[LadyRo]

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Why would someone on the US mainland go on eBay and try to sell genuine Pentax M42 to K mount adapters at the same retail price, and same shipping cost, that Pentax sells them for? Does this person not understand that in this situation the prudent choice would be to buy directly from Pentax? Obviously, not. :/

But, what makes it worse is that the adapter up for sale is USED! The seller is trying to sell a used adapter for the same price as a brand new, warrantied one, from Pentax. Then, they insult buyers further by giving them the option of making a Best Offer, including the option to send a note to the seller, but auto-declining the offers. I made two best offers, which I thought were fair offers given the adapter was used: $20 and $23, respectively. Both were automatically declined. That let me know that they had a certain price they were holding out for. My personal policy is that if I don't save more than $6, after shipping costs are added in, it's not a savings. Under $6 and I might as well pay full retail and get all the benefits that come with it.

Sorry for the rant, but it just irks me so much when sellers give a Best Offer option knowing they are intent on getting a certain price for their item. If you're not going to be reasonably flexible, it's just a waste of everyone's time.

Original Pentax M42 to PK Mount lens adpater Excellent - eBay (item 350366328507 end time Jul-12-10 09:03:31 PDT)

[hangu]

Few people know that you can buy it direct from Pentax for $30 and they take advantage of that.

Don't get too worked up over this sort of stuff, it's Ebay afterall.

[LadyRo]

Few people know that you can buy it direct from Pentax for $30 and they take advantage of that.

Don't get too worked up over this sort of stuff, it's Ebay afterall.

My irritation doesn't rise to the level of being worked up. I guess I'm just kind of incredulous about people trying to do business without having a clue. Maybe I shouldn't be, though. Dumb people just make smart people like me look even smarter!

[JeffJS]

My irritation doesn't rise to the level of being worked up. I guess I'm just kind of incredulous about people trying to do business without having a clue. Maybe I shouldn't be, though. Dumb people just make smart people like me look even smarter!

Actually, they have plenty clue. Pentax USA doesn't ship outside of the USA from their merchandise page from what I understand. I've seen people offering this adapter at $75, based in Canada for that reason.

It's called price gouging.

[stevebrot]

It is not unusual to see merchandise on eBay at the U.S. retail price. As mentioned above, Pentax USA will not ship outside the country. That $30 adapter costs twice to three times that amount in Europe. In some ways these sellers are providing a very useful service to less fortunate users in other parts of the world.


Steve

[LadyRo]

Actually, they have plenty clue. Pentax USA doesn't ship outside of the USA from their merchandise page from what I understand. I've seen people offering this adapter at $75, based in Canada for that reason.

It's called price gouging.

Canada and other countries, as well as US states and/or territories that are not a part of the lower 47 states and DC are not relevant to my post. My original post clearly shows that I was talking about sellers who are located on the US mainland.

[LadyRo]

It is not unusual to see merchandise on eBay at the U.S. retail price. As mentioned above, Pentax USA will not ship outside the country. That $30 adapter costs twice to three times that amount in Europe. In some ways these sellers are providing a very useful service to less fortunate users in other parts of the world.


Steve

Other countries, as well as US states and/or territories that are not a part of the lower 47 states and DC are not relevant to my post. My original post clearly shows that I was talking about sellers who are located on the US mainland.

[Internetpilot]

I agree with you. More than I get worked up over it, I just feel that it's wasted clutter in my eBay search results. Search eBay for Pentax K-X and see all the $800 two-lens kits that I paid $200 less for from B&H. My question is how these sellers stay in "business". It cost money to list things on eBay, whether you sell them or relist them. Come to think of it, maybe that's why they're asking such a ridiculously high price -- they've been overpriced for so long now that when you add that to the repeated listing fees, they probably need it to sell for that much just to break even.

-- Chris

[hangu]

People price things as high as they can get away with. It's not about being "fair", as that's just a subjective term. I've seen auctions for adapters go for $40 when it can be had for $30. Misinformed buyers = profit for sellers.

If anything, these sellers are very well informed. They know what they can get away with.

[Internetpilot]

People price things as high as they can get away with. It's not about being "fair", as that's just a subjective term. I've seen auctions for adapters go for $40 when it can be had for $30. Misinformed buyers = profit for sellers.

If anything, these sellers are very well informed. They know what they can get away with.

Not to take over LadyRo's rant, but what gets me the most is that typically these overpriced sellers have the worst designed auction listings.

I had quite a little business going a while ago with a few products that I could buy in bulk at Costco (a big warehouse club in the USA for those other sides of the east and west ponds), split it up, and resell it on eBay and double or even triple my money even though I was originally buying the product at bulk retail pricing. I was able to do that because the auction listing was virtually a one-page infomercial on the product. It was my marketing and a lot of additional information/photos that sold the product for a profit like that.

But these people who put forth little or no effort, using the canned eBay description or stock photos and then still overpricing the item....it's just a waste of everyone's time. And no offense, but someone would have to be really stupid (or desperate) to buy an item that's listed like that, especially when it's more money than what you would pay from a reputable, professional, online store.

Like LadyRo, just venting. It's a pet peeve type of thing for me. I'm not losing any sleep over it.

-- Chris

[rhodopsin]

For a long time, until a few months ago iirc, these were unavailable directly from Pentax.

[Blue]

For a long time, until a few months ago iirc, these were unavailable directly from Pentax.

Actually, they are available off and on. They sometimes sell out and have to wait on a new shipment.

[JeffJS]

Canada and other countries, as well as US states and/or territories that are not a part of the lower 47 states and DC are not relevant to my post. My original post clearly shows that I was talking about sellers who are located on the US mainland.

Did we lose a state? I thought there were 48 in the CONUS.

My point was that Pentax does not ship outside of the USA. Your linked auction states that the seller Will ship worldwide. He is also entertaining offers (has 3 at last check). Even used, people who are subjected to price gouging on original Pentax adapters (the only ones I've found to work reliably), are going to be willing to pay a fair market price which $31 (or less) for an original, Is.

As for the mainland shipping, his price is $4.50. Pentax charges $6.50, and $7.50 for two, and it goes up from there depending on the dollar amount of the order.

[LadyRo]

Did we lose a state? I thought there were 48 in the CONUS.

My point was that Pentax does not ship outside of the USA. Your linked auction states that the seller Will ship worldwide. He is also entertaining offers (has 3 at last check). Even used, people who are subjected to price gouging on original Pentax adapters (the only ones I've found to work reliably), are going to be willing to pay a fair market price which $31 (or less) for an original, Is.

As for the mainland shipping, his price is $4.50. Pentax charges $6.50, and $7.50 for two, and it goes up from there depending on the dollar amount of the order.

I know there are products here that aren't available elsewhere, or cost much more elsewhere. I also know that it costs more to ship items overseas. However, the seller in question only has ONE used adapter to sell, and he's in Chicago. I don't think he's a bulk dealer, I think he just doesn't know how much the adapters really cost. I suspect that he bought his adapter off eBay from one of the Chinese vendors, out of Hong Kong, I've seen that sell them for something like $40. If that's the case, then I can see him thinking $30 is a reasonable asking price for a used adapter.

I originally used the phrase "the lower 48 states", but then got to wondering if that included the District of Columbia or not, because a lot of people still refer to it as a state when it isn't. Unfortunately for me, I was too lazy to make Google my friend, so I flipped a mental coin and went with "47 lower states plus DC". I should've picked tails.

Shhh...don't let my college and law school know I did that, because I really should know better. Let's just keep this little faux pas between you and me, okay?

[Kerrowdown]

I guess the question is did they sell them, Ebay can be a strange place at times, with many odd things going on.