Selling on photrio vs ebay

Sirius Glass said:

As we said in school, "Latin is a dead language. First it killed the Romans and now it is killing me."

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Assuming 10 kids in your class, I think it was decimated.

Sirius Glass said:

Now I am taking extreme umbrage

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That was something we had to do either in Catholic school or at mass I believe. Or someone had to be sick? It was a long time ago. All I remember was the nuns and their rulers had us and the priests living scared.

momus said:

All I remember was the nuns and their rulers had us and the priests living scared

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Never underestimate the power of the nuns.

It's two different markets. Certain things will sell on eBay, others are better suited for here, and some things won't sell unless you almost give them away. I know a lot about the latter. At some point one realizes that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the neat gadget that I thought was cool turns out to be a dirty dog. Ruff, ruff.

A couple of additions to this thread:

1- E Bay is a huge monopoly, provides worldwide exposure, there is a possibility, if you can find someone there, of help in case something goes wrong.
2- E Bay charges you 12.5% commision, but not on the sale price but that+shipping cost+plus the tax!
Thy basically are charging you commision on stuff that has nothing to do with your actual sale price..They are thieves!
3-Photrio charges nothing, also has worldwide exposure but there is little help provided if something goes wrong.

If something does not sell here, I put it in a box for my children to sell after I croak.

E Bay is for the masochists.

I always get 20-30% more than eBay vs what I see listed here. There was Fuji GF670 sold here for $2,350 last week, I would have gotten $3K on it on eBay. So even with their commissions, you get more money for your gear. I always sell on eBay and I buy on Fredmiranda, Photrio, craigslist or /r/photomarket.

How to sell on eBay:

• Clean up your gear prior to selling! Dust is usually emphasized in a photo.
• Use fantastic quality photos. I cannot emphasize this enough
• Never use auctions
• List as never-expiring, fixed-priced, buy it now
• Use the top 10 percentile of recently sold similar items
• Be patient

Basically the Japanese do it right.

@Steven Lee:

Very good advice but I rather not.

Steven Lee said:

Basically the Japanese do it right.

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If you're emulating the Japanese, remember that "Mint" includes lots of use and "Excellent ++" means possibly scratched optics, haze, or, more often, fungus in the lens.

@Moose22 What is your complaint exactly? Don't like "Excellent+++"? Buy "Near Mint". Want something nicer? Buy simply "Mint". Don't like "Mint"? Go for "TOP mint". Still not enough? Buy "new old stock". The system is the same as LN, EX+, EX, BGN, UG on KEH. Just different symbols.

Putting their choice of symbols aside, the quality of their listings is head and shoulders above anyone else, even outside eBay. The service they provide is better than most US-based photo stores, including KEH or Catlabs. Basically, buying from a Japanese seller is a luxury experience, and is priced as such.

@Steven Lee:

I did buy from Japanese E Bay guys in the past and, as you say, found them very reasonable and, almost always got them
to come down on the price after several tries (I became a pest) and I never was disappointed or led astray by their descriptions.
The one time I was not, the guy refunded 100%

Steven Lee said:

@Moose22 What is your complaint exactly?

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I thought that was pretty clear.

Mint has a meaning. Mint means a coin that has literally never been touched by human hands -- what it looks like the moment it leaves the mint. A coin that has been handled, even touched one time, is not in mint condition.

You can stretch it a little, and sure people regularly call something mint when it has been used, but I've seen Ebay listings described as Mint- that included fungus and haze in the optics. I've seen mint with scratches. That's chickenshit. Nothing with fungus is excellent by any definition of the word. Except in your world, I guess, where excellent could be just another term for "stay the hell away if you're not willing to CLA this the instant you get it".

@Moose22 Mint doesn't have a meaning. Cameras aren't minted. Coins are. "Tonality" definitely doesn't have any fucking meaning whatsoever. "Tight grain" doesn't have a meaning, yet these words are used on this forum to describe personal feelings all the time. "Bargain" rating on KEH has zero meaning because what's bargain to you may be useless garbage to me. None of this is tangible. This isn't math.

What is tangible and what matters is

1. The description. They always say if there's fungus, scratches, or any operational problems
2. Price
3. Photos
4. Return policy

How old are you? You must have never used eBay in the 2000s, what a crapshoot it was. You may be forgetting how PRIVILEGED you are. Privileged and lucky to live in the era of Japanese sellers on eBay. Think of any camera, no matter how rare or old, and have it delivered to your door in new old stock condition in a week. Nothing like this ever existed.

Stop typing nonsense, and drop on your knees with gusto and prey your ass off for them to never leave us.

I've bought large format lenses with built-in shutters from the Japanese. They're not cheap. Shutters are an additional issue. Make sure you ask if they tested them. (Most haven't but might say something like they listened to them). For the most part, I was satisfied with Japanese purchases.

Steven Lee said:

Cameras aren't minted. Coins are.

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… and even with coins, “mint” can be declared at a less than absolutely perfect state: 60 on a 70-point grading scale is generally considered the lowest limit of “mint”. But nonetheless, mint in numismatics means that the coin is uncirculated. So perhaps only NOS camera goods should legitimately be considered “mint”. In cameras and other non-numismatic/philatelic goods, where there is an acknowledged definition… just a nearly useless marketing term.