[Fat Albert]

I'll start.

I found a nice SMC Takumar 35 f/3.5 with just one photo in the listing. I politely asked the seller if they wouldn't mind posting a pic of the rear element, etc. The seller/store, whose name rhymes with 'schmoecamerasnj' replied thusly:

how many photos of ONE EGG do you need to see to understand its egg? this lens looks the same from any sides, same as egg.

I'm torn, because the lens looks to be in really good shape, but I'll be damned if I give someone like that my money! If anybody ever comes across this seller's items, they may want to keep this in mind.

P.S. Is anybody selling a nice SMC Tak 35/3.5?

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Last edited by Fat Albert; 06-30-2015 at 01:13 PM.

[magkelly]

Not Ebay, but auction, and recently. I got a Chinon on Goodwill, mostly for the 50mm lens it had on it. It arrived and it was literally chock full of mold and fungus. Nothing in the listing mentioned it at all and you could not tell from the pics they took. I'm convinced they took pics of one camera for the listing and sent another. I demanded a refund. Normally they won't but in this case they did. They didn't want it shipped back and there was no way it could be saved so I chucked it rather than donate it again...

[jimr-pdx]

Just one - sold a Nook Color tablet overseas, they claimed it never arrived so I got nothing for it. Lesson learned.

My ebay 'Festivus miracle' - bought a "DOA" K-x (without reading the fine print) and received a fully functional K-r with 78 clicks, for $28

[boriscleto]

I've had several bad purchases on goodwill...

Just on kinda bad one on evilBay. Bought a Spotmatic and Super Tak 50/1.4. There was just one picture, a close up of the front of the lens attached to the camera. What you couldn't see in the picture was the condition of the Spotmatic...lots of rust.

The lens wasn't too bad once I cleaned the fungus out.

[Fat Albert]

My ebay 'Festivus miracle' - bought a "DOA" K-x (without reading the fine print) and received a fully functional K-r with 78 clicks, for $28

What did the fine print say?

[6BQ5]

I once bought a vintage vacuum tube radio. The seller put the radio in a big box without any packing material. I received a box full of loose pieces of plastic, glass, and wood. It went straight to the trash.

[jbondo]

I've had so many fungus infested lenses off of eBay it's not even funny. But you can't always blame unknowledgeable sellers who don't know what to look for - however...

Worst experience: bought a Takumar that looked ok from the photos, and it arrived literally completely broken into two big chunks and absolutely loaded with fungus - I mean, the fungus was so bad that big puffy balls of fungus were growing out of the crevices. but wait.... It gets much better: I then go look at the sellers feedback and the freshly posted feedback was from the PREVIOUS buyer of the lens in all caps about the broken fungus lens. The seller took a return on it, knowing full well it was totally defective, listed it again with the same misleading photo and description and intentionally sold it again as good merchandise. I then message the seller and they were clearly scammers, acted like the lens was fine, etc. sheesh!

[Fat Albert]

I just realized that this question...

how many photos of ONE EGG do you need to see to understand its egg?

...actually might be some sort of metaphysical, Zen-like observation. Is the concept of 'egg'-ness able to be captured in a single photo? If the other side of an egg isn't photographed, does it even exist? This eBay seller might be Schrödinger himself!

[BrianR]

how many photos of ONE EGG do you need to see to understand its egg? this lens looks the same from any sides, same as egg.

Hmm, if this seller's lens looks the same from all sides it sounds like it may not be a lens at all, but some sort of featureless uniformly coloured ball. I also question what sort of eggs he's used to if they look the same from all sides.

[bigdavephoto]

The only problem that I have had on ebay was I had a seller take two weeks to send me his address so I could send payment (this was before paypal became the main money exchange). After he emailed his address and I sent payment, he left neutral feedback saying I was "slow paying" . You bet I left a reply on that and in the feedback I left for him.

[TheLens]

I've bought several things on Ebay that were not quite as described. Roll of 10 gauge wire that was more like 12 gauge. A t shirt with a custom image that was supposed to be size 2XL and fit like an XL....things like that. Yesterday I got my Minolta body-standard hot shoe adapter. I needed to do a little shaving on it with an xacto knife before it would mount on the camera's hot shoe. Most of the items are inexpensive and are not worth paying shipping to send them back for refund. When shopping for old camera gear on Ebay, I avoid descriptions like "Everything SEEMS to be working ok", "I'm selling this for someone else", "I know nothing about these", "estate sale find", "sold as is with no returns".

[magkelly]

It's not just Ebay you have to watch out for. I've had major problems with certain stores on Goodwill. There are some stores that I just will not bid on items from no matter how good the pics look. Some of them don't check out their camera gear at all or if they do they don't care if there is fungus and that. My local store is particularly nonchalant about it. I once found a camera up for sale for a hefty price that had obviously been dumped into a bathtub and tossed thereafter when it failed to work again. There was soap scum all over it, mildew in the lens and even on the body and they still put it up for sale. Some people/stores they just don't care. They just want it gone and a lot of them will even list totally messed up items as "'no refund" so you can't return it. It's "buyer beware" and "tough luck" when you realize that they've ripped you off...

[boriscleto]

I had to request a return just today.

Seller said the lens was "Gently Used"

Up for sale is a Sigma 39-80mm lens for Pentax cameras, K mount. Comes with rear cover, not shown. The only flaw with the camera is a prior owner carved some identifying numbers on the edge of lens near the front rim, does not effect functionality. Glass appears to be clean and flaw free. Free shipping to the lower 48 states. NO PO Boxes.

The BiN price was $19.95, a good price if it was as described. But , surprise-surprise, fungus on an interior element. And the aperture ring had been de-clicked.

At least the seller offered a 14 day return policy. I'll only be out the return shipping.



Note the missing screw...

[Sam Dennis]

Important to keep in mind that no one buys anything from eBay. You buy from an individual or company that has chosen to advertise or auction the item on eBay's website. In fact eBay itself is so determined to keep buyers safe that they will refund your money, even if the seller is a complete numbskull. And they keep a scorecard so that if a seller gets a certain number of valid complaints - "defects" as eBay calls them - they are restricted from selling for a while, or just plain booted off the site altogether. So the story is of one horrible seller, not an eBay horror.

[dubiousone]

My first negative feedback came from a fellow I'd sold a wireless router to. After two weeks I asked him where payment was. He said he wasn't sending anything until he got the item. I responded that's not how it works, the listing clearly stated the process and that's not it. His response was send it now or I'll leave you negative feedback. Needless to say, he never got the router (which I eventually sold to another buyer) and the only thing I got from that guy was negative feedback. Ebay's response when I filed a complaint was basically "sorry to hear about that". Another was a person I'd sold a silver watch chain to in Canada. Claimed the item never arrived and wanted a refund. I said no and sent her the USPS/CN postal records of delivery. I got negative feedback on that one too and again, Ebay's response was basically 'sorry, suck it up'.

The other hundreds of transactions I've done were all pleasant and positive but one does have to exercise "buyer beware".