ebay, how you torment me...

I agree with most of what has been said here. You must be patient and always suspicious on ebay.

My policy with used gear is this:

1. Check KEH. I feel I can trust them above anything else, and if you compare prices against ebay sales you will see that you are paying a small (sometimes negligible) premium for that.

2. I haven't bought anything through the classifieds here, but that would be my next try. Only problem is that they move very quickly.

3. Then ebay. What I've learned about ebay is to avoid certain sellers, check the feedback, check the photos, check the shipping costs. Then bid only what you want to pay and walk away. Over time you learn to see the clues that tell you when an auction should be avoided. This doesn't mean you won't get burned. But I can say that most of my problems have been my own fault.

Having said that, my primary complaint with ebay is that many sellers do not thoroughly describe the true condition of the equipment. Especially with lenses.
 
jn053 said:
The eastern European photo sellers just have a different way of doing business. It's not about fairness, it's about making sure they create an advantage in the transaction.
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It must suck to be Eastern European. An American has a problem with an American seller, yet everybody jumps at the evil FSU presence on eBay and their incomprehensible desire to create an advantage in the transaction.

On a related note, it seems a bit strange, that people buy lenses for like $30, yet expect the seller, who probably bought it for $25, to test and clean and lube and shim it and ship it for free, if you allow me to exaggerate a bit. What's next, should they send a roll of test shots on Kodak Ektra with the lens, and test it for focus shift on an M9?

The main reason why things are cheap is because time is expensive. Don't expect any amount of accuracy - on a sub-$100 item from anywhere in the world, unless the description clearly shows that someone examined the item individually ("2mm cleaning mark on the 7 o'clock position" and the like), it's probably completely generic. And maybe think of the profit margins on a cheap item before blaming sellers for their desire to create an advantage.
 
rgpadron said:
I bought a lens from a polish dealer. It took a little over a month to get home. I posted a neutral feedback because at $40.00US I consider it way too expensive for shipping.
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Was the international shipping rate advertised in the listing, or did you ask the seller in advance how much it would cost?
 
KEH as of late is good, but variable, They are buying up incredible amounts of stuff, like more than $100K per camera show, the buyer looks at it quickly, shines a light through the lenses, cuts a check, wraps it up, and at the end of the day it is shipped to Atlanta.

Some of the things they sell are better than described and well priced. That said, they take stuff back with no argument.

They are very big though, so not much time for the personal touch.

Any used stuff I have bought from any of the NY guys has always been at least one notch below what I rated it.

Midwest is good if you get them on the phone, as is Campus Camera in Kent (small place though), and Igor Camera takes a lot of time to list things on ebay because Igor does carefully check out the items, as he does on his web page. Everyone wants photos though, and it takes time, so you may not get a photo from him. He does have a phone though, and you can call and see what he has on hand that is not listed.

Igor does tend to call anything less than perfect a "user" grade, he is one of the best clients for several repairmen, so stuff is often serviced.

On ebay, I try to look at numbers of sales, and feedback of course, but I do take the occasional shot, most of the time, if I buy something, it is OK. A lot like fishing.

You are looking for a fairly common item though, so it should not be all that hard to find glass to fit for now, until the Leica Ship docks. ;-)

Call all of the places, should take no more than a half hour, and they all take credit cards.

Have seen few regrets posted on the classifieds here, but I have noted the good stuff goes fast. ;-)

Regards, John
 
ditto... but I can count my ebay purchases: over 150 in 10 years with only 2 'bad" deals, one of which both product cost and shippping was refunded with no problem at all.

I'll never forget the $25 Anniversary Graphic (with 8 film holders, and flash, and reflectors, and case, and other assorted smaller accessories) that I bought from the guy with a very low number of sales, who never even acknowledged receipt of payment or shipping. I use it on a regular basis and never had to do much more than load the film holders with fresh film. Sometimes trust is a good thing!
 
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The regular ebay sellers also do not get to be regular sellers by purposely cheating people, and more and more it is commercial, rather than the occasional seller it began with.

I sent along a spare magazine with a camera, forgot to mention it, the buyer was surprised and happy.

Nice when the deal is good for both.

Nice story about the Graphic.

Regards, John
 
batterytypehah! said:
Back to the OP... and then away from it again, actually. So our man Hipster needs a 50 in LTM. No luck with FSU glass. He has vented, we have vented, now can we actually do something for him?

I see three, maybe four solutions:

Fix the Rokkor. It's a fifties lens, shouldn't be that hard to open up and re-engage the aperture linkage. Brian?

Find a beater Elmar, Summar, or Serenar

One of Brian's modified FSU wonders

Stop down and shoot that slightly off focus FSU glass, anyway
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Thanks for all of the great suggestions. 🙂 A lot of my photography suggests that I shoot close to wide open, as I love doing portraits. Luckily, I have the 90mm Elmar for that. I've got my eye on some equipment, so we'll see how everything goes.

Thanks to everyone who posted in this thread. Some great suggestions and thoughts about picking up equipment.
 
I have bought and sold on eBay since 1999 with very few problems.

One problem I have been noticing lately though is buyers who don't read the description. I recently sold a LTM lens to a buyer who has a Olympus bayonet camera and claims I mis-represented the lens.

Another sale by me was described "as is. For parts or repair only. Does not work". In his paypal complaint he claimed I had described it as fully working AFTER he admitted not reading the description before bidding.

I see the same issues when selling on craigslist..
 
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