Hi,

Would you expect to be able to get a car for £1000 that had the performance and handling of a current Ferrari?

Assuming your answer is NO...then you need to adjust your budget somewhat upwards...OR get a lot less fussy about the performance of what you buy with £50-75.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

As a former retail manager myself, it should not be up to reps to install knowledge into shop owners, or their staff. If they had one ounce of 'real' interest in the camera market (as they should) they would be gaining the knowledge themselves, as they should be, to keep properly in touch with the market in order to give customers accurate information AND push their own business forward.

My conclusion from this wholly inaccurate statement, is that this retailer is an ignorant person who should know better. It is this slapdash attitude to retailing which gives shops a bad name. They blame the web/ ebay etc for their woes, but the truth is that many of them are not fit to be retailers anyway...

cheers Steve.M.

Hi,

Do not forget, you can do a reply to the f/b he left AND add another on your f/b left for him...you can do 'follow-up' feedback.

This guy has business premises in Stoke-on-Trent (presumably a shop) and advertises in AP magazine occassionally.

If you email him before one of his ebay autions ends (like I did) asking specifically what postal service he uses, he purposely ignores these emails, so as to make sure you do not know he is charging £10-12 for 2nd class un-insured mail. So if you buy anything with a value of over £32 and it goes missing, you are screwed. He does not take paypal so he can avoid any chargebacks from his MANY unhappy customers.

The simple rule is ALWAYS check all the negs and neutrals any ebay seller has, ALSO look for patterns in the f/b, like the one he has for not contacting people...this is a warning sign. ALSO look for any signs of feedback removal...this is also a bad sign and hints the seller is manipulating the f/b system (like him) in order to get ebay to remove negs.

cheers Steve.M.

Hi,

I buy & sell on ebay as a hobby to fund my photography. I came across this seller about a year ago, as he had an item I wanted....but I checked his feedback, which has many unhappy buyers...and it shows a pattern, which I ALWAYS specifically look out for in sellers feedback. The pattern showed he has a history of not contacting or emailing people. His post charges were also high considering the light & small items he was selling....SO I DID NOT BID!...that is the mistake you made....you should have avoided him.

By the way, on the point of p&p charges...even dealers like Ffordes, MXV etc...they only ever charge about £7-8 for lenses AND they are sent special delivery (fully insured)...I do not buy the 'hourly rate' nonsense....if camera dealers (businesses) can send lenses for £8 fully insured, then this seller charging £10 for 2nd class mail IS a rip off....but it is the buyers error, in bidding in the first place.

and John...I strongly believe we SHOULD be allowed to name and shame poor sellers, of any sort. They can respond if they so wish, but as a former retailer myself, I do think good and bad service should be mentioned in the public domain.


cheers Steve.M.

Hi,

Back on thread for a moment. I have a similar experience to batty. I have used evilbay for 7 years. The last 2, it has gone a lot downhill mainly for smaller private sellers, mainly because of lots of so-called improvements by ebay that in reality are NOT. They have increasingly chased the large business sellers, to the detriment of small private ones...who are the ones who made ebay what it is today lets not forget.

For the first time in ebay history the amount of listings are falling...and heavily too. The last recorded 12 month period, they fell worldwide by I think 8%..which is huge...and they continue to fall. Less sellers means less buyers...downward spiral.

The other problem is that the huge TV campaigns over the last two years largely resulted in masses of idiots and scammers coming onto ebay, messing around for a couple of months and then leaving.

The fact they own paypal and push everyone to use it is also losing sellers. They just ban any competition and paypal leaves it's doors wide open for scammers and fraudsters to scam honest sellers, who are often totally unprotected by paypal and end up losing money.

An increasing amount of dis-enchanted ex ebay sellers are now leaving to set up their own little selling websites and using the new google checkout (banned by ebay) to take payments.

things just aint like they use to be......

cheers Steve.M.

Hi,

You are asking this question in entirely the wrong place.

Go onto ebay and log into the community boards..link is at the top right of any ebay page. Then click onto the 'discussion boards' , then click on the 'payments & postage' board. Then ask your question there. Within about 10 minutes some 'expert' will have an answer for you and several other ebayers will probably join in. You may have to be more specific with details though and stay online while the answers come along.

cheers Steve.M.

Hi,

The Contax Zeiss 28mm f2 was part of the initial RTS range of lenses, so was introduced about 1975 with the first lenses. It was VERY expensive and only sold in relatively small numbers and is very highly regarded amongst Contax enthusiasts (like me).

It has floating elements to aid close up performance, but due to it's very high production costs, Zeiss discontinued it in the middle 1980's. It was only ever made in West Germany and made in both AE & MM versions, although the MM versions are very low in numbers indeed.

As for the comparison of the Pentax K 28/2 with the Contax Zeiss 28/2...they both have 9 elements in 8 groups, both have close focus of 0.25m, Zeiss weighs 485g, Pentax 423g, Pentax size 62.5x69mm Zeiss 62.5x76mm, Pentax 52mm filter, Zeiss 55mm filter, both have floating elements for close-ups, and if you inspect the internal optical construction, they are IDENTICAL....so quite clearly this was a shared lens design, during the year of co-operation between Zeiss & Pentax before they split up and Zeiss took up with Yashica to release the RTS system.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

"They are also introducing a 28/2 for the first time"

..actually not for the first time. They had a 28mm f2 in the Contax RTS system and it is still regarded as one of the very best Zeiss lenses of all time. So if this new one improves on that, it will be one hell of a lens..

cheers Steve.

Hi,

A WARNING TO ALL...

As a former retail manager I am amazed that anyone could pay up front for anything. The business could go bust before you receive your item.

Note for all..NEVER EVER PAY UP FRONT.

A small deposit is acceptable, but I am shocked the retailer involved wanted payment in full.

I hope you paid with a credit card, in the event you have any problems...if you paid cash or cheque, kiss it goodbye if the business then goes bump.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

I watch the Pentax ebay listings fairly closely and have seen three SMC-A 200/4 lenses in the last 12 months, all in the UK and I do not even watch every week any longer, so I could have missed some..

...do bear in mind that Pentax lenses are often listed incorrectly due to the confusion a lot of sellers have over the various Pentax lens ranges..so it takes several different searches to find them all.

cheers Steve.