Anybody bought off ebay?

[khristeeanos]

I am looking at a Canon 40D and thought I would look on ebay. I found a few stores.

I have bought about 20 items off ebay, but never a large dollar item. Some of the prices seem low compared to the big stores.

Please give me your thoughts.

 

[N'Kolor]

I have bought off of eBay but just be careful who you buy from.

 

[ewhip17]

I've done a ton of buying and selling on ebay, but with camera equipment you have to be really, really careful. If you actually read through the feedback from some of these places that have incredible prices listed, you will see that you have to enter your phone # to "verify" the sale. You then receive a high pressure sales call trying to get you to buy overpriced and uneccessary items. There are good sellers on there - a 100% positive feedback rating is a good place to start. One of the "regulars" on there has a few negatives, but if you read them they are mostly from international buyers who didn't read the auction terms - that kind of stuff happens and I'm ok buying from someone like that. Be careful though - if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.

 

[johnmh]

WARNING WARNING.......

First - all the deals that are too good to be true - are. Lots of gray market, bait and switch and bogus ratings..... when buying from a store check:

http://www.resellerratings.com/rlist-s1-n2.html or other reseller ratings

eBay has lots of stores selling camera equipment - some good and lots that aren't. Look carefully at ratings.....lots of negative and even 'mutually withdrawn' are signs of problems.......

LOTS of problem stores operating under multiple names. Especially out of Brooklyn. You'll find these places all the time as "recommended" under bogus shopping comparison sites - which THEY set up or pay for referrals from.

Gray market stuff - NOT intended for sale in the US market, imported from elsewhere - can be a big problem if you have a problem. Some sellers have their own warranty, others have nothing. Nikon for one won't touch non-US cameras in their US centers. Other places try and sell you - at extra cost - the batteries and other accessories that should come with the camera. Some will sell you third party lenses (which may be OK from your point of view but know the value of what you're getting).

Having said that there ARE good sellers..... but usually their prices will not be 'super' bargains (because few are going to sell product at a loss).

Places like Cameta (near Nikon's East Coast service center) sell lots of refurb product - shorter warranty, up to you if you're comfortable with a refurb item...... Some specialize on gray market - again up to you if you're comfortable with that.

Can't speak specifically to Canon - but I'm sure you have similar situations.

final note - ANY store that wants you provide a phone number for 'order confirmation' is likely to try and hard sell you expensive 'accessories' or upsell you... and if you won't go along, they'll be out of stock....

These comments apply to stores..... individuals have their own risks.... feedback is important - as is a history of selling similar items - (no recent feedback and drastically different items can signal a fraudulently hijacked account)

 

[kundalini]

I consider e-bay as what my mother used to tell me at any store we went in when I was a child - "Look but don't touch".

 

[tangcla]

I'd say eBay+Paypal would be much safer than buying from forums such as these.

Ensure that the seller has a high positive feedback in recent months, and look at the summary at the top of the feedback page to see how many neutral, negative and withdrawn they have received in the past month. A lot of the Hong Kong sellers are fine. And when you pay via Paypal, remember to check that the seller is a verified member...

 

[usayit]

I too have done a lot of selling and buying on ebay. You have to be extremely careful, skeptical, and paranoid all at the same time. ON the other hand, I have never purchased anything "new" from ebay. Is it just me but it seems that most of the "new" items on ebay for rock bottom prices are complete scams?

 

[tangcla]

The items from eBay shops in Hong Kong are genuine prices. Believe it or not, they are still making money on these prices. I went back to Hong Kong beginning of the year and saw for myself, the prices at retail really are that cheap.

 

[RTXPIX]

B&H Photo has excellent prices, no need to buy a camera/lenses through Ebay.

 

[tangcla]

B&H/Adorama doesn't work out so cheap for us people over here in Australia, because of expensive UPS shipping rates, and also an anal-retentive customs system by which we get reamed for having items over $1000AUD being imported, and also because B&H/Adorama won't under-declare the shipping documents for us.

Also they can not beat the prices for lens filters on eBay

 

[N'Kolor]

B&H Photo has excellent prices, no need to buy a camera/lenses through Ebay.

Agreed! (and yet I still buy from Ritz...ugh!)