The hell is this guy smoking?

Michel Hardy-Vallée · Feb 24, 2009

In Montréal, most of the camera shops still selling used gear are priced way above decent dealers like KEH or the average eBayer. And if you look at local classifieds, you'd think that people expect to make a profit on a used mid-90s Wunderplastik SLR camera. It always begin with "I paid this camera $1,500 new, yours for only $650."

So I buy everything off eBay, KEH, classifieds on Internet forums instead.

walter23 · Feb 24, 2009

Outrage? More like bemusement.

You're reading emotion that isn't here. I've got no reason to be angry; if I want one of the things he's selling I can buy it for $5 from another seller

fschifano said:
Why all the outrage? You'd think this seller was going around killing babies by the tone of some of the reactions I've read. He has ridiculously high prices on his listed items. So what? You don't like it, don't buy it. If some idiot does think it's a fair price, that's his problem. The seller isn't twisting anyone's arm, nor does he have his hand in the buyer's pocket.

walter23 · Feb 24, 2009

jerk151 said:
That's because it is listed with "Antique" behind it. It's like adding the words "Art Supplies" or "Motion Picture" to it. I saw not too long ago where someone was selling a bag of 25 C-47's for $30 on their web site. Hilarious! I wish I could remember where that was.

What's a C-47? If I google it I find nothing but information on some old cargo plane or something.

fschifano · Feb 24, 2009

walter23 said:
Outrage? More like bemusement.

You're reading emotion that isn't here. I've got no reason to be angry; if I want one of the things he's selling I can buy it for $5 from another seller

Actually Walter, I wasn't necessarily thinking of your response in particular. The general tone of the first page or so seemed a little ridiculous to me. That's all.

JMC1969 · Feb 24, 2009

walter23 said:
What's a C-47? If I google it I find nothing but information on some old cargo plane or something.

It's a commonly known as a "Clothespin". Really! A little wooden clothespin to attach colored gels, diffusion to the barn doors of a light. The story goes that a key grip had purchased a couple bags for this purpose and was refused reimbursement from accounting because it was not considered equipment. So he re-billed for C-47s', being 47 were used and "C" for "clothespin". This was apparently in the fifties, but who really knows, it's just the story that gets past around from crew to crew.

Look up Grip Terms there are some good ones.

That's what I mean by the way, if someone didn't know what it was, you may be willing to pay $30 for these must need movie equipment to hold your diffusion in place. But you're going to be pissed when you get a bag of clothespins.

ntenny · Feb 24, 2009

jmolligo said:
Ebay has become a horrible thing. It use to be a nice place for regular people to sell gear or find good bargains. Now it's become a Greed Mall.

I wouldn't go that far. I find the "Greed Mall" aspects annoying, but feasible to tune out, and I'm pretty sure the vast majority of items I've actually bought have been from "regular" people, either photographers unloading gear or nonphotographers confronted with inherited objects they have no use for.

To my mind it still works pretty much as designed...far better than much of the rest of the inet, anyway.

-NT

Katier · Feb 27, 2009

Chazzy said:
Well, there's no doubt about it—some people are idiots about buying on eBay, and they keep sellers like this one in business. I don't know how often I've seen a book go for more than the price on Amazon.com, or a camera-related item go for more than the price at b&h. Ditto with overpriced sheet film which people are buying on auction (why would someone buy sheet film from eBay anyway?). And somebody must be buying those overpriced Holgas that clog up the listings of 8x10 and larger cameras.

I know what you mean, recently I saw a Epson scanner go for £10 less than I paid for a brand new one of the model that replaced it. People just don't research properly.

archphoto · Feb 27, 2009

For buyers it is a good place, I picked up a RB 67 150SF lens in ex+ condition for $ 55,- last night and was over-bidden on a 140 Macro ex+ that went for $ 85,- .
You just have to set your self borders and know what the stuff is realy worth.

John Bartley · Feb 28, 2009

fschifano said:
Why all the outrage? You'd think this seller was going around killing babies by the tone of some of the reactions I've read. He has ridiculously high prices on his listed items. So what? You don't like it, don't buy it. If some idiot does think it's a fair price, that's his problem. The seller isn't twisting anyone's arm, nor does he have his hand in the buyer's pocket.

Well said Frank.

Also,

There's a couple of reasons why a person might consider posting items for sale on eBay with super high prices attached....

They might subscribe to the philosophy that if they sell 1/10 as many items for 10x the price, they get the same revenue with far less shipping work and still have 9/10 of their inventory left - there just might be enough impulse buyers or uneducated buyers out there to accomplish this mission.
They might be using the eBay site as an advertising platform. The listing fees on eBay are amazingly cheap when compared to the cost of advertising in local papers or in magazines. There are lots of buyers out there who will see an overpriced item for exactly what it might be.....an invitation to negotiate a sale behind the scenes after the listing period expires. This is a scenario that I know exists, having spoken to others who have done it, and having done it myself.

Just a thought...

cheers

John

fschifano · Feb 28, 2009

John:

Two good points that I hadn't even considered.

Frank

JBrunner · Feb 28, 2009

jerk151 said:
It's a commonly known as a "Clothespin". Really! A little wooden clothespin to attach colored gels, diffusion to the barn doors of a light. The story goes that a key grip had purchased a couple bags for this purpose and was refused reimbursement from accounting because it was not considered equipment. So he re-billed for C-47s', being 47 were used and "C" for "clothespin". This was apparently in the fifties, but who really knows, it's just the story that gets past around from crew to crew.

Look up Grip Terms there are some good ones.

That's what I mean by the way, if someone didn't know what it was, you may be willing to pay $30 for these must need movie equipment to hold your diffusion in place. But you're going to be pissed when you get a bag of clothespins.

Dude, don't blow it. When someone asks what a C-47 is, you tell them it is a gel retention fastener!!!!! Are you trying to put me out of a job????

As an aside, wooden clothes pins are getting harder and harder to find. Metal clips get way to hot and the plastic ones melt. The future will be interesting.

k_jupiter · Mar 1, 2009

JBrunner said:
Dude, don't blow it. When someone asks what a C-47 is, you tell them it is a gel retention fastener!!!!! Are you trying to put me out of a job????

As an aside, wooden clothes pins are getting harder and harder to find. Metal clips get way to hot and the plastic ones melt. The future will be interesting.

So you are saying if I replace the house clothes pins with plastic ones, i might be able to retire?

Man oh man.

tim in san jose

The hell is this guy smoking?

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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