buyer has blatently told a lie do you have recourse with Paypal and the ability to request Ebay

to punish the seller by suspending their account. That is the risk buyers have to take on any

private sale of merchandise. If you want full service and absolute assurance of what you're

buying, then go spend your money at B&H and pay the full price. That assurance is what

you're buying from those retailers.

[j. salty]

I looked up the auction on the Completed Listings and of the 4 or 5 hits on 3200 film, there was only one auction where the seller didn't list the expiration date. The seller was wrong in not doing so but prospective buyers should email and ask. I'd write to the seller with my concerns that the film might have problems. This lets the seller know that you're concerned and it gives you a bit of documentation in case you want to file a complaint with ebay.

[larrydressler]

I got a bunch of PX120 from the same place I knew it was outdated and frozen. It is fine stuff. It cost me about 60 cents a roll so I felt safe. and still do.

 

Larry

[leicaglow]

I've been fleeced by eBay sellers more times than not. Everything is exactly as described... except the scratch they forgot to mention, or the tab that's broken off, etc., etc. eBay doesn't care... that's what torques me more than anything. When a seller is willing to take something back, then you have to deal with the threat of bad feedback, the cost of shipping, etc. It's becoming so prevalent that eBay's becoming more of a hassle to me than just buying from a reputible dealer.

[neilpeters]

there have been several articles over the years; frozen film should last virtually forever, as if new. keep what you don't need frozen, or at least refrigerated. And allow for a long ( thaw ) time, like 24 hours, only to prevent water drops.

[leo_maniace2]

EABY is fertile territory for scammers. It also happens to be a

sellers market, with sales of used equipment without

guarantees getting over 85% the cost of new items.

[john falkenstine]

Last year I purchased a Canon EOS630 with a broken 50mm lens off Ebay. But: the seller noted in his posting that the lens was broken. When I got the camera, it came complete in a nice large camera case, all of the manuals, a lens cleaning kit, a fresh battery AND a couple rolls of film. ALL for $44.00. The camera works fantastic with a locally purchased used Sigma lens. Ebay has been pretty good to me.

[rui_alves_da_silva]

If you have paid with paypal fill a complaint they are very good.

I have filled a couple of time with the same problem, items not like described and got every time my money back.

Regards,

Rui

 

Even if the films are good or not, the price of out dated films are diferent fom new ones, so if this will happened to me i'll fill the complaint and got the money back. You can buy out dated films everywhere, even check your local dealer and make buisness with them.

[brian_hartnett]

I just processed a roll of tmax 3200 that was almost 2 years past the expiration date and the results were fine. I had stored the film in my fridge. I always shoot it at 1600 and don't tell my lab.

 

I bought a Canonet rangefinder on Ebay a few years back for $80. The film advance lever would advance the film two frames if I didnt pay attention and the lens had a tiny bit of haze or fungus of some sort on a small portion but the camera takes amazing images. I contacted the seller and he offered me twenty bucks back or I could return the camera. I took the twenty bucks.

[bill_thorlin]

"I saw a bargain that was too good to pass up" - this is when you should be on high alert when buying on fleabay. If it is "too good to be true" it usually is. "Going digital" sounds plausible but is used as a reason so often it has become a joke rather like "I am selling this for a friend/my dad" which makes them sound so charitable.

 

Fleabay is where "Caveat emptor" rules and the situation is that you saw and bought what you saw and despite what some have said it will be very difficult to make out a case.

 

Sorry if this is harsh but you did mention these points so I thought it fair to comment.

 

As to your actual question - if it has been frozen ( difficult to prove either way ) then the answer from Neil Peters just about covers it all and you should be OK but only actual usage will tell. Let us know how you get on and if it is a duff lot then maybe there is something you can do depending upon what was actually said in the advert.

 

Hope it works out OK.

[Mike Gammill]

Also read the feedback comments. They can alert you to sellers who are slow to ship or do not describe goods accurately. New sellers may not yet have the experience to describe their products. I've gotten some great deals there and only had one transaction go bad.