"Dog" lenses on ebay

[bobfowler]

I've been trying to stay away from ebay lately, but I must confess that I got a bit bored this morning and checked out the large format lens listing.

Looking through all of the lenses listed, I started to wonder... How many of these have been sold and resold and resold because they were dogs?

I used to buy and sell clarinets and saxophones on ebay. I sold one Buescher True-Tone tenor, and saw the same horn relisted - and resold - at least a half dozen times. All of the subsequent listings used the pictures I shot when I first sold it! FWIW - I was the only one who actually admitted that the horn was a dog...

[Claire Senft]

I have no idea of the volume of Cocker Spaniels or Bull Mastiffs posing as optics on Ebay. I would suggest that you could query the seller while the auction is open and see if he will aggree to the lens being returned if it is not suitable. If not agreeable to the seller then do not bid. Also, deal with sellers that have a high satisfaction rating.


Woof, Woof

[Nick Zentena]

I'm leary of buying lens on Ebay. To be on the safe side I just keep the bidding low. If it gets even close to what a trust worthy shop might charge I bail. If it's a dog at least I'm only paying dog food prices. When I see people paying more then new I just wonder.

[David H. Bebbington]

I think it is essential to pay only trade price for lenses on e-bay. I have not experienced deliberate deception, but as we all know a lens can look excellent to the non-expert and fail the torch test miserably.

[Jeremy]

When I see people paying more then new I just wonder.

It's always nice when you're the one selling the lens

I once sold an 80-200 f/2.8 zoom on ebay for more than it cost new!

[Nathan Smith]

I've wondered the same thing, Bob. Today I was wondering how many of the auction descriptions are intentionally vague or misleading, it's gotta be a pretty fair percentage. Like the guy with the lens who doesn't mention that it doesn't have a flange, etc.
Nathan

[Dave Parker]

I've wondered the same thing, Bob. Today I was wondering how many of the auction descriptions are intentionally vague or misleading, it's gotta be a pretty fair percentage. Like the guy with the lens who doesn't mention that it doesn't have a flange, etc.
Nathan

I can't say that it is a fair percentage, as I don't see all that many sellers on ebay anylonger, that deal in Photographic equipment, that really know what they are talking about, I would say that less than 50% of the sellers of photo equipment really know what they are talking about, ebay has become like the swap meets of the 60's where you just have a whole lot of people selling stuff, without alot of knowledge, they are in it for the money, I purchase alot of camera gear off of ebay, and really have never been burnt, but I ask questions like crazy, and if they can't provide the answers, venture on to the next auction, don't often look at the items that have only one or two line descriptions, cause it is quite clear to me, that this person, much not know what he/she is talking about, I know, if I can't hold it, it better have a great description..

Dave

[BradS]

eBay gas gone to the dogs. There are a few decent and honest sellers but there seem to be an ever increasing number of unscrupulous creeps.

[Nathan Smith]

I think you're right Dave, I've had pretty good luck as well. I look for bargains (partly so I don't lose my shirt on a bad deal, and partly because I'm cheap) and I ask questions, but it bugs me that they've added the option for the seller to add the answered question to the auction discription. I find myself taking risks a bit more as I don't want to tip off others since the reply might contain info that will be found by a keyword search. As a seller I like the option though
Nathan

I can't say that it is a fair percentage, as I don't see all that many sellers on ebay anylonger, that deal in Photographic equipment, that really know what they are talking about, I would say that less than 50% of the sellers of photo equipment really know what they are talking about, ebay has become like the swap meets of the 60's where you just have a whole lot of people selling stuff, without alot of knowledge, they are in it for the money, I purchase alot of camera gear off of ebay, and really have never been burnt, but I ask questions like crazy, and if they can't provide the answers, venture on to the next auction, don't often look at the items that have only one or two line descriptions, cause it is quite clear to me, that this person, much not know what he/she is talking about, I know, if I can't hold it, it better have a great description..

Dave

[JG Motamedi]

It seems to me that this is not isolated to ebay, but a potential with any used lens being sold. I have bought a few dogs, on both eBay and from highly respected stores. The difference being that I am certain I can return the lens to the store after a few shots, while with ebay one is never certain.

Although dogs are uncommon with modern lenses, they do exist. I had a 210 G-Claron which couldn't produce a sharp image; Grimes couldn't figure out the problem, so I gave up on it and returned to the store I bought it from almost two months later, with a note from Grimes that it was defective.

More recently I bought a Dallmeyer 5A, a massive 11x14 portrait lens. I bought it knowing it had some separation, so I splurged and had Focal Point recement it. Once there, we found out that somebody had coated the front element with some sort of urethane to hide all of the scratches. Luckily for me, John at Focal Point stuck with his original estimate, and then polished the lens for a nominal fee.

There are, after all, reasons that we choose to keep one lens over another, it seems only "natural" that poor lenses would get sold more often than good ones.