Second hand sales

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rowey2507

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I've been looking round recently a a couple of second hand options for lenses. I'm not sure if it s just me but I'm amazed by the quality of the pictures people put up of their professional grade kit. I've seen pictures recently of a Nikon 17-55 2.8 for example where they were not only completely out of focus but but plain poor shots.

I start to get put off by the sale at this point. If it was my sales thread I'd make sure that the pictures showed every part of the lens and were clear accurate shots.

How do people expect to sell a bit of equipment in the hundreds like this?
 
Not everyone is a professional photographer I guess... Some do it as a hobby - and in some cases people sell up as they can't get the hang of it... But with modern technology you would normally expect at least some reasonable photographs.. Even if you hold your average smartphone steady you'll get a good enough image for web use :) I agree that the better the photos the more inclined I would be to buy off a seller, and that poor photos would put me off..
 
It only really affects their chances of a sale at the end of the day, so don't get too hung up on it. Also, bear in mind that the lens they are selling may be the only one they have - or the only one suitable for the job. If I had to sell my 17-55, for instance, I'd have to take all the product pictures with relatively long focal length primes, since it's the only lens I have with a decent normal range - hardly ideal.
 
Description is more important I would have thought, if an item is described as very good or excellent condition why do you need to see a picture, surely you know what it looks like.

The rather splendid looking professional camera (Series 1 Canon I think) springs to mind that had been photoshopped to not show missing paint and other flaws

As we all know the camera does lie, think you might be better off buying new
 
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tijuana taxi said:
Description is more important I would have thought, if an item is described as very good or excellent condition why do you need to see a picture, surely you know what it looks like.

The rather splendid looking professional camera (Series 1 Canon I think) springs to mind that had been photoshopped to not show missing paint and other flaws

As we all know the camera does lie, think you might be better off buying new
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I disagree. So many things are listed as good or excellent condition and people have different perceptions of what can be considered excellent. I would never buy a lens without seeing high res pictures - I agree its possible that the seller would photoshop but there's always a fair risk buying off someone you don't know on a forum!
 
but there's always a fair risk buying off someone you don't know on a forum!
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I think the feedback system here is a good guide, much better than a photo.

Hardly likely someone who has been here for years with good ratings would try to sell a crock of ****. Can you really tell the state of for instance the front and rear elements of a lens from a web sized photo

Better eyesight than me if you can and the photos used on this site (most others too) are not exactly high res.

Again in your case might be better off buying new
 
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tijuana taxi said:
Description is more important I would have thought, if an item is described as very good or excellent condition why do you need to see a picture, surely you know what it looks like.
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The problem there is one persons idea of excellent or mint condition is completely different to the next mans. I wouldn't buy anything unless there's a detailed and clear pic of the item to go with the condition description.
 
tijuana taxi said:
I think the feedback system here is a good guide, much better than a photo.

Hardly likely someone who has been here for years with good ratings would try to sell a crock of ****.
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I used to think that until I bought my 70-200 off someone on here with nearly 100 positive feedback.

The lens came with 2 instances of undisclosed/hidden damage and suffered chronic CA and needed sending away for recalibrating.

And when I complained he called me a liar and said I was trying to offload a different lens by returning it.

After though I had at least 5 people pm me saying how they'd had bad experiences with him, some even said they'd left negative feedback and it was removed after he complained it was unfair.. I certainly wouldn't have sent him £1000 if I'd known the full story.

I had to chase him all over the web and it was only after I started to speak on other forums he agreed to meet me half way on the cost of repairing it.

Not the best result but minimum I was prepared to accept.

So be wary. Some fantastic sellers on here that if anything under describe their item, I've had a few nice surprises.. But a few bad ones too.
 
tijuana taxi said:
I think the feedback system here is a good guide, much better than a photo.

Hardly likely someone who has been here for years with good ratings would try to sell a crock of ****. Can you really tell the state of for instance the front and rear elements of a lens from a web sized photo

Better eyesight than me if you can and the photos used on this site (most others too) are not exactly high res.

Again in your case might be better off buying new
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Theres been at least two or three instances of botched transactions with users with good ratings (30+) on this forum over the last year or so.... if you look far back enough you might find those threads.

And if they are low res, you ask for high res!

Anyhow I'm likely to assume that the seller isn't so keen to sell if they don't provide pictures, or doesn't want to put so much effort into the sale which in turn usually puts me off.
 
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I wasn't just talking about this forum to be fair. Most of th pics on here aren't too bad but check out some on eBay and its frightening how bad some of them are.
 
maybe it is because they no longer have a camera/lens to take a good quality photo as it is in the picture, so they resort to the good old camera phone....
 
rowey2507 said:
I wasn't just talking about this forum to be fair. Most of th pics on here aren't too bad but check out some on eBay and its frightening how bad some of them are.
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Yep, there are loads of dreadful photos on eBay. People selling £500 items with a single picture taken in a dark hallway with a camera phone.
Tells me all about the seller that I need to know...
 
rowey2507 said:
I wasn't just talking about this forum to be fair. Most of th pics on here aren't too bad but check out some on eBay and its frightening how bad some of them are.
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I haven't sold on ebay for a while now (and don't intend to) but if my mind serves correctly they have a pretty abysmal upload limit anyway.
 
James Thomas 75 said:
I haven't sold on ebay for a while now (and don't intend to) but if my mind serves correctly they have a pretty abysmal upload limit anyway.
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I've sold plenty on eBay and the allowances are enough for you to put sufficient pictures of any item on there
 
I believe the picture says a lot about a seller, if they can't be bothered to publish a reasonable photo of the item what else cant they be bothered with? looking after it?
 
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