v3cron
Well-known
i buy more gear from keh than from any other retailer. just picked up a pen f this morning!
Any experience with KEH and Tamarkin?
- Thread starter CC72
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 29
- Views 3K
aizan
Veteran
at keh, sometimes bargain is not near mint. more like usually. they're great about returns, though.
The Fondler
Member
The staff at Tamarkin is good, but I wouldn't trade places with them. The eponymous owner has a death's head aspect to him and I hear he grows portabellas from excess lens fungus. Needless to say I had a bad experience with him.
iskraII
Member
The Fondler said:
same experience here, I would never deal with Tamarkin ever again. No problem with B & H, Popflash, KEH, Cameraquest, Classic connections et al.
Ben Z
Veteran
I never bought a used item from Tamarkin but I've bought tons of stuff from KEH. Most of the time their bargain grade is closer to what other dealers would call EX to EX+. That's great, but has a slight downside: there isn't a lot of difference between KEH's grades and their prices for LN- are sometimes very high. I bought 2 M6's in bargain from them a year or so ago and was very pleased with both. Whenever there's been a problem it's been a functional problem, I think their graders are very skilled at assessing cosmetics but sometimes fail to catch a mechanical problem if it isn't major. Thankfully their customer service and return policy is second to none.
grainhound
Well-known
I'm doubly unhappy to be the one to have had a bad experience at KEH, & I hope that my earlier post is clear about the fact that I played a part in the mess. I was new at the time to both rangefinders and mail order. After reading so much KEH praise here, I naively expected a fully functioning camera to arrive & failed to test it in a timely manner. That's really the point of my post; the praise here makes it seem unecessary.
I learned that it's essential.
As a Canadian, I would not risk another KEH purchase because of the additional sales tax and shipping costs which are not recoverable. I believe they depend on their excellent liberal return policy for customer satisfaction. In my case, inspection couldn't have been more than a cursory glance. At the time of purchase, I didn't know enough to judge that I should have eaten the sales tax & shipping loss. I'm now stuck with a BGN M3 that was no bargain. Rich815 looked through the viewfinder and diplomatically said, "Well, it's usable." That's what I'd say as well, but I didn't buy an M3 for an ok viewfinder. Maybe someday I'll be able to sell it in person to someone who for $400-$500 could put it to good use.
I learned that it's essential.
As a Canadian, I would not risk another KEH purchase because of the additional sales tax and shipping costs which are not recoverable. I believe they depend on their excellent liberal return policy for customer satisfaction. In my case, inspection couldn't have been more than a cursory glance. At the time of purchase, I didn't know enough to judge that I should have eaten the sales tax & shipping loss. I'm now stuck with a BGN M3 that was no bargain. Rich815 looked through the viewfinder and diplomatically said, "Well, it's usable." That's what I'd say as well, but I didn't buy an M3 for an ok viewfinder. Maybe someday I'll be able to sell it in person to someone who for $400-$500 could put it to good use.
clintock
Galleryless Gearhead
I've bought from KEH and Popflash and both were excellent, the cameras and lenses were better than described. KEH's insistance on using United Parcel Service for delivery can be a stinger for Canadians, with some sort of Corruption Fee or Brokerage fee something- USPS has no such corruption fee, or a much lower one. I wonder if one were to call KEH and plead for USPS if they would make a trip to the post office?
David Murphy
Veteran
I agree totally. RFF is one of the best places to buy or sell RF gear.Pablito said:
Thardy
Veteran
The problem with the classified here is that items sometimes sell too quickly!
CC72
Established
Thank you all for the feedback. I live in Asia and basically I have two options...one, is to buy used in Hong Kong but used gear there seems a little bit more expensive and I'm faced with the trials of not being native-Cantonese speaker...the second option is to mail order my M body to my sister in Chicago, who will then bring it back to me at Christmas. I run the risk of well, getting a non-functioning camera (and returning it will be very difficult and costly) but I'm hoping to lessen the probability of that happening by buying from a reputable source. Thanks again for all your opinions. As December nears I'll be checking the KEH, Tamarkin, Popflash, The Photo Village websites!
CC
CC
