Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2012 21:34:49 GMT -5
I started buying and selling on Ebay in 2001. I collected by Soviet gear when the people in the Ukraine (mostly) were just starting to sell. Met a lot of nice folks and quickly learned who could be trusted and who couldn't. It's been three of four years at least since I got my last camera from Ebay. Shipping prices from overseas have gone up a lot and there isn't nearly the variety to chose from (as far a Soviet gear). I'm skeptical of the people who say they got gear at a sale or out of storage and don't know if it works. Seems to me it would be worth their while to find out before they post it. Doubt that I would buy a camera under that situation.
The llast couple of cameras I picked up were locally off Craig'd list. Had a chance to examine them, and didn't have to pay a commission to Paypal or Ebay --plus I got them cheaper than what I would have had to pay online.. We go to a lot of estate auctions and my dream is to one day stumble across a nice Leica or Canon RF at one of these. In five years I've never seen a "covetable" camera at an estate auction. Family members must haul them off before the auction--or maybe there just aren't any.
I suppose if there were some nice cameras they would sell like guns--for considerably more than they are worth.
You can get some bargains sometimes. I picked up a nice Honda 1000 watt generator/inverter for half what it would bring in Ebay and one third of the new price--plus I knew in advance what kind of condition it was in. The trick is to bid quickly and look confident and make the other bidders think they don't have any hope of outbidding you. So they fold early in the bidding. Doesn't always work but it seems to be one of the more effective techniques. I've used it on Ebay, too.
The llast couple of cameras I picked up were locally off Craig'd list. Had a chance to examine them, and didn't have to pay a commission to Paypal or Ebay --plus I got them cheaper than what I would have had to pay online.. We go to a lot of estate auctions and my dream is to one day stumble across a nice Leica or Canon RF at one of these. In five years I've never seen a "covetable" camera at an estate auction. Family members must haul them off before the auction--or maybe there just aren't any.
I suppose if there were some nice cameras they would sell like guns--for considerably more than they are worth.
You can get some bargains sometimes. I picked up a nice Honda 1000 watt generator/inverter for half what it would bring in Ebay and one third of the new price--plus I knew in advance what kind of condition it was in. The trick is to bid quickly and look confident and make the other bidders think they don't have any hope of outbidding you. So they fold early in the bidding. Doesn't always work but it seems to be one of the more effective techniques. I've used it on Ebay, too.