What's up with Japanese ebay sellers?

A couple of observations, in no particular order:

-Those sellers are most likely not Chinese but Japanese I see a lot of them in Yahoo Auctions too and their Japanese language listings and ratings are "creative" as well. A favorite of mine was an M3 that looked like it had been scooped up from the ocean floor with an enlarger lens stuck on it. It sold for over 600 dollars. (72k yen)

-There was, a couple of years back, an "academy" in Japan for wannabe sellers how to sell on Yahoo and also internationally. It mainly focused on taking good pictures, using some templates and hyping up the description of the item.

-Recent hype of film cameras and film photography has let to a lot of people emptying out their drawers to unearth some true dogs which then get added to the circulation.

-Buying on a massive scale from both European/American and Chinese tourists in the Tokyo camera shops means that both the prices went up and the quality of the stuff has gone down.

-Furthermore, this is just a supposition, but none the less I believe that various re-sellers are buying items (rare, expensive) by the boatload and then selling the dogs back into the market in Japan which feels a bit inflated compared to the US/EU pricing
 
what percent "discount" would you say kevin cameras averages? i was looking at something on their ebay account a couple months ago, and the same item was in their online shop for a little less, but they didn't even take an offer for that price! 🙄 😕
 
aizan said:
what percent "discount" would you say kevin cameras averages? i was looking at something on their ebay account a couple months ago, and the same item was in their online shop for a little less, but they didn't even take an offer for that price! 🙄 😕
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They probably can't because after PayPal and eBay fees it would be even less than that. I assume that the shop-listed price is for when you buy from him direct. And he probably gets less than the shop-listed priced after eBay fees.

I dealt with him and he is very conscientious and also very thorough if you have questions. I'd rather pay a little more than have to deal with the extra cost and the heartache of having yet another lens that doesn't focus right, isn't as described, doesn't work right, etc. etc... (dealing with that right now in fact ... :bang🙂
 
Whenever I've bought anything off ebay it's been from a US seller. If I were to buy say a Leica lens from one of these japanese ebayers, how does import and all that work? Do I have to pay customs fees or anything? e.g. Lens I buy is around $3,000 USD shipping from Japan to Washington DC.
 
Gokevincameras is basically a disease of ebay. Lists things for four or five (or six, or seven) times the going rate - inspiring ignorant ebayers getting rid of dead grandma's old exkata lens to do the same. So a bunch of crap sits on ebay for months (or years) doing nobody any favors. They may be alright to deal with, but their effect on other sellers....


In the old car hobby we call these "crackpipe" prices.
 
aizan said:
it all went to hell several years ago. the only seller in japan i bother with now is irohas.

shueido in taiwan is also good.
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shueido in Taiwan is under discussion in another thread for the sales of brightly painted Canon Ps but has anyone ever bought a lens off him. He seems to have a lot of Japanese stuff at reasonable prices (compared to Europe) but everything is described as having small cleaning marks on the back or front element. Is this just done to protect himself in case of complaint or does he actually understate the problem? I have only bought lens hoods so far. He certain avoids phrases like "Mint+++++" which is reassuring (and I'm a person who loves mint sauce).



In spite of having purchased many excellent items from Japan, my problem is that if you buy something that comes just into the tax threshold then you are charged the tax (fair enough) then the shipping company add a (proportionately) large tax handling fee which boosts the price even more. Sometimes a bargain ends up more expensive than back home (I suppose I am just too used to buying within Europe with no extra taxes).


Of course some other countries tend to be more "creative" when stating value 🙂
 
I've only ever used Japanese Ebay to get hold of things difficult to find here (such as Fujinon or Nikkor large format lenses). Even with shipping and taxes they have been decently priced and while I take all the mint+++++++++++ with a pinch of salt, they have been in good condition.

The reality is though that most stuff is egregiously overpriced and I get fair better deals from dealers in the UK. But the same applies to most of the stuff on Ebay generally. Let's not even start on the madnesses that are private sellers on Facebook Marketplace...
 
richardHaw said:
be careful. there are some mainland chinese sellers posing as japanese vendors. they have a physical presence here and they ship from here which makes it hard to detect. 😱😱😱
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Yeah that was my first thought as well.

Sounds like Yahoo Japan auctions... its gone to the dogs too and most (but not all) of the dodgy sellers seem to be Chinese.

Just ignoring any ebay auction with mint+++++++++++ in the description and any Yahoo Japan auction with musical symbols in the description filters out most of the dodgy auctions.
 
mightbenow said:
Whenever I've bought anything off ebay it's been from a US seller. If I were to buy say a Leica lens from one of these japanese ebayers, how does import and all that work? Do I have to pay customs fees or anything? e.g. Lens I buy is around $3,000 USD shipping from Japan to Washington DC.
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Generally no, film cameras have no duties when shipped to the US, and most items shipped via post won’t have duties even if they are supposed to according to the harmonized tariff codes

Never had any duties for used camera gear and I’ve bought a wide variety from many countries over the years, much from japan
 
jonmanjiro said:
Yeah that was my first thought as well.

Sounds like Yahoo Japan auctions... its gone to the dogs too and most (but not all) of the dodgy sellers seem to be Chinese.

Just ignoring any ebay auction with mint+++++++++++ in the description and any Yahoo Japan auction with musical symbols in the description filters out most of the dodgy auctions.
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they have ruined the toy collectors market 😱😱😱

i remember we having a discussion of some of these sellers.

these rats are the reason why I got into camera and lens repair 🙄
 
I don't know if it's a Chinese or Japanese seller. I take my time and and look over the photos carefully. Any seller with photos that can't be seen at a higher resolution I quickly move on. Interestingly, I have come across some Japanese sellers who describe their items as good condition and the item looks better than some EXC++++ items. Time invested pays. I also go back to the seller that sent me something that was as described or better. You can also ask them to look out for something too I found.

I have bought lots of stuff from Japan and only twice I had problems. Sent back a Leica M6 with a bent rewind shaft and got a full refund. Very apologetic seller. Lens with fungus and the seller refunded me my money and didn't require the lens be sent back ( it was a lens for Mamiya Universal ). The rest were all great.
 
I haven't read every word of every post in this thread but making general statements about 'Japanese sellers' makes me uncomfortable. Obviously, there are many good ones and bad ones, everywhere.
 
Whyso? The vast majority of Japanese sellers seem to follow a standard template with their listings, including layout, descriptions, wording, the use of '+++++++', among many other commonalities, even the orientation of the items in the photos.
 
splitimageview said:
Generally no, film cameras have no duties, and most items shipped via post won’t have duties even if they are supposed to according to the harmonized tariff codes

Never had any duties for used camera gear and I’ve bought a wide variety from many countries over the years, much from japan
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Hi, this is the opposite of what I have experienced but it may be down to the receiving country. I live in France and have made about five largish second hand purchases from Japan (lets say in the range $100-500) and each time I have been charged local purchase tax (about 20%) and on top of this the shipping company has added a transaction fee for collecting the tax, and then they have added tax on that too! One camera got stuck in customs and was returned to Japan and when it finally arrived back with me I had two transaction fees.



Typically Japanese sellers are very honest with marking valuations and state this in the advert,whereas some other sellers often advertise that they will send as "gift" or "sample". Japanese sellers will also tend to use top notch delivery companies that will insist on correct paperwork and deliver quickly whereas some other sellers will use cheap sea routes. In the end you get what you pay for I suppose.


In Europe Japanese RF equipment is not that easy to find so I often sit longingly looking at the Mint++++++ examples wondering what they would really cost me if I took the chance.


Phil W
 
Occasionally, I'll see an ad for an item described as "Mint" or "Like New", yet when I look at the product photos, they have the item placed on their patio masonry or concrete. For some reason, I remain doubtful. 🙄🙄
 
twopointeight said:
I haven't read every word of every post in this thread but making general statements about 'Japanese sellers' makes me uncomfortable. Obviously, there are many good ones and bad ones, everywhere.
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So you feel uncomfortable but have not read the content?

Gotcha.
 
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