&%@ eBay!

Peter Black · Apr 5, 2011

In case you haven't been to eBay UK, today, they've rejigged their classifications and Film is now all pretty much together with categories as follows:
Film Photography
Film Cameras (13,138)

Movie Cameras (295)

Darkroom & Developing (1,819)

Film (2,908)

Film Backs & Holders (45)

Film Editing Equipment (4)

Lens Boards (6)

Motor Drives & Winders (18)

Movie Camera Accessories (15)

Rangefinders & Accessories (17)

Slide & Film Projection (968)

Other Film Photography (967)

So that's 13,000 film cameras all lumped into one category while there are 4 categories with double figure entries and 2 with only single figures. The main victim seems to be LF as it is unsearchable using "Large". Who trains these guys?

Rick A · Apr 5, 2011

Ya, and I'll bet thirteen thousand of those are holgas.

benjiboy · Apr 5, 2011

I sometimes think I must be the only photographer in the World who has never bought a camera or lens on ebay, I've had the vast majority of my gear for more than twenty years I'm happy with it and I enjoy using it and not worrying about constantly upgrading it.

Jeff Kubach · Apr 5, 2011

benjiboy said:
I sometimes think I must be the only photographer in the World who has never bought a camera or lens on ebay, I've had the vast majority of my gear for more than twenty years I'm happy with it and I enjoy using it and not worrying about constantly upgrading it.

That makes two of us!

Jeff

Robert Hall · Apr 5, 2011

Bureaucracy at it's best Peter.

I think we should just sit back and have a dram or two.

M.A.Longmore · Apr 5, 2011

.
As long as I can keep getting B+W filters for $2.50, I ain't complainin' !
.

Peter Black · Apr 5, 2011

benjiboy said:
I sometimes think I must be the only photographer in the World who has never bought a camera or lens on ebay, I've had the vast majority of my gear for more than twenty years I'm happy with it and I enjoy using it and not worrying about constantly upgrading it.

Ben, it's been one of my pleasures in recent years to buy cameras I had yearned for in years gone by, but could never afford at the time. This has taken me through F3, FE2 and F5 Nikons, Olympus OM2Nand mju 11, Minox GT, Canon EOS 50E, and flirted with rangefinders including a Leica M3, Bronica RF645 & Fuji GSW690, virtually all of which have been tried and eventually moved on for the same or more.

I'm tending to move away from 35mm now, but I've just developed a roll of HP5+ from my 36 year old Olympus Trip 35 tonight to see if it is still working. While it looks like the meter might be a touch off, I'm keeping the Trip and have no desire to "upgrade" it.

Leigh Youdale · Apr 5, 2011

Peter Black said:
it's been one of my pleasures in recent years to buy cameras I had yearned for in years gone by, but could never afford at the time.

Me too. Thanks to EBay I now have a Leica M6, a Rolleiflex E2 2.8 Planar and a Rolleiflex WA. Still hanging on to my Nikkormat FTn too which I bought new back in the '60's.

pentaxuser · Apr 5, 2011

It certainly doesn't look to be change for the better. More difficult to drill down and find the section you are looking for. Say for example it is MF lenses for a P645 then having to check through a lot more items than necessary every few days isn't being user friendly.

If it wasn't broke then why fix it?

pentaxuser

Focus No. 9 · Apr 5, 2011

and unfortunately like craigslist here in the US you can't mark something as misclassed. And +1 ha ha to what Rick the Artist (aka: *~*) said.

DWThomas · Apr 5, 2011

While the merged categories are definitely moving in the wrong direction, you can do fancier searches and create a bookmark for them (at least, here in the US version). I have bookmarks preset for Bronica, 77 mm filters, push-on (and slip-on) filters, etc. to reduce the amount of stuff to wade through. Like some others, I have used ePrey to build up a Bronica SQ-A outfit, added a Yashica 124G and an Ercona II to my user collection, as well as picked up lots of miscellaneous odds and ends. For a hobby, I couldn't consider most of that financially sensible back when the stuff was in current production.

Sirius Glass · Apr 5, 2011

I still use eBay, but very rarely. I look mostly at KEH and Samys.

Steve

Poisson Du Jour · Apr 5, 2011

eBay is perhaps not a good place to go looking for a camera of any sort unless you can get a touchy-feely, up-close-and-very-personal inspection. Not meaning to tar 'em all with the same brush it can be handy: just beware of the bees, but take notice of the birds.

Lots of other goodies there can save a fortune over retail with all its taxes and imposts. B+W filters are one, but make sure you get a genuine one. I doubt very much the Real McCoy is $2.50...

Sirius Glass · Apr 5, 2011

Poisson, please feel free to tar 'em!

Steve

wotalegend · Apr 5, 2011

Poisson Du Jour said:
eBay is perhaps not a good place to go looking for a camera of any sort unless you can get a touchy-feely, up-close-and-very-personal inspection. Not meaning to tar 'em all with the same brush it can be handy: just beware of the bees, but take notice of the birds.

Lots of other goodies there can save a fortune over retail with all its taxes and imposts. B+W filters are one, but make sure you get a genuine one. I doubt very much the Real McCoy is $2.50...

That's a rather narrow view, Gary. I have bought lots of good gear on the 'bay over several years, most of it from foreign parts where touch-and-feel is impossible, much of it as rare as hen's teeth in Oz, all of it would have been beyond my financial reach in its heyday, and even beyond my financial reach at the second-hand prices still being charged within Oz, particularly by photographic retailers still in a 1980's time warp. Maybe I've just been lucky.

ozphoto · Apr 6, 2011

I too have had great success on Ebay buying used gear.

AU prices *are* crazy - when I see ads here on APUG for free 5x4 enlargers and some of the gear on Craiglist US that is mentioned makes we weep!!!

I picked up my entire EOS film system compliments of Ebay - there is no way I could have done so in AU. A used EOS1 body (Mk1 I think) set me back $195 including postage, the same in AU at the time - starting around $695, if I could find one, and that would have been a *really well used* one.

I've been stung once; my own fault as the original seller of the lens sent me an email regarding the second seller's claims. I brushed them aside, believing I could have the AF repaired by Canon - alas, not to be, as the parts were no longer available. Ended up selling it on Ebay myself, with full disclosure of AF problem, and the sale left me $100 out of pocket. Lesson learned - if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!

I admit do prefer to deal with 100% feedbacks, but sometimes that isn't always possible. In which case, I use the feedbacks as a gauge - check the negatives and if I feel ok with them, I'll buy - I don't consider postage cost and import duty "gripes" per se as valid negatives, these things are clearly obvious, as are returns OS that require you to pay for the postage back.

ozphoto · Apr 6, 2011

What actually kills me is that Inkjet paper is lumped in with Darkroom Developing - Photographic Paper arrrghhh!!!!!

I *hate* that - means I need to fine tune the search even further when I want to grab some old *real* paper.

M.A.Longmore · Apr 6, 2011

Fool Me Once ...

Poisson Du Jour said:
Lots of other goodies there can save a fortune over retail with all its taxes and imposts. B+W filters are one, but make sure you get a genuine one. I doubt very much the Real McCoy is $2.50...

.
Fool Me Once, Shame On Me.

Fool Me Twice, We Won't Get Fooled Again ...

Ron
.

Poisson Du Jour · Apr 6, 2011

M.A.Longmore said:
.
Fool Me Once, Shame On Me.

Fool Me Twice, We Won't Get Fooled Again ...

Ron
.

I hope so Ron! If it sounds too good to be true at that price, it probably isn't true!

I purchased a B+W Käsemann circular polariser on eBay. The seller was duly sussed out (like all I have dealt with and to date not had a single negative experience with) and some enquiries made. No problems found: that business brings in B+W filters from authorised Schneider Krueznack Hong Kong distributor so I was confident there were no tricks (especially the garbage circulating on Photo.net about "B+W authentic vs fake filters" oh, pllllllease!!). Here in Australia, that filter would have cost $260 with postage. And eBay? $138, postage free.

benjiboy · Apr 6, 2011

Peter Black said:
Ben, it's been one of my pleasures in recent years to buy cameras I had yearned for in years gone by, but could never afford at the time. This has taken me through F3, FE2 and F5 Nikons, Olympus OM2Nand mju 11, Minox GT, Canon EOS 50E, and flirted with rangefinders including a Leica M3, Bronica RF645 & Fuji GSW690, virtually all of which have been tried and eventually moved on for the same or more.

I'm tending to move away from 35mm now, but I've just developed a roll of HP5+ from my 36 year old Olympus Trip 35 tonight to see if it is still working. While it looks like the meter might be a touch off, I'm keeping the Trip and have no desire to "upgrade" it.

If you enjoy buying stuff on ebay Peter fair enough, I was speaking personally, I realized that many years ago that my photography wasn't being improved by buying more, bigger and better cameras and lenses, I decided that I already have an adequate range of equipment and that wasn't what was holding me back from being a brilliant photographer because many of the photographers I admire became legends with much less and simpler gear than I had, in short I discovered that my photography wasn't a problem that be solved by throwing money at it.

lxdude · Apr 6, 2011

M.A.Longmore said:
.
Fool Me Once, Shame On Me.

Fool Me Twice, We Won't Get Fooled Again ...

Ron
.

Count Elmsley · Mar 9, 2012

I have had only good transactions on Ebay.

All these cameras and lenses were obtained there, and everything works perfectly - some items are in mint condition.

Alan
Lincoln

himself · Mar 9, 2012

but, and you may already be aware of this, after you click on the "film cameras" category and the 13,9998098090 things come up all you have to do is scroll down a little and check "large format" - or whatever - in the "type" filter, which reduces it to the 100odd cameras.

not too much trouble, no?

Athiril · Mar 9, 2012

Rick A said:
Ya, and I'll bet thirteen thousand of those are holgas.

use google

-holga site:ebay.co.uk/urlhereforfilmcamerasectionetc

or you maybe able to use minus terms on ebay itself

John Austin · Mar 9, 2012

Do you mean there are APUG people still using eBay? - Tie them to the mast and flog them!!!

*&%@* eBay!

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&%@ eBay!