Finding A Digital Camera on Ebay

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9 February 2009

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Ebay is a fantastic auction site. At least it’s a great place in most cases to find bargains. And sometimes these great deals end up as very bad ones. A good reputation is a good place to start when considering any purchase. Sometimes you can take a chance and buy items from sellers with less than 100% positive ratings, but you need to use caution when you decide to take that chance.

The following story is true, I know it happened to me. It is an excellent example of what “not” to do. When it comes to photography a digital camera really is an excellent choice. But there are many components to a digital camera that you must understand before you decide to buy a used digital camera on Ebay. If you are purchasing a brand new camera from a reputable seller, it should include a guarantee. In this case, it would be a wise decision to pay the extra dollar or two to get it insured.

If you are thinking of buying a digital camera or any camera for that matter, perhaps reading what happened to us will help you avoid the same mistakes we made.

My husband decided to buy an Ebay canon camera. He found one up for bid that included two extra lenses, a small tripod, and a really nice bag to carry all the items in. We found this camera to be in very bad shape. 1. One of the apertures in the lenses will not close, 2. One of the lenses will not screw into the camera properly. 3. The tripod legs will not stay down due to the plastic tighteners being warn out. 3. Not a single zipper of the 5 different zipper compartments of the bad work. So, no zipping up any of the pockets.

In addition to this I have excellent feedback. It is at 100%. I don’t want to lose my perfect feedback rating. So, the last problem with this purchase is that the seller has blackmailed us with the following statement sent to us via a note inside the camera bag:

“We will happily leave you with a 5 star feedback rating once you have left us with a 5 start feedback rating.”

In other words, “If you leave us bad feedback, we’ll do the same.”

Where did we go wrong? Here are some suggestion on how to avoid our costly mistake:

1. If the seller says, “We have not tested this item…” do NOT purchase it. END OF STORY. This might be something you can struggle with if it is some other type of item. With a digital or even a non digital camera you should make sure the item is tested and the seller reveals every possible problem the camera has. In our case, the seller said in his description, “It appears to be in EXCELLENT condition”. This camera did look great, however, there are many problems with it and it will cost more to fix this camera than it is worth.

2. If the seller says, “Take a GOOD look at the picture and ask questions before you buy”. This is a way of making YOU come up with questions they don’t want to reveal. One of those, “If you don’t ask, we won’t tell” sort of things.

Let’s just move on to number 3… You’re buying a digital camera. You need to know that all the features are working. Ask as many questions as you can think of to make sure they admit to each and every possible flaw. The way they answer you will help you understand just how honest they are. Stay away from sellers with vague answers.

And lastly… Number Four – There is no excuse not to test an item like a camera, especially if it’s a digital camera. I know… this seems obvious but sometimes the excitement of something really cool or new and of course CHEAP, can really cloud your better judgement. Avoid a seller that doesn’t want to take the time to test the item first. Most likely they did test it and it failed the test.

My husband was so excited about getting this deal, and I was too busy to look it over, that we ended up buying something we’ll never use. It cost us $100.00 and the repair shop told us it would cost us $150.00 or more to repair the damages. It is a lessoned learned for both of us. You can avoid a bad Ebay Digital Cameras experience, if you follow some good guidelines and suggestions like those I have included in this article.