At 06:20 PM 9/30/98 -0400, various list members chimed in about eBay thusly:
[snip]
>> At first (which is not so long ago) Ebay was the greatest thing since the
>> 40mm f2, now I detect from many circles that it is becoming tarnished.
>Are
>> there many bad experiences with it amongst those on this list?
>
>The latest is the poor chump who bought the 18mm f/3.5 Zuiko from Igor Camera
>Exchange. ...
I've done four purchases off of eBay, only one of which I was disappointed in
(and when I mentioned my disappointment to the seller, he certainly didn't jump
up and offer to take the item in question back...). The other three were as
good or better than intimated in the ads.
However, I now make a habit of *always* trying to locate a phone number for the
seller, and then phone him/her up to ask some detailed questions about the
item. If at any time my "spidey-sense" starts tingling while talking to the
seller, I thank him/her politely, hang up, AND DON'T GO NEAR THEIR ITEM WITH A
FULL HAZMAT SUIT. This may seem excessive to some, but for a few dollars'
worth of long-distance charges, you can save yourself a lot of pain later.
I might add that recently, I've noticed a trend in eBay ads to be less verbose,
less fulsome if you will, and when I contact the seller by e-mail, fewer of
them seem willing to talk extensively about their item. Maybe it's just me...
As well, items are commanding higher prices ('cept for the ones I tried to sell
-- SOB!), which means eBay has become less of a bargain-hunter's paradise.
However, for us poor Canucks, it's still one of the very few places on the Web
where we can find used Oly gear of any quality AT ALL. Oly stuff is really
thin on the ground in most of Canada, unless you want one of their
point-and-shoots or the new digital cameras. There's lots of those around,
mostly new.
Garth
"A bad day doing photography is better
than a good day doing just about
anything else."
The Unofficial Olympus Web Photo Gallery at:
http://www.taiga.ca/~gallery/
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