Equipment on eBay?

[gilligda]

Hi All:
I'm looking to buy a Nikon D200, but I'm a little skeptical about where to buy. The camera (body only) retails at large stores like Best Buy for around $2,500.

However, there are online eBay stores that sell the camera PLUS a ton of accessories (including lenses, tripods, CF, etc) for significantly cheaper ($1,500-$1,900). They promised all this stuff is brand new, and they have very positive feedback from previous buyers.

Are these stores for real or is this a scam?

Thanks in advance.

 

[firemedic0135]

Check this thread first.it was on here just days ago.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=70224

 

[usayit]

The number of camera scams on the internet vastly out number the legit.

www.resellerratings.com

www.bbb.org

If its a significantly better price than BH or Adorama (or other ligitimate online stores) it is too good to be true and should be avoided. There's not much pricing room for photography equipment stores.

 

[RBCONDO]

The Nikon D70 I purchased on Ebay has something small on the image sensor that shows up in any photo I take of a large white or light colored surface.
A cleaning by a pro might fix it but I'm afraid to tackle it myself. I saved about $250 buying a used camera on Ebay but this defect was not advertised and it was two months before I noticed it because most of the things I had been taking pictures of were dark or had a pattern. Sometimes paying full price is worth it to know that the product will be 100% perfect and if it's not the company should take care of you and fix it. With Ebay you never know...

 

[TomHuck-wa]

I only buy from B&H, 17TH street photo or adorama for cameras. I have bought used lenses and tripods on ebay if the seller has over 98% positive feedback and over 250 feedbacks.

 

[e999sam]

I got my Sony alpha 100 from an eBay store in the UK. As far as I can tell it’s a new UK camera as described and I have had no problems with it. I saved around £100 on the store price.
On a cautionary note although the eBay advert said it had a full 1 year Sony warranty I’m not sure Sony would honour it because I do not have a sales receipt from a shop which is one of Sony’s requirements.
Also make sure you are buying a new camera and not a refurbished one. A lot of the sellers negative feed back came from people thinking they had purchased a new camera when the advert didn’t say it was new and described it as refurbished at the end of the advert.

 

[JIP]

I'm not sure where you are looking but just the first place I looked Ritz has what they call a "bundle" now I would not personallt recommend this particular package but it is $2800 and has a card, extra battery, a decent tripod, their protection plan and a lens for this price so if you saw body only for $2500 you better look again. here's a link.

http://www.ritzcamera.com/product/BDNKD200A.htm

Also, and this is just me if you are going to buy a current newer model DSLR it might be better just to buy it from a reputable place like B+H Ritz Adorama or the like. And again I personally would not buy the package I linked because it has the 18-200 and I really do not like that lens I just used it as an example.

 

[mimartin]

Hi All:
I'm looking to buy a Nikon D200, but I'm a little skeptical about where to buy. The camera (body only) retails at large stores like Best Buy for around $2,500.

Hey, Wolf Camera has the D200 body for $1500.
http://www.wolfcamera.com/product/5...ories;cidigital-cameras;cislr-digital-cameras
They also have some good packages with lenses.

 

[TomHuck-wa]

Wolf camera is one of those ripoff joints. Check this out.http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Wolf_Camera

 

[neea]

I made the mistake of buying a 200mm lens off ebay. They said it was in perfect working condition. They lied!
When it was trying to auto focus the gears made TERRIBLE noises. I was worried it was my camera but my other lens worked fine. I took it to a local camera store and tried it on their camera bodies.
It was screwed!
The seller did take it back though and refund my money, even though he thought I was lying about it not working.

From now on I think I will only buy lenses that I can see, touch, and try first. Paying for shipping to recieve stuff and then send it back again starts to add up.

 

[Alex_B]

On a cautionary note although the eBay advert said it had a full 1 year Sony warranty I’m not sure Sony would honour it because I do not have a sales receipt from a shop which is one of Sony’s requirements.

but it was an ebay shop, wasn't it`in any case they must have a sales receipt for you!

I bought lots of my equipment from online shops and always got receipts which were later accepted by Canon.

 

[usayit]

Just a side note... Adorama also does business on ebay..

lookup: adorwin

 

[sothoth]

Are these stores for real or is this a scam?

I bid on a lens a few weeks ago and ebay pulled the item due to suspicion of fraudulence. I bid on a second (similar) lens a few days later and that item was pulled as well. Certainly there are good items on ebay but scams are a dime a dozen. Electronics seem to be good bait for scammers to use.

I bought a lens thru Amazon and it arrived with a defect in one of the pieces of glass, it looked like it was delaminating on the inside. At least with Amazon they ship a new one before the defective one gets returned so I only had to wait 2-3 more days for the right item. Even though I got a defective item I trust Amazon to make good on the transaction, and they did.

I bought an old film camera body on ebay and it was perfect. But it was also only $50, so if it had been bad, no worries.