Buying a Lens on eBay.

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I looking for a lens on eBay for my Bessa R, buying voighlander lens in Portugal is almost impossible (hard to find or very expensive).

I sow an action for a 35mm Ultron and I contacted the seller for more details about shipping costs and about the lens.

He told me that if I want to buy the lens now he will stop the auction and he gave me a fair price. I'm thinking to accept the price but I would like to know if I will be able to leave a feedback or a claim if anything happen. The seller really appear to be honest, he as a high rating of 98% in 400 sells.

Any opinion?

Thank you in Advance

Cruz

Lisboa / Portugal
 
It all comes down to trust.... no difference to the Classifieds here. If you can make a deal with the seller outside of fleaBay channels, both of you will benefit from avoiding the fees, but run the risk of being scammed....

use your judgement and gut-feeling
 
There was nothing stopping the guy offering a "buy it now" price which is functionally the same as what he is offering you now: so why didn't he. Consider that it is also unethical to use Ebay this way: by offering to bypass Ebay he is proving himself (mildly) dishonest, and therefore more likely to be a scammer. Which also applies to you, thereby removing much motivation of guilt on his part if he scams you.

If the item is high-cost and you have no relationship of trust with this guy (ie. a regular customer) then I think their is a significant risk of a scam. However....

But what about the 100% rating: forget it. The sensible scammer uses a taken-over account. A bad password or the opening of a dodgy email (installing a key-stroke logger that sends all your precious usernames and passwords off to Russia, typically) is the route to scammer heaven.

So even if you do have a relationship of trust you might actually not be communicating with who you thought it was.

Stick to ebay.
 
moral high-grounds aside, the scenario posed by the original post is no different to how risks are being posed/realized/handled here in RFF.... eBay channels offer some level of protection whereas here it is predominantly gut-feeling and you are on your own if the seller does not deliver (just as in the scenario posed here if the buyer chooses to buy it at the "fair price" )

risk and gains/losses are always related
 
There's some ultrons for sale on rrf from very reliable sellers. If i'm you I won't buy ouside ebay, there's a lot of frauds these days wich procede by the way you describe. There's no way you can leave a feedback or make a claim if you buy the lens outside ebay. If he asking you for a bank transfer or a payment method wich exclude paypal, there's great chance that's a scam.
 
He told me that if I want to buy the lens now he will stop the auction and he gave me a fair price. I'm thinking to accept the price but I would like to know if I will be able to leave a feedback or a claim if anything happen.
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If the auction doesn't already have a BIN price and he stops it and sells the item to you at an agreed price, that will not count as a completed eBay sale and will be contrary to eBay's terms - you won't be able to leave feedback and you won't have any protection if the deal goes wrong.
 
Thank you all for your cooperation, I will try to ask for a buy it now price trough eBay. I also will check the offers here in RFF but I don’t want to buy outside of Europe.

Best regards to all

Cruz

Lisboa / Portugal
 
CV lenses come up on Ebay very frequently. If you're patient it's not hard to find good examples for decent prices within the EU. As has been mentioned already, doing deals behind eBays back can be a high-risk approach, and isn't something I'd generally recommend anyone to do (although I've done it once or twice myself).

You might also want to keep an eye on some retailers within the EU. Some of them, like Ffordes and Aperture here in the UK, sell used kit at prices that aren't that much higher than you'll find on eBay, but with the advantage of warranties and return options.
 
leicasniper said:
It's actually very different than the classifieds here. If the eBay seller had a price point he wanted to sell the lens at, he could have put a Buy It Now price on it. Or if he wanted to negotiate, a Best Offer tag.
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In all fairness to the seller, maybe he did put a Buy It Now price on it and listed it at $1 anyway, someone bid on the $1 thing and invalidated the Buy It Now. Also, best offer tags aren't available on all national versions of eBay. Regarding Buy It Now: on German eBay at least Buy It Now prices go away on most auctions as soon as someone places a regular bid; also, there's no reserve on most auctions.

Philipp
 
If you do the deal outside of ebay pay him thru paypal with a credit card so you can have the protection of your credit card company.
 
Thank you again for the tips.

mr phillip, thanks for the links.

Regards
 
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