As of about 3 years ago, sellers could specify who paid the paypal fees. Then ebay bought paypal and about six months later introduced a new rule...the seller HAS to pay the paypal fees. This is actually in the paypal terms & conditions, which EVERYONE has to abide to when they sign up to use paypal.

cheers Steve.

Depends on service used, destination and place of origin.

Airmail 'priority' typically takes 3-6 days.

Airmail 'standard' typically takes 6-10 days.

Surface mail takes 2-4 WEEKS....

cheers Steve,

Hi,

Just seen the scam on ebay with Samsung cameras, here are some tips to avoid problems with ebay & paypal:

1. Always use credit card or paypal.

2. NEVER rely on paypal to protect you. Much of the talk of 'buyer protection' is nonsense. There are many, many buyers who have NOT had any paypal protection with dodgy ebay sales, so:

If you use paypal...ALWAYS pay with CREDIT CARD....then if paypal fail to protect you, you can do a credit card chargeback direct through you card provider.

3. If you use paypal, NEVER pay with bank xfer or echeque.

4. NEVER NEVER use a bank xfer, the scammers love them.

cheers Steve.

"Points taken, but if a snipe tool is set why does it not show as watching? After all it's keeping tabs on the item?"

...no they do not 'watch' and they do not 'keep tabs' on the item either.. They are simply timers in essence that place a late bid that you specify...they just login to the ebay item at the required time and place the bid.

R: Where out of interest did you get the 35/1.4 hood from and when? and what are the markings on it?...can you load a photo?

Carl Zeiss made several non working and some working prototypes of different lenses during the Contax days. There are known to be a few, between 2-8 of each lens, mostly in the hands of former Zeiss employees. All optics makers do this...a lens hood does not neccessarily mean there is a WORKING lens out there somewhere.

...thats the 'fun' of auctions....not just an ebay thing, but been happening in auctions for centuries...

No of course not. There are many different snipe sites/tools and they are independant sites and not linked to the ebay site in any way. The only way a person can watch an ebay item is to click on 'watch' in their 'my ebay' section. Most watchers are just doing so to see how much an item sells for. Either because they may sell their own if it sells for a high price and others watch because they are intending to buy one soon and are checking prices. Very few watchers ever end up bidding.

cheers Steve.

Be careful of what you see 'listed' in the WWW...they usually never existed as production items....the best example of this is the SMC-M 35/1.4.

The SMC 30/2.8 appears about every 6-9 months or so on ebay (worldwide). It used to appear more often, but since the 'great Pentax lens shortages' started about 3 years ago, they are drying up. I have seen one or two on UK dealers sites in the last 18 months...they do not last long.

cheers Steve.M.

What do welshmen call three sheep?

...a leisure centre.....