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Your best used gear vendors nowadays?

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www.seawood.com The shop is a veritable museum of analog gear. Warranty(ies) all of his items from what I've seen.
Dont let his web presence fool you . . . . .
 
Pieter12 said:
Strangely, I recall a discussion not long ago (in person as well as online) that there are a lot of scams coming from supposed Japanese eBay sellers. All the equipment is described as mint or close to it and doesn't end up living up to said condition and being very difficult to contact for returns. I believe there was a U.S. connection in the whole mess, posing as a Japanese seller or the Japanese acting as an agent.
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Yeah, I've heard those rumors too. My personal experience is that the Japanese sellers have limited English, and their headlines can be misleading, but the details in the fine print are correct, and the sellers themselves are pleasant to deal with. I assume they're using some form of translation for their English, so I keep my emails as simple and "plain english" as possible.

Haven't had any issues that weren't a result of me not paying close enough attention to the photographs.

Having said that, if sufficient photographs aren't provided, or it's a seller with a limited history, I keep going. But that holds true for any purchase on eBay.
 
What everyone else says and special shout out to Roberts. Great stuff, great service, very, very fair pricing. Still old school

This is a great place like that, and Tyler is very approachable and will consider reasonable offers:
cardinalcameraused.com

Cardinal Camera Used

We carry all types and brands of used camera equipment!
cardinalcameraused.com

also here. Josh is excellent also:
www.victorycamera.com

Victory Camera

Serving the film community since 1999 - We are the only analog camera store in Boulder, Colorado, run by photographers for photographers with one of the best selections of film cameras in the USA. Browse our website, send us an email, or give us a call! We’re here to help with any of your analog...
www.victorycamera.com www.victorycamera.com
 
Did I mention that KEH has a great return, replace or repair policy? I bought a C 500mm Hasselblad lens that jammed and needed work. I got it shipped back and forth free and they did a complete CLA and alignment on the lens for free. Had I sent it out to Hasselblad New Jersey, one of the few places that could remove the optics, service the shutter and replace and realign the optics, the cost would have been over $700US. Another reason to buy from KEH.
 
Sirius Glass said:
Did I mention that KEH has a great return, replace or repair policy? I bought a C 500mm Hasselblad lens that jammed and needed work. I got it shipped back and forth free and they did a complete CLA and alignment on the lens for free. Had I sent it out to Hasselblad New Jersey, one of the few places that could remove the optics, service the shutter and replace and realign the optics, the cost would have been over $700US. Another reason to buy from KEH.
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+1
Great folks. Stand by their products.
 
There was a time from 1995 to 2010 roughly where not only cameras but almost anything was next to nothing, i.e. albums, audio equipment, watches, leather jackets, antiques, art work...etc. That was before Ebay and websites exploded. You needed to have the knowledge without a smartphone. I used to drive around with a bag of books as reference material. Now everyone wants those items to sell on Ebay. True, most camera stores are closed.
 
Tel said:
I'm happy that I did a lot of binge-buying when cameras were very cheap, but saddened slightly that I sold or gave away much of my gear before the prices skyrocketed. Hindsight.
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I bought up my Hasselblad equipment before the big rush, too.
 
I was a big fan of KEH for a long time mostly because of their very low grading--BGN gear that looked new. But the last few things I bought through them have been the opposite--and EX Gitzo tripod that I'd barely qualify as UG. Thats really turned me off to them.

UsedPhotoPro also pulled a bait and switch on me--an 8 element Super Takumar 50/1.4, that when shipped to me was quietly replaced with a different 7 element Super Takumar lens. I don't think Roberts was responsible, just an employee that noticed when boxing it up, and snagged it for themselves.
 
abruzzi said:
I was a big fan of KEH for a long time mostly because of their very low grading--BGN gear that looked new. But the last few things I bought through them have been the opposite--and EX Gitzo tripod that I'd barely qualify as UG. Thats really turned me off to them.
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You should have called them and they would have had you ship it back at their expense and replace it with one of the quality that you ordered.

I ordered a Heliopan filter from KEH at EX+ and was sent a scratched on. I called and they sent out one of the proper quality immediately and let me return the original one at a later date.

Several times I ordered lenses at EX and got better lenses because when then went to fulfill the order the quality I had ordered was out of stock so the sent the next higher available lens instead. I did not complain either.
 
I've generally had good experiences with KEH, although in recent years there have been some errors, which they quickly corrected. Roberts has been excellent. Igor's is good. Pacific Rim also. I especially remember a Japanese vendor, she delivered the item as advertised, rapidly, and enclosed three or four oragami cranes in a beautiful paper envelope with a lovely message. I saved the cranes, and thanked her for the delightful gift.
 
I have been buying from KEH for 20 years for their conservative rating and no questions asked return policy. Because of their return policy I have bought gear rated Ugly with no risk with satisfaction. The only risk is return shipping cost which is minimal.
 
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Robert's aka Used Photo Pro. I've gotten some phenomenal deals from them over the last couple years. The latest was a 100mm f3.5 lens for my Contax RTS III. To look at the lens you would swear it was new, except for the fact that it came with aftermarket front and rear lens caps. They had it listed on Ebay with a "make an offer", so I submitted an offer of $200 and they accepted it.
 
Pieter12 said:
Strangely, I recall a discussion not long ago (in person as well as online) that there are a lot of scams coming from supposed Japanese eBay sellers. All the equipment is described as mint or close to it and doesn't end up living up to said condition and being very difficult to contact for returns. I believe there was a U.S. connection in the whole mess, posing as a Japanese seller or the Japanese acting as an agent.
Click to expand...

That just happened to me. I can't say for sure whether the Japanese seller on eBay was deliberately dishonest or incompetent since I don't know their selling history, but I had to get eBay involved for the seller to refund a camera that arrived DOA but was listed in excellent working condition. Communication was slow to nonexistent prior to contacting eBay. Things changed in a hurry after that.
 
Sirius Glass said:
You should have called them and they would have had you ship it back at their expense and replace it with one of the quality that you ordered.
Click to expand...

yeah, I should have but I ordered it at the last minute because I needed a lighter tripod for a trip--so when it arrived I wasn't in a position to return or deal with it.

I've had some other, not bad, but not great items recently from them. It felt like they were lowering their standards. KEH's business model works when people believe that the item will be better than expected, since you can make your purchase decision based on a visual inspection of the item. Now that they have burned that bridge for me, I am much much less likely to take the chance on an item they sell.
 
These days, it is either Kijiji (Canada) for me, or directly from Yahoo Auctions Japan (using a reshipper, I use fromjapan). Seems like ebay isn't a thing in Japan, which means all the Japanese sellers on ebay sell purely for export, so the Japanese market seems to be on Yahoo. And the reshippers allow to bundle multiple items into one shipment, which makes the overall price better. Was getting some pretty good deals over the last 1-2 years like this. The descriptions seem honest, some more detailed then others, and of course photos help...
 
Here in the Atlanta GA area Wings Camera is the place to go. https://wingscamera.com/ This family owned business dates back to 1912. Mike, the genial proprietor, knows his stuff. Wings has a good range of used gear, from subminature to large format. I've bought a number of items from Wings, a Beseler 23c, a Pentax 110 outfit with lenses and a fitted case, to name but a few. Wings has a good selection of film, darkroom needs, developers, etc.. and occasionally developing tanks, trays, etc.

For new and used filters, hoods, and such, Filter Find is the place. https://filterfind.net/ The site is easy to use and Tim has found for me some excellent items.
 
In the past year I bought two items from KEH and four items from ebay Japan sellers. No one local had any of these items in as good a shape.
 
McDiesel said:
If we're listing all the good-service-but-paltry-inventory-and-shitty-web-site places, then https://www.catlabs.info deserves to be mentioned.
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I glanced at the site and was appalled that you couldn't search for a particular brand, but rather had to plough through dozens of items of no interest. 'For shame! They should pay for a good programmer to fix the site.
 
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