Originally posted by baro-nite YMMV. Why didn't the pawner have the trunk? All sorts of possible explanations, many of them contra-indicative of a lens being treated with reasonable care.
Well, that's the risk of buying something from a pawn shop
You're right that there's no way to know how the lens was treated in the past, and without any warranty, one should bid accordingly.
Quote: I'm looking down the list of 10+ years of neutral/negative feedback as presented by toolhaus.org. I agree that 3 out of 250 is not a bad rate, and no question there is a lot of bogus negative feedback on eBay. Again, YMMV. I might take a chance with a low-cost item from a seller I don't fully trust, but for an item of this class I will be more selective. More power to the winning bidder if it turns out to be a bargain. I will be curious as to what the lens goes for, but I will not be bidding.
Actually, it was 1 in 250, not 3 in 250 (99.6% feedback score).
But again, I agree with you in general that as the price of an item goes up, so should a buyer's comfort level with the person he's buying it from. However, I still feel that the overall risk of buying something on eBay in particular is pretty low as buyers are afforded a very high level of protection against receiving goods that are no as described.