[Jeff Lopez]

I see a lot of great lenses on Ebay from Japan and England, but hardly any from USA except camera stores and estate liquidators..
Safe to buy or not? I know Paypal provides buyers protection, but its a lot of hassle.

[erichope]

I have bought three lens from Japanese eBay sellers: a Tamron 28-200 walkaround, a Zeiss 25/2.8 and a Zeiss 50/1.4. In all three cases the lenses were better than described (the Zeisses were mint) and shipped promptly. I have no hesitation at all to buy from Japan. As for British sellers, I haven't any experience with them.

[Na Horuk]

Shipping can be a real hassle. Takes longer, there is risk of damage or loss, you might have to pay import duties... and then there are exchange ranges, which can be in your favor, or not.
I bought used lenses from Germany, Russia, and some accessories from China. Did not have a problem yet, though once it took over a month of shipping.

tl;dr: I get your worries, but experience shows that shipping works well, most of the time. Look at ratings and return policies. Avoid buying from stores without address, phone number or owner name

[pakinjapan]

I see a lot of great lenses on Ebay from Japan and England, but hardly any from USA except camera stores

I would say a lot of Japanese sellers on Ebay are camera stores too. talk about Japanese sellers, I think they are safe to buy. They usually will tell it upfront if the lenses has any mark on it. Well, I think, stuff on Ebay in general are safe to buy because of their buyer protection policies.

if you want to check Pentax lens prices in japan, this site might be handy, but it is japanese language only. (I already make its search criteria to point to Pentax lenses.)
[first criteria box] --> PENTAX = ペンタックス
[second criteria box] --> Lens = レンズ
[second criteria box] --> Digital camera = デジタル一眼カメラ
[third criteria box] --> Search Keyword = 検索キーワード

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Last edited by pakinjapan; 01-16-2017 at 06:31 PM.

[monochrome]

Australia is good for Americans right now @1.3 AUD / USD.

I've never had a whiff of disappointment from a Japanese seller. Just bought a Zeiss Contax C/Y MM 50/1.4 at a discount. In the listing the seller apologized for the cleaning marks on the front element. I can't see them under a 250W FL bulb magnified. Lens is exquisite!

I haven't bought from GBR or EU in ages.

[edmundrt]

Both from buying on eBay when I was living in the UK, and buying from shops here in Japan, I can say that Japanese sellers are good. They are very meticulous with their inspections, and often things listed as only being in good condition are what we would probably call excellent.
As for the UK, as long as you buy from good sellers, you won't have any problems. There's a lot of 'found in a cupboard, worked 15 years ago' around in the UK, which I sometimes take a punt on if it's very cheap, but if you're ordering from abroad you're best avoiding them, I would think.

[Nass]

It's funny, living as I do in Britain, I see a lot of great items that I'd like to buy but they're always in the US, and are either US-only OR the postage cost triples the price! Seriously, what is it about US items that makes postage to Europe so expensive?!! Maybe I should start a buying partnership with someone based in the US - it's doing my head in paying $60 in postage for an item costing $40! There's got to be cheaper options!

[rgknief60]

I've ordered from Japan via Ebay and Amazon several times, and each time the item was as described or better. Shipping was prompt, and if a particular shipping option would take a while, that was noted. In almost every case, the item shipped arrived on time or a bit earlier than I expected. I ordered twice from the UK, and have gotten good product and service. Same with Germany. The times I've had problems wit Ebay sellers are fellow US sellers, and that is rare. I ordered once from Canada, the product was good, shipping was fast. But customs was bad. The customs tax itself was not too bad. The local UPS charged me $40 to drive it two miles from the airport Port of Entry to my house. So I've looked at certain items from Canada longingly, but no longer bid or buy. Just don't know what the final price will be.

---------- Post added 01-16-17 at 07:16 PM ----------

Seriously, what is it about US items that makes postage to Europe so expensive?!!

Wasn't aware of that. But even shipping inside the US seems higher to me sometimes than it should be. The items I've ordered from the UK have had very reasonable shipping charges. I'd say that is true of most everything I've ordered from outside the US.

[pschlute]

I have sold a number of photographic items in recent months, and with the current levels of the pound the interest from foreign buyers is very strong. I have sold to Italy;Portugal;and Australia and had bidders from Mexico and Israel. But no interest it seems from the USA strangely. With the ebay GSP the worry of your item not arriving and being in dispute is almost eliminated.

[JensE]

Seriously, what is it about US items that makes postage to Europe so expensive?!!

And I always wondered why that little bit of water made posting things from the UK to Germany several times more expensive than, say, from the Netherlands Even with expensive shipment, with the currently weak pound, buying in the UK is for a lot of lenses currently the least expensive option. So far, 'EU domestic', I had no issues with buying in the UK ever, used or new. And buying from stores, we're still protected by the EU-mandatory warranty. I'm afraid that will be history sooner or later.

I would generally avoid buying foreign (with import duties are to be paid) for things that potentially need to be returned, like lenses known to have varying quality, or heavily used lenses. A major hassle. I did buy a new Voigtländer from Hongkong and would not hesitate to buy a Zeiss from Japan, but only bought from American sellers so far when I had to travel to the US anyway and had it delivered domestically.

[gmans]

Can say the lenses I got from Japan have only taken a few days to get from Japan to Australia, one in particular was posted Saturday and arrived Tuesday, was quicker than the Australian post. Was

[Jeff Lopez]

Thanks all for the feedback..I was kind of worried because while most China ebay products I bought were lost, usually Chinese vendors will refund to avoid disputes. But then again these were low cost items that the only high cost for them is the free shipping. But lenses and cameras are high cost items, and I dont know how will a Japanese vendor respond to a lost item, if it happened.
Anyway, now Im assured by you guys, so lets see what happens..Im bidding on a 50mm prime, looks nice!

[monochrome]

Just bear in mind that the Japanese sellers tend not to view small "cleaning mark" type scratches as flaws and don't always describe them. I tend to agree with them in that such marks really have no effect on function, but they can decrease resale value here in the U.S.

@monochrome : The AUD exchange rate is very good right now, but shipping prices form Australia to USA are absolutely brutal.

True, but you get the currency leverage on the shipping, too

$45 whether you buy a $50 item or a $500 item. Shop for the good stuff and the extra shipping is only $20.

[Bengan]

I've bought a number of lenses and other stuff from GBR. Never had any problem.

[southlander]

I've bought from Australians, Austrians, Yanks, Canadians, Poms, Japanese and Koreans, and generally have ended up with what I expected.