EBoy Seller: SP314 & Come Back to Russia

[Will]

Hi,

Anyone dealed with SP314 and Come Back To Russia?

Are they good seller?

Come Back To Russia seems to have a lot of FSU RF lens, are his stocks good?





Will

 

[wotalegend]

Do you mean "Come back to the USSR", otherwise known as kubanoid? If so, I have bought from him before with no problem. Not always the cheapest, but pretty honest with descriptions. Just bought another from him today - a silver J-8, one of the early ones with focussing lever. Have no experience with SP314.

Cheers, Peter.

 

[payasam]

A Jupiter 9 was bought for me from kubanoid and reached me in India a week ago, a month after it was paid for. The description spoke of minor cleaning marks on the front element but I found that there were in fact five small indentations in the glass: physical damage. The bigger problem, which renders the lens useless, is that its focus is over 9cm off at the closest focus of 1.15M. Not to be expected from an eBay seller with a 100 per cent feedback rating.

I do not know if any effort has been made to have the seller give back money if the lens is returned to him. Even if that were to be done, though, I would lose the expense of (a) postage from Russia to India and (b) postage from India back to Russia.

 

[pakeha]

does not matter where in the world you buy from on e-bay, you will get the good, bad and con in any country, while on the subject, how about moscowphoto, any dealings worth a mention out there? i am going to buy another industar 61, regards

 

[payasam]

Here are test photographs which show that the R/F of the camera is all right but the focus of the J-9 is bad. The last crop shows poor definition also.

 

[payasam]

Crop of third above.

 

[fanshaw]

I have had mixed experiences with Kubanoid. My last purchase was a collapsible Industar-50 in mint condition that turned out to have a defective mount, which meant that the lens could not be fully extended and locked. I emailed him but did not receive a reply. That will be my last purchase, but to be fair I have bought some nice items from him although one camera had to be returned for repair because it didn't work properly when it arrived. In short a lottery. That is why I ignore enthusiatic recommendations for Ebay sellers. They just highlight the lottery winners. Most of the losers lick their wounds and keep quiet.

 

[Mablo]

Moscowphoto

Moscowphoto

does not matter where in the world you buy from on e-bay, you will get the good, bad and con in any country, while on the subject, how about moscowphoto, any dealings worth a mention out there? i am going to buy another industar 61, regards

I've bought numerous items from moscowphoto. They have always been slow with the delivery but that might not necessarily be their fault. Russian post office being the more likely culprit I would say. However, the items that I've bought from moscowphoto - Industar and Jupiter lenses mainly - have been extremely good. I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again - and I surely will one day.

 

[rxmd]

The main problem with sellers of this kind is that the gear that is floating around inside any former Soviet republic is of at least as mixed quality as the gear floating around elsewhere. I spent quite a lot of time hanging around with used camera dealers in Tashkent whenever I was working there, and I've had some insights into the way they work. Normally they either get stuff in bulk, or individuals who find something in their closet sell it to them. If they are lucky, they get the estate of a collector. The primary measure of quality assurance here is trust and instinct. You can be sure that no matter how low the minimum wage, at $20 or so for an Industar-61 it is not economical for any eBay seller to spend hours engaging in extensive testing, waiting for rolls of films to be developed, taking lenses apart to adjust close focus etc.

For eBay sellers, in addition a primary qualification is a good working knowledge of English. I don't think we can say very much about whether seller X consistently has good merchandise; all we get is a basic idea whether he has a good instinct in where he gets his merchandise from, takes some time to describe it, and describes it accurately. Someone like Oleg Khalyavin who sells stuff that he has been working on himself is the absolute exception, and I think he's not selling on eBay for a reason.

 

[payasam]

Fanshaw: "Most of the losers lick their wounds and keep quiet."
If I go out of my way to publicly describe good experiences, I see no reason to keep quiet about bad ones. Dissatisfied buyers keeping quiet is how sellers achieve 100% ratings.

rxmd: "... and describes it accurately." To speak only of wipe marks when there is physical damage to the glass is not an accurate description. The sentence "All functions are available" is not necessarily untruthful, but certainly it does not say that a lens has an error of 9cm or more at closest focus of 1.15M.

 

[rxmd]

rxmd: "... and describes it accurately." To speak only of wipe marks when there is physical damage to the glass is not an accurate description. The sentence "All functions are available" is not necessarily untruthful, but certainly it does not say that a lens has an error of 9cm or more at closest focus of 1.15M.

You are completely right. I wasn't trying to defend this seller. All I was trying to say is basically that we shouldn't expect Russian eBay sellers to test their gear very extensively. All we have to distinguish between sellers is the trust we have in their item sources and the accuracy of their descriptions regarding the obvious. It seems that the descriptions of items by this particular seller can't necessarily be trusted. Probably he was just copying and pasting an auction text.

As far as your lens is concerned, I don't see any hope beyond trying to negotiate with the seller for reimbursement (well, other than claiming a chargeback on a credit card if you can do that).

 

[payasam]

It's all a matter of trust and assumptions, Philipp. Buyer trusts seller, seller trusts supplier, who in turn.... I agree that it is unreasonable to expect sellers to extensively test things which they sell for little profit.

 

[pschauss]

I am sorry to hear that people have had problems with kubanoid. A few years back he had the reputation of being one of the most trustworthy of the FSU sellers on Ebay. I have bought several cameras and lenses from him over the past four or five years and had no problems with any of them. Right now I am waiting for Kiev 20 from him, sold "as is" because the light meter doesn't work. (The shutter supposedly works.) This is the first major purchase I have made from him in a couple of years so I will let you all know how I made out in about three weeks.

WRT the J-9, the focus problem is probably due to someone taking it apart and reassembling it wrong.

 

[pakeha]

perhaps our expectations are at fault, these items are all second hand and usually at least 20 years old. Good point about the testing and minimum wage, as a liberal i have found the old imposed prejudice at work here. I have purchased quite a few camera from UK,USA,AUST without much thought and find myself concerned about a $20.00 do dak from moscow, jeez, my bank and power company steal more than 20 bucks from me every month, so i`m go0nna get real and accept fully thats it is MY gamble, it is MY purchase, and alleged democracy states it is MY responsibility, ciao and regards

 

[pschauss]

Another consideration about the quality of lenses and cameras coming out of the FSU is that after 7 or 8 years where all of us have been buying this stuff, the supply of good-condition items may be getting a bit mined out.

 

[rxmd]

Another consideration about the quality of lenses and cameras coming out of the FSU is that after 7 or 8 years where all of us have been buying this stuff, the supply of good-condition items may be getting a bit mined out.

With less common items you may have a point; it will not be getting easier to find pre-war FEDs and Drugs and Kiev-5s in good condition. As far as the more common items are concerned, I don't think so. These things were made by the millions, and they continue surfacing from private closets in the conditions in which they were put into the closets. That's just my personal experience over the last eight years.

 

[fanshaw]

I am sorry to hear that people have had problems with kubanoid. A few years back he had the reputation of being one of the most trustworthy of the FSU sellers on Ebay. I have bought several cameras and lenses from him over the past four or five years and had no problems with any of them. Right now I am waiting for Kiev 20 from him, sold "as is" because the light meter doesn't work. (The shutter supposedly works.) This is the first major purchase I have made from him in a couple of years so I will let you all know how I made out in about three weeks.

Then we will know if you are a lottery winner or not on this occasion. It won't mean much for the next buyer.

 

[fanshaw]

Fanshaw: "Most of the losers lick their wounds and keep quiet."
If I go out of my way to publicly describe good experiences, I see no reason to keep quiet about bad ones. Dissatisfied buyers keeping quiet is how sellers achieve 100% ratings.

r

I said 'Most', not all and I welcome your attitude. The situation may be improving as far as Ebay is concerned now that sellers cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer just to retaliate. This happened to me some years ago when I dared to leave a negative for a well known Ukrainian seller.

 

[DSikes]

Feedback blackmail 🙂 I've had issues with that in the past also, to the point that I closed an eBay account because of the 3 negative feedbacks I had recieved for being an honest consumer. I'm glad eBay changed that.

Some good info and perspective in this thread. I've been shopping for a J-12. I'm hesitant about buying from an oversea's seller; If there is an issue the cost of shipping to exchange it seems cost prohibitive.

 

[payasam]

Over a long period, DSikes, the world shrank continuously because of improving communications. Now it is growing rapidly larger because of soaring postal costs. The logical conclusion -- and yes, I know I am stating the ridiculous -- is that it will become cheaper to travel from Chicago to Riga to buy an Industar 61 than it will be to have that lens sent by post parcel.