buying off ebay

[criag.mason]

are there any pitfall's to watch out for when buying camera's on ebay

[wabbitt]

Well i've bought a hell of a lot of stuff from eBay including cameras, flash, batteries, etc.

The things to watch out for are as follows;

• Check that the seller has been around for a while (i.e. he didn't sign up last week)
• Look at his feedback. If it's less than ~98% then be wary.
• Actually read the feedback and see what dates it was all submitted. A reputable seller will have a nice spread of dates. If it looks like he has done nothing for a year, and then suddenly sold 500 items in the last few days, then avoid them
• Make sure that you don't go into bidding overdrive. Sometimes people can get carried away and actually bid more for the item than they could buy it in the shops.
• Use Paypal only. Don't send money or Wire transfers, etc. unless you are picking the item up in person. Paypal offers (some!) protection that the others don't
• Be careful of import duties. These can be quite severe for expensive items. Check the eBay listing. Sometimes sellers (DigitalRev for example) will refund import duties on certain purchases.

Also, consider looking at these two sites.

- www.fatfingers.com
This looks for spelling mistakes made by sellers. So... if you want to buy a 'Canon', and someone is selling a 'Cannon'...

- www.auctionsniper.com
A great way to win a bid without getting yourself into a bidding war.

Hope this all helps.

Dean

[Pirate!!]

Good stuff there Wabmeister!

[Nick Cartwright]

On the subject of import duties I found some information when I was investigating buying lenses from the US.

Digital cameras have no import duty (film cameras do at about 13% I think)
Camera lenses have import duty of 6.7%

To calculate the cost of import you need the price including Shipping.

Then add VAT and import Duty.

Don't forget to add the release fee from parcelnet of £8 - £15.

A rough guide is to add around 30% to the price (slightly less for camera, almost spot on for lenses)

[h4rri]

Originally Posted by Nick Cartwright

On the subject of import duties I found some information when I was investigating buying lenses from the US.

Also worth checking warranty details to ensure it's covered should there be a problem.

[Nick Cartwright]

Yeah, I think Canon and Olympus honour international warranties. But I think there is a problem with Nikon, not sure of the details, but seem to remember reading it somewhere.

[Magslad]

But I think there is a problem with Nikon, not sure of the details, but seem to remember reading it somewhere.

Nikon will honour warranties for lenses as these are worldwide, but they won't honour warranties on bodies as they have region-specific distribution.

Incidentally, does anyone know the situation for Tamron lenses - do these have worldwide warranties?

[SSB]

If you're lucky you might get charged at 3.7%, which is the rate for camera parts and accessories ...

[Waveform]

Originally Posted by Nick Cartwright

Yeah, I think Canon and Olympus honour international warranties. But I think there is a problem with Nikon, not sure of the details, but seem to remember reading it somewhere.

AFAIK Canon are the same as Nikon, lenses are covered internationally but camera bodies are not - in other words if you buy a camera body from Hong Kong you have to cover the postage to get it to and from Canon in Hong Kong for any warranties servicing or pay Canon UK for doing the work.
Check out www.camerapricebuster.co.uk to get an idea of the lowest price from online retailers so you don't over bid - I saw a refurb 30D + 17-85 IS USM go for nearly £1300 the other week when you can get it new for <£1100 from an online store - crazy!!

[SSB]

Originally Posted by Waveform

I saw a refurb 30D + 17-85 IS USM go for nearly £1300 the other week when you can get it new for <£1100 from an online store - crazy!!

I think there's something dodgy going on with Canon outlet ... there are some buyers on there that consistently pay over the odds and only seem to buy through the outlet - my suspicion being that they have "ghost bidders" to outbid people who they feel will be a risky buyer (low feedback, negative feedback etc).

Check this one out for example

[grantsteve]

Originally Posted by SSB

I think there's something dodgy going on with Canon outlet ... there are some buyers on there that consistently pay over the odds and only seem to buy through the outlet - my suspicion being that they have "ghost bidders" to outbid people who they feel will be a risky buyer (low feedback, negative feedback etc).

Check this one out for example

Jeepers Broadbandme80 has spent the fat end of £27,000 this month on Canon gear. They must have roughly 12 or so 5Ds knocking around too!

[Waveform]

Originally Posted by SSB

I think there's something dodgy going on with Canon outlet ... there are some buyers on there that consistently pay over the odds and only seem to buy through the outlet - my suspicion being that they have "ghost bidders" to outbid people who they feel will be a risky buyer (low feedback, negative feedback etc).

Check this one out for example

I think you're right, I having been following a lot of the 30Ds (with & without lenses) from the Canon outlet recently and noticed a couple of things;
lots of bidders with 0 purchases (scammers?).
prices achieved is pretty consistent, if a price is low ~ 1 hour before the end the price is bidded up (eg for the 30D body to ~ £580 - £600)

I think the ghost bidders outbid the risky buyers, then relist the item and also make sure a resonable price is achieved for the items.

[Waveform]

Originally Posted by grantsteve

Jeepers Broadbandme80 has spent the fat end of £27,000 this month on Canon gear. They must have roughly 12 or so 5Ds knocking around too!

Yeah that name looks familiar and there were at least a couple others that came up regularly.
There has been a steady stream of 5Ds going through for a while, I saw somewhere that they had a lot returned under warranty - this could be where they end up after being repaired!!

[SSB]

Another thing to note is that when buying from the US, anything that's sent Global Express via USPS is delivered by Parcelforce. They are **** hot at getting their filthies on your goods. Their clearance fee for these sorts of packages is an outrageous £13.50, which is often more than the VAT payable. An example of this is a flash I bought from the US - item cost was about £73, but by the time I'd paid postage, customs and parcelforce's tip it cost £127. Still cheaper than the UK, but not by the sort of margin I was hoping.