Buying For Parts or Not Working camera on ebay question

I see there are a few companies on ebay now that specialise in selling items that were supposedly customer returns and suchlike. These items are described as For Parts or Not Working on the grounds that the companies do not have time to check them over thoroughly.

Has anyone ever bought a camera from one of these places? I've seen a few Ricohs and have been tempted to place a bid given that they seem to sell for very little. The downside is that I have little idea as to how much it could cost to repair a Ricoh GR, but I suspect that the costs involved could be truly eye watering. I imagine it's a bit of a lottery as to whether you get one with a very minor flaw or something major.

Which part of "For Parts or Not Working" do you not understand

I suppose they could have included "Would be highly suitable
for landfill" but that would upset the greens

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Half Man... Half Pentax ... Half Cucumber

Pentax K-1 + K-5 and some other stuff

Algi

I understand what it means, but I spoke to someone at one of these companies and he said that quite often it was something very minor that was wrong with the camera.

As I said, it's a lottery, but I wondered if anyone had bought a camera from one of these sellers.

Unless the camera is very cheap and you want to do the repair work yourself ,I don't think it 's worth getting involved . New fully working Cameras are so cheap these days ,and paying wages to a skilled repair person is very expensive .... IMHO...jeff...

I've brought several items sold as not working, which were brought for adapting and were effectively fine. In these cases the seller listed a known minor fault and said otherwise they were OK when last used, but not able to test fully now...
In such cases you have to very much play it my ear, and ensure the discount is sufficient for the risk.

In general I'd agree with Jeff's assessment. It's usually not worth paying to get them repaired.

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Mike
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Pentax:K5ii, K7, K100D, DA18-55, DA10-17, DA55-300, DA50-200, F100-300, F50, DA35 AL, 4* M50, 2* M135, Helicoid extension, Tak 300 f4 (& 6 film bodies)
3rd Party: Bigmos (Sigma 150-500mm OS HSM),2* 28mm, 100mm macro, 28-200 zoom, 35-80 zoom, 80-200 zoom, 80-210 zoom, 300mm M42, 600 mirror, 1000-4000 scope, 50mm M42, enlarger lenses, Sony & micro 4/3 cameras with various PK mounts, Zenit E...
Far to many tele-converters, adapters, project parts & extension tubes etc.

.[size=11:].Flickr• WPF• Panoramio

I once bought a motor mower in a auction sold as not working for 2 quid , took it home put in a new spark plug half a gallon of fresh two stroke it fired up first time ..... jeff....

I bought a camera from a private buyer as listed as for parts/ not working for its screen. There was nothing wrong with it other than a flat battery.

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Ken
“We must avoid however, snapping away, shooting quickly and without thought, overloading ourselves with unnecessary images that clutter our memory and diminish the clarity of the whole.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson -