buying cameras on eBay..waste of time?

[Loose rivets]

I'm totally at a loss. Following my posting about D SLRs, I have spent hours watching people pay almost the full amounts for cameras that they will have to wait for...sweat on ever getting them, often have no guarantee...etc etc.

A nice Nikon D70 fetched nearly a grand US and was over a year old. More Canon Rebels than you can shake a stick at are fetching 80% of the full price. An established NY dealer has them at 879 less mail in of 75. Some folk are paying more than this for used.

A D70 that had been dropped and did not go, fetched well into the 3 hundreds and even after such a risk it is still ‘only' a 6mp

A few times the accessories make up for the high cost, but not always.

Obviously I have drawn my own conclusions, but is it just a glitch or do people prefer used kit?

[Wing Commander Fowler]

ebayitis...... it's as simple as that!

[419]

but is it just a glitch or do people prefer used kit?

No, it's just that some people are stupid tw@ts, who have more money than sense.

[P.Pilcher]

I was given a hand held GPS unit for a Christmas present. It worked well, but it's maps were out of date. To get the latest maps on CD I could go to the U.S. manufacturer direct or pay the sterling equivalent of the same price from the U.K. importer. One of the CD's had only just come out, but the unit was soon updated. Then it fell over the side of the boat (s**t) didn't it? Thus I had two new, useless but highly expensive CDs. I put them both on eBay. The first, slightly older disc sold for about 20% more than I had originally paid for it, again on eBay. The brand new disc, acquired from the U.K. supplier for £120 went for £140 and the buyer could have obtained same by return of post, carriage paid for the said £120!

P.P.

[PPRuNe Pop]

As far as I am concerned I will not use ebay after I recently discovered that some bids are being inflated by friends of the owner - a slightly dangerous practice - but it seems to excite a determined buyer to go higher than necessary. Just another scam.

I also bought a XD card and fortunately paid via PayPal. I didn't get the card but did get my money back - after about 7 weeks!

And..............the rogue element is getting worse as events of recent weeks have proved - with three people getting long prison sentences for a most well organised scam that netted them well over a 1/4 million pounds in goods that didn't exist.

Be very careful.

[419]

P.Pop

eBay's not all bad, as long as you're sensible.
The majority of people who were scammed recently, were caught out by their own greed. They didn't buy the items through eBay, but they received e-mails offering them a very good deal if they purchased the goods outside of normal eBay methods.
It's the old saying "if something looks to good to be true, it probably is"

As long as you're cautious, and follow the guidelines, you are generally fairly safe, and have a resonable level of protection.
I've been scammed twice in 3 years, and both times I received all my money back, (although it took a while)

If you were to report the person who was using a friend to raise the bids (shill bidding), there's a good chance eBay would stop them trading, as this is against their rules.

[spannersatcx]

I used to get outbid at the last second, so I tried doing the same, never really 'won' anything.

Then I read somewhere, 'how much is it new, how much are you willing to pay?' Once you work that out place your bid and let ebay automatically do your bidding.

If you don't get it oh well have a search for the next thing, since adopting this method I have never bid more than I really wanted to pay and have actually been more successful in getting things I want at a reasonable price.

[IO540]

It's true that on Ebay a lot of people pay way over the top. They are the amateurs who get caught up in the bidding frenzy.

I therefore never bid for anything unless I snipe it, e.g. http://www.esnipe.com in the last few seconds of an auction. To bid any earlier just attracts attention, and causes one of the novices to up their own bid, and while they end up paying OTT the bottom line is that you don't get what you wanted.

It's no good letting Ebay do the bidding, because Ebay submits the bid right away, to the extent necessary to outbid the current highest bid. So your hand is shown straight away.

Ebay is good for disposing of all kinds of old IT or camera junk. One gets about 50% of the brand new price.

As for buying new stuff, again it is usually a fallacy that Ebay is cheaper. I bought an HP 4700 PDA recently, at a price way below anything on the UK street. BUT the item came from the USA and the discount was entirely due to

a) taking a chance on UK Customs not charging VAT
b) taking a chance on UK Customs not charging import duty
c) taking a chance on the courier (e.g. Fedex) not making a further surcharge

Of course there is NO real warranty on most items.

But you can buy an Emtac GPS on there for 60 quid, whereas Transair sell the exact same thing for 200 quid, and it's really easy to buy and pay with paypal.

[Out Of Trim]

Loose rivets

Hi, Just thought you might like to know that I just saw on dpreview - That Good Old Argos in the UK is advertising D70 for £599.99 - However, they can't get any stock anymore; so are sending out the newer D70s instead..

It has the 28mm - 80mm lens rather than the normal 18mm - 70 mm lens but seems quite a bargain at that price. :cool:

[Conan the Librarian]

D70S is the norm nowadays. slghtly larger LCD screen and a remote lead connector, as opposed to a wireless/IR one on the D70.

Give it a few weeks - the D200 that I referred to in the earlier post is going to be actually on th emarket in the next two to three weeks and alot of D70 owners will upgrade. Prices will reduce - trust me :-) a 30 second hunt on Google has found one at £486, though it doesn't make clear which lens is bundled.

Conan

PS the 28-70 isn't bad a all but the 18-70 is a corker of a lens.

[Honeytruck]

All that said, I've tried to sell some genuinely good items on EBay, starting at a fraction of the new shop price. No takers. :confused: Could just be it's only in the techni-hardwear sections that things get silly as described?

[Cornish Jack]

IO540
I take the point about the advantages of 'sniping' - however, I note that, in order to try out their program, they require your EBay name AND PASSWORD!!:suspect:
Having, on a previous occasion, suffered someone making spurious bids using my EBay name, and having to change password as a result, that is a TOTAL no-no!
I'll stick to the old fashioned count-down timer and trust to luck.

[Loose rivets]

Well, I have seen a few things that I wouldn't have minded having at the final price. Mostly cos of the accessories adding to the value considerably. Who knows what the price would have been with me in the loop of course.

I gather some folk sit there with 2 systems on line. can't quite see what this does.

Drifting off the main point of my thread, cos I'm hooked on photography again after mumble mumble years.

Although the Nikon has the look of a better quality camera, I'm told that the processing on the Canon Rebel XT is superb. The AF speed is almost impossible to believe. The rather poor zoom ratio of X3 seems a bit pointless on the standard lens though.

Standard price for this from an authorized dealer in NY is $804 after mail in discount. Living in Texas I pay NO tax which more than covers the carriage.

The Nikon with two lenses and other odds is $1100 ish and still at 6.1 mp that would be circa 630 quid with as much glass as I need. I can't remember if it's an ‘s' though.

Which takes me to Sony. Their new fixed lens is X10, so this will be enough for the majority of users. However, although well received, (Which? while I was in UK) it is arguable that serious users will not want a camera that veers away from the standards set over many years. It is one of the few that allow continuous use of the lcd while focusing etc. it's bigger than the Canon, and around the same (full) price of $999

Trying to scan negs from the family archives is still a problem. I have just returned a HP low end (staples clearance $45 ) Beutifully made, but just no res worth having. Anyone know how the ‘Density' is derived/calculated? I have to be able to scan 70 year old negs that are say 2.5" X 4" and get some of the fantastic detail pulled off transparencies.

Thanks for the input. LR