You have to be so careful.

[yashica1943]

I have been buying and selling all sorts of things including cameras on ebay for 10 years, so I now know roughly how it works.
I have been looking to buy a new or nearly new Nikon D5200 or D5300 body for my own use for a few months. I would prefer to buy a new one but not at main dealer's prices and the dealer that I would have used does not have a PayPal option.
I had quite a lot of money built up in PayPal and I will not link it to my bank a/c. So 3 weeks ago a 5300 with kit lens came up at a suspiciously low price as a buy it now. To cut a long story short, I knew I was covered by PayPal so I bought it. WRONG! Basically - no camera and the seller had my money. Returned by the resolution centre.
So a week ago I found a slightly used D5200 body with a well feedback'd seller. Won it on auction, supposed to be sent by Royal Mail, first class signed for delivery to arrive last Tuesday.
Bearing in mind that my address is very obvious and less than 300 metres from the Royal Mail delivery office, I waited and waited.
On Wednesday I sent an email to the seller, no reply for hours.
Then he told me that the delivery service 'could not deliver because they couldn't find the address and they have returned the package' he then had to admit that he had sent it by a cheap courier, one which I would never use.
He then sent it by Royal Mail express service and it arrived by 0930 yesterday.
The camera is fine, absolutely mint and working, but the box had been stuffed with a powdery paper waste product like sawdust instead of bubble wrap or polystyrene - what an idiot. Luckily the camera was wrapped in a plastic bag and no flakes had got near it.
No I have had no answer from him when I complained about the dust.

[philbirch]

You've got my sympathy. I don't expect you will hear from him, I think you were fortunate in this case, you got what you wanted, at a good price. Remember the seller and don't buy from him again. There are some cheapskates who over charge for cheap, slow, delivery services. I've had a few of them.

I once ordered a Minolta X700 with lens and it arrived only wrapped in a black plastic bin-bag sellotaped together. You could feel every knob and control but miraculously it was in one piece and un-dented and working. The barsteward charged me £10 and sent it second class. If I hadn't got it for less than £15 I may have kicked off.

Sometimes you've just got to say "sod it, I have it now".

[yashica1943]

On the other hand, today I received a Tamron 90mm f2.5 macro lens no.52B with Nikon mount absolutely immaculate, could almost pass as a new lens. Beautifully wrapped in about 7 layers of bubblewrap, in a big box by Royal Mail signed for delivery arrived the day after I bought it.
I paid a top price of nearly £80 for the lens, but worth every penny. Only thing needed is a 49mm front lens cap.

[philbirch]

I received an Iloca 1A today, a charming little camera well packed with a lovely letter hoping I'd enjoy it. Normally you get nothing. The camera itself is in reasonable condition but the shutter works at all speeds and the lens is nice and clear. Great service.