Be careful with ND offers on ebay

[dirk]

FYI

if you are following ND offers on ebay, please check very careful the sellers. There is a new auction of a ND from a seller in Toronto:

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the same seller was offering a ND a week ago:

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I do not think that a sale actually happened. I guess the seller is bidding himself or with the help of some friends on a higher level. Since his price last time was above other prices for new N Digital with warranty from officila dealers on ebay and his ND is second hand, I would be very careful.

The username of the seller is "robertb5910", he/she has no rating yet (surprising if he sold last week his only ND).

For his last auction, I sent him an e-mail but he never came back to me. So everything looks very suspicious...

 

[efournier]

Gee, you mean like this:

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I emailed as well with no response.

 

[dirk]

...yes

I think we all dream of an ND, but we should be cautious not to get to greedy and forget common sense. Sellers with no ratings or no response or strange bidding behaviour of other ebayer on this item, we should take it cautious.

Additionall, if there are US-based dealers on ebay that are selling a brand new ND with warranty etc. between 2500 and 3100 USD, a second hand model must be significant lower than this.

I wonder, why so few bought an ND, when it was launched. It would be a desaster and strategic mistake of Kyocera Marketing in Tokyo, if it turns out that the main reason for the bad salesnumbers have been the official list price...

Just image a lower official price on the ND last year, i.e. 3500-4000 USD. Would that have been enough to avoid the current situation now?

... maybe with a N35/1.4 on top of that andan NXD for 2500 USD, 6MP fullsiue chip...

As we see it now with Nikon - they launch a D50 and a D70s these days, both with "only" 6MP - 6MP seems to be enough for most users, if it is not too expensive...

 

[dirk]

FYI

this is unbelievable, the ebay seller of the Contax ND in this acution mentioned above made it again. He pushed up the price with many names which are totally new registered. Obviously he is all those "0" rating users himself...

See here:

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[jsmisc]

Thanks for the warning, Dirk

 

[vlbijvoet]

I immediatly would report this guy to eBay, and include above link to the list of bidders.

 

[dirk]

FYI

this guy I reported on April 27 is doing it again! A used ND is on ebay:

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Same guy, same rating (0), same camera and I guess same price when the auction is ending

So please do not bid on this one, I will try to contact ebay for this. I hate it to play the police, but if he continues like this, oters will be damaged. Just imagine that there are real buyers and they send him money and he might even not have an ND...

 

[scheberies]

For what its worth, I purchased a new ND open box on ebay last month from Legend Micro. Several of the images shot apear to have a pixel line which runs through them. I have sent a couple e-mails to legend and received no response. I have then subsequently sent it in to Tocad for repair. I sure hope the damn thing was new and that the warranty card is in effect. Tocad says it will be 10-14 days before they get back to me. I'll post what happens.

 

[dirk]

Hi Mark,

thank you very much for this information. This will help others to make sure to ask the right question before an auction ends the next time.

Is this pixel line visible in Jpegs and RAW files or only in RAW?. If it is only in one of both, it might be only a software problem (let's hope) ...

 

[kdemas]

Mark,

Just as an FYI.... I believe ToCad will forward the ND to Japan. I believe ALL ND repairs are forwarded to Japan for service. I mention it just so you are not surprised if it takes a while to be repaired.

Mine has a back focus problem so it will be making the trip pretty soon as well

Kent >

 

[nickser]

Hi Dirk,
There was also a seller a few months ago based in London doing the same thing. The ND was said to have been in England, so I said if I bought it could I pick it up and pay direct. It turned out that it was in Italy and if I payed a 'buy it now' price up front they would ship it to me. No way would I do that!! That would be the last I would see of the money. They did it a couple of times. I reported them but I didn't get a reply.

Paul

 

[dirk]

FYI

ebay deleted the auction and excluded the seller. This is the emial I got:

"Dear Dirk...,

The following is a notice from eBay Trust & Safety regarding:

Item Number - 7507334300
Item Title - Contax N Digital Camera in Box Mint

... We recently removed all of this seller's listings and have suspended the seller's trading privileges. Due to privacy concerns we will not be able to share further details related to this seller.

If someone claiming to be the seller asks you to complete a transaction outside of eBay, we strongly recommend that you ignore the request. Transactions for items listed on eBay that are completed outside of the eBay marketplace are not covered by the Buyer Protection services offered by eBay and can be highly indicative of fraud.

If you have not sent payment to the seller, we urge you to not proceed with the transaction.

If you have already paid, you may wish to pursue options to recoup your funds. Some steps you might take include:

1. Ask the seller for a refund
2. If you paid by check, ask your bank to stop payment
3. If you paid by credit card, contact your credit card company's security department
4. If you have made a payment by money order or wire transfer, you may contact that company for further information at 1-800-325-6000 (Western Union), or at 1-800-926-9400 (Money Gram)
5. If you paid with PayPal, review the Buyer Complaint Process at:

/csg/p?

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6. Review eligibility requirements for eBay's standard purchase protection program at:

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There are many tips on how to protect yourself with any Internet transaction in the eBay Security & Resolution Center located at:

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Our goal is to ensure that your eBay experience is safe so that you can buy confidently. It is rare that something goes wrong with a transaction on eBay, but we're here to help you protect yourself in the event it does. If you have additional questions, please send us an email using the "Contact Us" link found on eBay Help pages. Do not respond to this email, as your reply will not be received.

Regards,
Customer Support (Trust and Safety Department)
eBay Inc"

I hope this guy does not try the same thing in the future with a different name...

 

[scheberies]

As a follow up to my post, I wanted to let everyone know that the ND I purchased on ebay from legend micro was accepted by Tocad under warranty

and was shipped to japan for repairs. I can't wait to get it back and start using it,

Mark

 

[fotografz]

I e-bay bid on an ND recently, but the price went to high at the end (over $3,000.). Interesting all the buying frenzy surrounding the very camera that brought Kyocera to it's knees. If that camera had been this successful 2 years ago, we'd probably be seeing the ND2 about now ... and more N lenses in the system.

I also had (still have) an ND with a razor thin line of hot pixels. The line only shows up in the RAW files. I discovered it after the warranty was up because I was never able to effectively process RAW files until Adobe included the ND in their ARC. I doubt it is the software. When I use tiff or J-Peg in camera it disappears, but that's probably because of the in-camera processing. But the ND is so good at J-pegs because of the seemingly wider D-max (due to being a CCD?), and the tiny buffer problem is eliminated with J-pegs, that I ended up shooting it on J-Peg all the time anyway.

Everything is timing. If, upon launch, the ND was supported by Adobe's Raw Converter, or had adopted Adobe's DNG universal RAW file format, and had a better power source like that available today (2500 mAh), I wonder what would have happened?

You don't realize what you have until it's gone : -(

 

[gtmerideth]

> Pleased that worked out for you Mark. It's bad enough to make the > investment you made and not having a working camera, but to have the > seller fluff you off is criminal. gary merideth