[J-Rod]

without much description of the condition other than the glass was good? Too late to ask questions because time was up. Thinking, for the money, I will probably get a workable lens. And then it shows up and has never been out of the box. Not a speck of dust. Not a single scratch. Perfect.

Jackpot.

Score one MINT A-50mm f1.7 that is beautiful! $70 delivered might be too much for a beater but it was a steal for a brand new lens.

[yurihuta]

Some nice deals, but nothing new, never out of the box like that. Nice find!

[Dangermouse]

I've had a couple where the seller forgot to include things in the heading (but had them in the description). Like the FA 28-90mm which was pretty much brand new and boxed, or the MZ50 that turned out to have seen very little use and even had the hot shoe cover still in place.

In both cases the heading didn't mention anything special, so not many bidders took any notice. In the case of the MZ50 I was the only bidder!

[SteveM]

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.....sometimes a great lens will sit with no bids, othertimes bidding gets out of control. It'll go for weeks with very little worth looking at then all of a sudden there will be a bunch of interesting stuff. I have 3 SMC Taks that were owned by a collector...never (or rarely) used. No-one was interested in them so I arranged to pick them all up in one buy.

I prefer buying from here in the forum though....

[ryan s]

Hell yeah, I do it all the time

Both my Sears lenses look almost new...both gotten from "bad" auctions. Got a Yashica GSN that just happened to work for the price of an "untested" GSN

Bought and sold an SMC Tak 135 for dirt cheap from a bad auction.

That's the risk you take. Buy from a reputable source for more or toss the dice on ebay. For cheaper stuff, there's no doubt...

[troyz]

Got a Yashica GSN that just happened to work for the price of an "untested" GSN

Hahaha. . . once I bought a "refurbished" Canonet that turned out to be a brick with new light seals!

Funny the way things seem normal if you average enough of them

[jocko_nc]

I get the best stuff from sellers who don't "specialize" in camera gear, just resell estate finds.

[pcarfan]

Got my F28/2.8 that way........

[raymeedc]

I've had experiences at both extremes. I've purchased lenses with minimalist descriptions & an out of focus photo that turned out to be mint, & items described as mint which turns out to be full of fungus. I've learned to ask detailed questions before purchasing, to minimize mt potential mistakes & to have a leg to stand on if a return is necessary. If the answers provided don't quite sway me one way or the other, sometimes I just go with my gut feeling..... a lot easier to do if the price is dirt cheap, which is often the case with a poorly pictured, vaguely described item, as most people are less likely to bid on such a piece.

[Jimfear]

Not new in box, that hasn't happened.

But I got my K50/1.2 through a minimal description and one photo that seemed to be taken with a cameraphone at a miles distance. A few dust specks but otherwise as new.

[Stringmike]

I bought a Tamron 300mm f2.8 with 1.4 teleconverter from an estate sale on eBay. It turned out to be brand-new in the original box with all the factory packing intact - in fact I doubt it had ever been mounted on a camera.

I might add that in finding the odd prince, I have kissed a few frogs as well!

Mike

[J-Rod]

I got frogged as well. My first lens was an M Series f2 with a ding in the threads. Can't mount a filter. It was $20 well spent taking lumps on that though.

[gofour3]

I've had experiences at both extremes. I've purchased lenses with minimalist descriptions & an out of focus photo that turned out to be mint, & items described as mint which turns out to be full of fungus. I've learned to ask detailed questions before purchasing, to minimize mt potential mistakes & to have a leg to stand on if a return is necessary. If the answers provided don't quite sway me one way or the other, sometimes I just go with my gut feeling..... a lot easier to do if the price is dirt cheap, which is often the case with a poorly pictured, vaguely described item, as most people are less likely to bid on such a piece.

Same experiences for me and same buying strategy.

I have also had success with online camera stores that sell on eBay. (There are some really good ones in Germany and they sell with the "Buy It Now" option.) They are far from being cheap, but you do get a return option and their grading systems are very detailed with lots of pictures. The shipping costs to Canada are also on the high side, but not much different than for KEH.

Phil