At 12:51 AM 2/23/98 -0800, Gary Schloss wrote:
...
I will add a few comments on ebay to Gary's excellent commentary.
Ebay is not really an auction in the traditional sense. Usually an auction
has the items for sale checked, validated, etc. by whoever is running the
auction. One can be fairly certain that what one buys at an auction is
fairly described and properly graded. None of this is true for ebay, which
is more like a flea market with auction pricing.
Because of this, much of the camera equipment is being sold by people who
haven't used it and know nothing about it. There are regularly comments
such as "I think it works" or "Looks like it is in good shape." Even on
Usenet, the majority of the equipment is sold by people who have used it.
And better dealers will check out equipment.
There is no appeals mechanism. With an auction house, if what you bought
turns out not to be what it was represented as, you can generally work an
agreement. With ebay, all you get is the opportunity to post a very short
message with comments.
However, I have sold something on ebay, not camera equipment, and it is an
excellent way to sell something you know nothing about. I happened to have
a signed baseball and I had no idea of its value or collectibility, and it
worked out fine selling it on ebay.
Jeff Spirer
B&W Photos: http://www.pomegranates.com
Color and B&W Photos: http://www.hyperreal.org/~jeffs/gallery.html
Axiom/Material: http://www.hyperreal.org/axiom/
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