Ebay prices.

Eddie46 · Joined: 05 Dec 2016 Posts: 135 Location: cardiff,UK

Seems to me that we have been rumbled.Prices on Ebay are going upwards.So many on buy now feature instead of Auction as well.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Prices have been going up steadily for years.

thebbm · Joined: 11 Dec 2013 Posts: 295 Location: France montpellier

prices increase since few years ( mirroless effect maybe )
and some ebay sellers have multiple account to make there self action to higher price
Another thechnic to buy with low price, the bid with a first account A, and bid to a very high price with another account B so no one else can bid and never pay so you make "second chance offer" to A

Eddie46 · Joined: 05 Dec 2016 Posts: 135 Location: cardiff,UK

I spot the dodgy ones sometimes.Even complained to Ebay about a seller whos bidders where all hidden,as soon as I bid on something the price would go bouncing up and then stop waiting for me to bid again.The complaint wasnt upheld and the plonker even blocked me.That told me all I needed to know!

bghomofaber · Joined: 03 Mar 2016 Posts: 154

I try to buy locally in Italy, looking at old fashioned newspaper ads. Ebay has had an homogenizing effect on prices, they are all practically the same for every interesting item or so, clearly anybody going there means that nobody will be so fool as to sell at much lower prices than others, nor they will risk an auction when they can count on the "complicity" of other sellers who keep prices high.

It is a sort of naturally occurring cartel.

In local newspapers ads you may still find common people uninterested in photography who want to rapidly get rid of inherited or too old for them stuff.

A friends of mine who collects militaria said to me the same is occurring in his field. His best catches were from acquaintances like plumbers or masons restructuring houses ..

Also alternative sites, auction or direct sales, are filled with overpriced cameras here, I have seen zenits going for figures above the 100 euros mark .. many people just say ehi that's costly dad camera it must be worth a lot .. flea markets are also the most dishonest places for cameras in Italy, few items and absurdly priced, not to mention the plenty of canomatic fake cameras being peddled for 20, 30 or even more than fifty euros.

The internet is not a friend really for old stuff for me

Marek · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 8:22 pm Post subject:

As a regular seller, I can confirm the same felling. For ex. I've sold Tessar 50 lens along with Contax body for $140 on Sunday's auction and, what is the most surprising, it was actually paid Whoo Turtle

Also, people are just buying stuff for Christmas.

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

There are people out there who are happy to pay silly prices for common stuff, not even good stuff. I have a stall at a local antiques and collectors fair three times a year selling all kinds of things but mainly cameras and lenses. I was talking to a guy and trying to sell him a Canon A1, with a Metz flash, a couple of lenses, case and some accessories for �60, and this guy wasn't having it - he was offering �40, and pissing me off. He'd been back three times and I'd spent the best part of an hour trying to get money out of the tight arse. While we were 'negotiating' another guy picked up a Practkca MTL50 with the crappiest Hanimex lens you've ever seen and asked me how much it was. "�25 mate" I told him, fully expecting him to talk me down to �5, which was all I expected for the horrid thing. Without any hesitation he paid the money and walked away happy. And I didn't move on the �60 for the Canon. I didn't sell it either.

I sell Zenit's and Practika's all day, good stuff I bring home. There's no logic to it at all, and I guess the same applies to ebay.

TrueLoveOne · Expire: 2013-12-24

Sometimes i buy at ebay, but these are mostly new items like adapters. Somehow i never succeed in buying things i want, the prices are okay, until the last 10 seconds or so when bids go up to three times higher than what i expected!
Maybe i just do not get the bidding system, maybe it's just a fake.... i don't know.

Local market (Marktplaats.nl) has become terrible as well, people think they can buy a Canon 1.2/50 for 60 euros..... "it's not worth any more, prices at ebay are a fake!" i get.... maximum offer on Vivitar S1 1.9/28 was 30 euros ("it's just an old auto lens") so i started selling some stuff through Catawiki auctions. Guess what? I get good prices, and all of the items go to Italy, Spain, France or other foreign countries. All the good stuff is leaving the Netherlands!

I don't buy as much as i did, when i do it's usually from my own region, private ads in local papers, thrift stores or the occasional flea-market.

The market has changed over the past 2 years or so, significantly!

sergtum · Joined: 14 Nov 2016 Posts: 735

I recently started to use the services of this platform of international sales. maybe that's why I have only words of Thanks for sellers from the E...-site.

kansalliskalaCafe · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 7:56 am Post subject:

Not only lenses but some hipster stuff too, like Kiev RF bodies are no well over $50 when few years ago they were more like $10.

Mr G · Joined: 27 Jan 2014 Posts: 187 Location: London & Essex

I buy and sell on eBay as well, I always check all feedback before bidding. I snipe at the end if bidding, no point in forcing the price up, I set maximum I am willing to pay and stick to it, some I win, some I lose. I have won some real bargains and never overbid. Biggest problem i find is an accurate description or lack of it, I also had a seller refuse me access to pick up a Nova 16x12 four slot print processor which I won for 99p!

Marek · Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2016 11:10 pm Post subject:

By the way, it is an unhappy idea to compare Ebay with flea markets, as you barely meet CLAed lenses there (CLA as a huge factor to eliminate time/money expenses as well as potential item condition risks especially for unexperienced buyers) and you mostly meet locally typical, repetetive, kind of boring items, for example Helioses, Pentacons and Jupiters to name a few logically occuring in my country due to our mutual history with Mother, or rather say hated stepmother, Russia... Also, who are you competing with at flea markets? Literally no one compared with millions of Ebay accounts.

Flea market is basically a place where C-rate or unspecialized sellers meet with foxy buyers, photogaphers with really empty pockets or just MFL bargain lovers Very Happy

kievuser · Joined: 27 Jan 2008 Posts: 551

Some rare or exotic vintage lenses, especially some European ones now exceed the prices of vintage cameras. At least those lenses could still be used on digital cameras with a classic flavour.

Mike Deep · Joined: 25 Oct 2008 Posts: 316 Location: Upstate New York

The only way I find a bargain online is by seeking out lenses that need repairs... And the occasional KEH listing graded "UGLY" for no discernible reason.

justtorchit · Joined: 12 Oct 2009 Posts: 269 Location: St. Louis, MO

I've had excellent experiences with eBay over the past few years. I have been a user since 2005. I agree prices are going up as well as a massive increase in 'Buy It Now' listings over auctions. But having spent a lot of time on the platform, I feel I have gotten an excellent handle on solid, good sales, and the ones that will inevitably lead to issues. I have bought into several scam sales in the past couple years and eBay's customer service was swift and buyer-friendly. They quickly determined an outcome, refunded me via their buyer protections, and all was well. As far as why prices for used equipment are going up, I would imagine as others mentioned, the mirrorless and 'bespoke' trend of using vintage things has contributed to reviving the value of old glass. It is what it is.

I don't get too sore over lens prices being ridiculously high when an item is 'rare' but not necessarily a great lens. I want it. And so do others. Hence the price. I'm not saying what the sellers are doing is right. As an altruist, I'd like to think I'd sell a lens for an understood 'fair' price based on what the item is, factoring in quality, availability, comparison to alternatives available, etc. but that's not how the world works so I'm not surprised to see an old 35mm film camera being hocked for $1000+ because it has some plastic over it. 'Buy It Now' listings have contrastingly been the source of a great number of my best find, getting a lens for well below market value. Someone's just getting rid of something quick, and I get it for a price, way below what the auctions are going for. This of course means crawling eBay often, as those deals don't last but a minute or two after listing.

All this is not to say I don't think there are things eBay could improve, etc. It is hardly perfect. And I think the auctions aspect is probably the most problematic for sure. I've run into non-paying bidders more times than expected and it's a waste of everyone's time. Very frustrating and there seems to be little recourse. But I guess I consider that without eBay and other services, I would have no chance at finding and purchasing most of the lenses I own. It can be frustrating, but I think there's a momentum to it all and it's just about getting in the groove.

Gardener · Joined: 22 Sep 2013 Posts: 950 Location: USA

Many sellers use buy it now because this is a format ebay pushes them towards - for example, I have an ebay store - with it the only free listings I get are BIN, if I want to run an auction I need to pay an insertion fee. And frankly, I find it much easier to set the price I like and forget about it. As to the prices, yes, they mostly went up, sometimes sharply and inexplicably - recent stratospheric rise of 135/2.8 Nikkors is an example, but on some lenses the prices have actually come down - Helios 40, Rokkor 58/1.2, Canon FD 85L, many 24mm lenses are now cheaper, sometimes significantly, than they used to be.

buerokratiehasser · Joined: 12 Jun 2011 Posts: 470

When I used to snipe ebay (before they finally ruined it with their habit of breaking things and terrorizing victims) I got the best deals out of descriptions like "Old photo thing". On the image you could spot the lens on it. Well, so could others, but keyword included = bid war.

I think my sharpest lens, Sigma 50/2.8 AF (and a contender to sharpest lens ever) set me back 25 bucks with shipping. The focus does hang itself somewhere on the loong macro way, I think the seller even mentioned that.

If someone gladly pays 20 bucks for some Hanimex Dork Zoom, he is a newbie. 1 MF lens is one lens more than none, so he is happy. $20 is way less than $120 or whatever Canikon charges. Mental picture and price you consider "bargain" changes when you have 4 tele zooms already.

edri · Joined: 26 Oct 2014 Posts: 315 Location: walking in the air

I noticed that at most auctions that I've attended, almost all these auctions were won by users with few feedbacks (around 10, maximum 20). Question

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

This year marks my 20th year as an eBay member, during which time I've been a buyer and a seller. In my early days there, the auctions were wild affairs. As a seller, I made quite a bit of money. Back then, I specialized in collectible old fountain pens and exotic porcelains. Every once and a while, I'd post a piece of photo gear. I used to list items for an opening bid of less than a dollar with no reserve and wind up with a final auction price in the hundreds of dollars. This was the rule rather than the exception.

Not so much now. I have probably a couple dozen items I'm slowly listing on eBay. They're all older manual focus gear, mostly 35mm. Good, quality items. And I get little, if any interest. Sometimes I'll set them up as auctions, but usually I list them as BIN with obo. It's the obo that leads to most sales. And you wouldn't believe some of the low ball offers I get -- or maybe you would.

Anyway, I see a lot of these high prices and I just ignore them. I'm sure as hell not getting them on the items I'm trying to sell. Now, as a buyer, I find I have to be patient if I'm after a specific item. This usually pays off. There has been more than one occasion where I've found an auction with a current low bid amidst BINs with much higher asking prices, and I've won the auction at a huge savings compared to the high BINs. This tells me something important: there is little, if any, demand for these items and I base this on the amount of bidding activity that the item I won received. So, why the continued high BINs? I mean, these "sellers" can do the research on eBay and see what the items are actually selling for if they search through the closed items. I guess they're counting on relatively inexperienced eBayers for their profits. Hopefully, they'll go broke, asking too much money for their items and they will go away, I tell myself. But that doesn't seem to be happening after watching this activity for years now.

marcusBMG · Joined: 07 Dec 2012 Posts: 1304 Location: Conwy N Wales

There [s]is[/s] was a guy on ebay UK calling himself lens-solutions. He specialised particularly in hoovering up the "wundertute" 400mm and 500mm lenses at auction then reselling them. I kept an eye on him because he would frequently bid against me when I also pursued select long focal lengths for resale, and because he was the winning bidder on a spares/repairs soligor 300mm (broken aperture connection I repaired) off me that he promptly resold. He also sold shorter focal length primes and a motley variety of old zooms. He would describe these as "for"canon, nikon etc even when he was simply bundling an M42 mount lens with a cheap adapter which for nikon wouldn't focus to infinity. What amazed me was how he did manage to sell, even in spite of his mediocre descriptions and pics. There is a market out there.
However I do note that the average BIN for eg a 400/6.3 has dropped a lot to around £59.

I got quite a lot of interest in the novoflex 400mm I just sold (300+ views, 30+ watching), but no one bit at my £139 BIN (which I didn't think was unreasonable for a sound item with the desireable t-noflexar optic + extras).
I do believe that there is benefit in going the extra mile when listing, like my Nestar ad that was referred to recently. I think prospective purchasers really appreciate it if you include sample pics from the lens.

jmkmva · Joined: 25 Nov 2010 Posts: 78 Location: MidAtlantic US

All interesting comments. My own observations about manual focus lenses designed primarily for 35mm film cameras is that some prices are strong while others are loosing value. IMO generally lighter 28mm to 100mm (less than 400 grams), faster and/or close focusing lenses are very desirable. Longer, heavier teles and heavier zooms are not.

The effect of the different size sensors and FOV also makes a lot of difference sing long lenses especially on a Micro 4/3 body. A 135mm lens on a Micro 4/3 is at the limit of my ability to hand hold. Also, many do not want to lug around a tripod. There is another problem of stability with the use of adapters and long lenses.

But fear not, this too will change. Wink

480sparky · Joined: 16 Apr 2013 Posts: 355 Location: Iowa

I find bargains looking for misspelled things... like a Nikor or Nikkon lens.

Or type in a generic term into the search bar like 'film camera' or 'lens'. This brings up a lot that needs to be waded through, but if you sort it out by Lowest Price Including Shipping and add the qualifier Buy It Now, you can find some outstanding bargains. I once bought a $900 lab-grade microscope for $85 (brand new, in the box!) using this method. Flipped it for $750.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

Yes, I've bought a few items that were mis-listed and I picked them up for outstanding prices, really. But I haven't ever gone looking for them. Mostly I just stumble across them. Maybe I should take a more active approach.

One thing I've started doing with the lenses I've been selling recently, most of which are 3rd party zooms, is I include good, sharp pics taken with the lens at its widest setting, its longest setting, and macro if it has a macro mode. I'm still only asking anywhere from $15 to $25 for the lenses, but having the pics I think helps put my listings above others. I also write a complete description of each lens, which is a lot more than most other sellers do. Whatever it takes, eh?

The vaguely ironic thing is normally I would never bother picking up these sorts of lenses. But this is what comes from buying used gear on eBay and the Goodwill auction site. Often, if I'm after a specific camera, it has a lens attached, which I may or may not want. Almost always the latter. And over time, I've built up this quantity of lenses that I'll never use, but which all work pretty well and most which take decent photos. But getting rid of them can be a real chore.

Sometimes I'll bid on a lot just to get one camera -- especially if the lot price is cheap enough. And then I'm stuck, not only with lenses I don't need, but also with cameras I don't want or need. So I get to sell these too. Another chore.

jamaeolus · Expire: 2015-08-20

I do the same thing 480sparky. marco lenses or such, heh.

Marek · Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 1:59 am Post subject: