View single post by Robert

Posted: Tue Sep 10th, 2019 03:31

Joined:	Mon Apr 2nd, 2012
Location:	South Lakeland, UK
Posts:	4066
Status:	Offline

For used gear, before I browse, I select 'buy it now', UK only and check the location, avoiding London sellers and sellers with feedback above 500 or thereabouts. That cuts out a lot of wasted time ploughing through pages of dross and time wasting 'offers'. I hate sellers who list multiple listings of identical items, sometimes pages of them. I avoid higher feedback sellers because they look to me like dealers, trading to make a profit, I would rather deal with someone who has actually used the gear and is selling it privately.

Back in the early days I made several friends on eBay, we used to chat for ages after the sale, sadly Ebay has put a stop to most forms of communication nowadays and closed the chat rooms I used to spend time on with other eBayers.

For new Chinese gear, like knock off 'Arca Swiss' camera mounts and suchlike, I check if it is UK stock and look at the sellers business address, only buy if that address is UK.

For highly specialised stuff I have other sources... Dr Klaus Schmitt (KDS365) has a dazzling array of specialised lenses from which he is often prepared to trade the occasional lens. Apart from 365nm lenses he also has a lot of very interesting Russian projector lenses, sometimes multiple copies, which he also has been known to trade.

I used to snipe manually, right up to the last second and always bid just over round figures. Quite frankly I can't be bothered nowadays, if I miss an item, just like the number nine bus, another will come around shortly, often at a better price or a nicer item.

Having been completely ripped off a couple of times with items from America, customs duty, 'handling charges' and having to travel to Preston to collect the item (~150 miles round trip) I won't buy anything from America again, I felt like I had been mugged.

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Robert.