Used equipment bought from MPB, Wex, Park Cameras etc

phinix

phinix

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,103
Edit My Images
No
What is your experience buying used equipment from mpb, Wex and other UK shops?
I generally wondering about quality checks they do on lens for example. When you buy lens from mpb - is it always good, like well centered and good copy or do they not look at that and just check if it works and put it out for sale, then you buy de-centered, soft or whatever wrong with lens?
 
I have bought used lenses from mpb and park and a tripod from wex. Only 3 transactions but no problems and happy with my buys.
 
I recently traded in a couple of cameras and a few lenses at WEX and they ended up declining two of the lenses. One had noticeable fungus which I pointed out to them so they rejected immediately. The second had some sort of tiny blemish on the inside of the rear element which became apparent later on full official inspection. Given WEX are a specialist camera/photography outlet I wasn't surprised that they had high standard for what they would accept and found it reassuring given that I have bought used gear from them in the past and was about to do so again.
After being declined on two of my items at WEX, I considered selling them to CEX thinking that as a general trader they might not be as strict (as long as I pointed out the issues so that they could take account of this in any valuation), but to my surprise both items were declined. I half expected the lens being declined that had noticeable fungus but the lens with a miniscule blemish I thought would have been accepted and just valued accordingly but they said they wouldn't have been able to offer any warranty to a future buyer therefore declined.
Again, reassuringly fussy.
 
I recently purchased a Nikon D3300 and 18-55mm lens, from MPB. The camera arrived and the rubber grip was starting to come off. I contacted them and they gave me the option of a partial refund or return the camera. I took the partial refund and glued it back on myself, I was happy with the outcome, but not getting it in a condition that was different to it's description.
Before that, I sold all my Nikon F-mount gear to them when mirrorless was released. That went very smoothly and at the time a fair price compared to others.
 
Wex and MPB, happy with both. Happiest when dealing with Cambrian Photography in Colwyn Bay.
 
I've bought and sold used to MPB, LCE, Camera Jungle (?) and Ffordes.

I had an (intermittent) duff lens from MPB a few years ago which was exchanged no issues.

I bought from Ffordes years ago and done a commission sale with them more recently - wouldn't deal with them again tbh.

I think LCE would be my first choice.
 
I've bought from MPB, WEX, LCE, Ffordes & Park and sold to MPB.

MPB have for the most part supplied stuff in good condition, though I did send one camera back.
I have sold/traded with them but only a couple of times as I generally find their offers poor.
I have looked at a number of items of equipment in stock recently and am really surprised at the grading - damage/faults on stuff marked "Excellent".
On the plus side it looks like their warranty has increased from 6 to 12 moths.

WEX I have bought a few items from with no problem until this week when I bought a camera body from Nottingham marked as "9+ mint".
It came with multiple very small marks (not really a problem) but also a scratch on the rear screen and two bad areas of paint-loss near a strap lug that had actually dug deep into the metal top plate! Definitely not within the terms of their own grading.

LCE I had a very bad experience with a guy in LCE Bath, extremely rude and dismissive but had a good experiernce with their Derby branch and Bristol branch is very helpful.
I had to send a camera back to Plymouth as it was in such a filthy condition

Park Just a couple of deals and no issues whatsoever, would deal again at any time.

Ffordes As for Park.
 
I think you will find mixed results.
I've bought one lens from them and 2 cameras all of which were perfectly fine.

On the other hand there are a number of threads here where members have not had just a good experience.

If you see something you like then I would buy it, you have a right to return it within 14 days for a full refund so you have nothing to loose but a bit of time.
 
I've bought a camera and 4 lenses recently from MPB and been pleased with the condition of all of them. I always do test shots with lenses as soon as I get them of course because their grading relates only to appearance.

I had one glitch, with a Nikon 16-35 FX lens. The included hood had both of the long petals sawn off! TBH I don't usually even take the hood out with me but I asked for a replacement hood, not wanting to return the whole caboodle, and they sent me one after an exchange of emails.
 
WEX were my shop of choice. They used to do 1 year warranty and 45 day returns.
Seems like they have changed them to 6 months and 30 days now
 
Bought a lens from MPB, advertised as excellent, no dust etc, in reality, huge boil of a blemish once you zoomed in.

Got a quote from them, laughable. But being fair, that’s what you’ll get from any trade in. They want their margin.
 
I generally tend not to buy used for the simple reason that the difference in price between an "excellent" used copy vs a new one is so small that I often decide to buy new for the peace of mind.

If there is a significant price difference between used and new, then it's likely the used version will have some issues that I'm not happy with.

Also, there is perception around what these words mean. I recently sold a 50mm f/1.8 Canon lens on eBay and described it as "excellent" with no cosmetic marks and a few specks of dust inside. My buyer wrote a lengthy ranty email to me blathering on about how his post processing techniques had to be adjusted for the "imperfections" and that my description was "woefully inaccurate". (This is on a £50 lens mind you). I wrote back saying that I didn't describe it as perfect which is what he was clearly expecting. The tl;dr version of that is that one person's "excellent" is another's "poor", so buyer (and seller) beware. Almost everywhere has a good return policy so it can just be sent back. Dealing with the disappointment though. Well that's a whole 'nother discussion... :)
 
Harlequin565 said:
I generally tend not to buy used for the simple reason that the difference in price between an "excellent" used copy vs a new one is so small that I often decide to buy new for the peace of mind.
Click to expand...
Some of us exist almost entirely with legacy lenses - new in that circumstance hardly being an option!
 
droj said:
Some of us exist almost entirely with legacy lenses - new in that circumstance hardly being an option!
Click to expand...
True, but given the list of shops the OP mentioned I didn't think they were talking about vintage stuff.
 
I've had no problems buying second hand lenses from WEX and MPB. Both companies were good. But did have a problem with MPB with them sending a mark I lens and not the mark II. It didn't go well with me because it was my first experience buying from them. More than happy with the lens though because it's a sharp copy. Bought the 100mm macro from WEX. No problems and great lens.
 
I prefer LCE the best, MPB the least.

I have had more problems with MPB, both buying and selling. WEX is good too but not enought experience to form an proper opinion.

My problem with MPB is their description never match real life, in fact, their own description on their site don't even match the photos on the very page.
 
LCE said a lens I was selling had mould and condensation, WEX gave me what they quoted for the same lens; go figure.

That said, LCE have always been pretty good when I'm buying stuff but then WEX has sold me second-hand stuff and it's been fine too.

I don't think any of them are inherently bad, but every now and again, something slips through; it's how they sort it out that's important.
 
I've had lenses from MPB, Wex, Ffordes, Cex, LCE and others. The only faulty lenses I had came from MPB, and fter the first copy didn't work it was returned and the replacement also didn't work too. I got refunded and bought another that was fine from Wex.
 
Mpb have became a victim of their own success....they turn over that much stuff that they have dropped the ball. I would now only ever use wex
 
Thank you guys for your input.
Reason why I asked was that i was wondering if for example MPB does rate the lens based on only visual appearance or also technical quality.
I did buy lens from all of those mentioned and always received items is good/as described condition, however for me being only an amateur photographer, in some situations it may have been impossible to judge if lens was lets say well centered, or had some slight issue with focus motor etc
I only hope that any of them test the equipment to the level where any even small issue would be caught and rejected. I would not like to have their lens for a year and after that time realise or learn that it has an issue but it was not "visible" for me all that time.
I only buy from Wex or MPB for their warranty, but like I said 6 months might not be enough for me to find a fault.
I like to buy lens here on our forum from you guys, especially when I see you are experienced photographers and I trust that you would not sell a crappy lens :)
How naive am I? :D
 
Last edited:
Bought and sold many items from MPB over the years (probably something in the region of 50 to 60 transactions) and never had an issue. Also a couple of second hand purchases through WEX and no problems there either.
 
I've used Wex (handy as they have two branches within an hour, in cities I visit often) to buy and sell, bought from MPB several times and Ffordes too. All good.
 
phinix said:
How naive am I?
Click to expand...
The truth is that whether one is buying new or used, one takes a punt. But imagine working in a dealer's checking used stock all day - wouldn't it make your brain go funny?

As consumers, we always need to be alert. It's when the fantasy turns into the nitty gritty.
 
I had only one problem with MPB: a lens that refused to talk to my Nikon D600. They sent a courier to pick it up and refunded the price in full.

Every other transaction has been most satisfactory, both buying and selling.
 
Yesterday afternoon (Sunday) I ordered a used lens from Wex. It was delivered by DPD this morning, in as-new condition even 5hough it was graded as being lower. Far better price than similar used lenses from MPB.

PS I haven’t had any bad experiences with MPB either, nor Park if it comes to that.
 
Last edited:
Harrison cameras are also good to buy from, they are very conservative about their descriptions, what is described as good was excellent.
 
Of those, I have only used MPB (and only once at that). I part exchanged a camera body for my current one, and to be fair it all went to plan. I initially requested the quote on my old body self assessed as 'Good', but after seeing what other examples they had for sale in that category, I asked them to bump it up to 'Excellent'. After I sent it in, it got quickly approved at that level. I then paid off the balance and my new (to me) body arrived a couple of days later :)

From what I've seen, there's been more than a fair few horror stories stemming from them though. Maybe I was very lucky.
 
I have had a rough time with buying used camera gear over the last 18 months from stores (no issues trading in mind). I bought an EF 70-200 F4L IS II from LCE which I had to return due to an intermittent communication error with the camera. I then bought a EF 70-200 F2.8L IS II from LCE which again I had to return as it was not sharp until stopped down considerably and performed worse than the f4 variant and the old EF 135mm F2L. I have then bought a Sony A9ii and an 85mm f1.8 from mpb recently and compared to an old A9/85mm combo that I owned in the past, this gear did not perform as expected so will be returning this week. And talking about the old A9, that had to be returned to Park (and then Sony) for repair as it was not focusing correctly.

I think I am done with buying used gear from stores; as someone mentioned earlier, they seem to grade gear based on cosmetic/initial functionality and perhaps don't really put the gear through their paces in terms of the actual results they produce. I have switched recently to buying new 'grey' gear as the differential in prices between UK used and 'grey' new makes it a no brainer. I also tend to have more success buying gear privately if careful and I have bought refurbished products from OEMs without issue (so far).
 
Last edited:
Just received a D90 body from Wex, correctly described as excellent, <4000 shutter actuations. Came with rear screen protector, charger, two batteries, (one of which won’t charge, but I was only expecting one anyway), and a strap. All well packaged. Ordered Sat am, arrived Mon.

All seems OK from a few test shots, will give it a better test at the weekend. I bought it as a cheap holiday body for a forthcoming trip. Had one years ago, so am familiar with it.

Overall, very happy so far..
 
I’ve only ever used MPB, mostly sales but I did transfer in a D80 (Years ago) and had no issues and the grading was fair.

Bought a few lenses, most expensive being a Nikon 300mm and it was better than it looked online.

Having said that, fair amount of horror stories.
 
I've had all sorts of things from Ffordes, Harrison cameras and West Yorkshire Cameras. All been fine. Think I've used LCE too. Not had any issues with any of them. Nik and Trick and Analogue Wonderland used them once each. Both fine.

Only faulty camera I had was the Canon one from Wilkinson cameras and they refunded in full.

MW classic cameras has been the only used seller that I have had proper issues with. They took the money and sent nothing, ignored emails but bank refunded in full immediately.
 
I've bought used gear from LCE, mpb, Wilkinsons, wex and park cameras. Never had a problem and generally found their descriptions accurate, maybe I'm just very lucky?

I've traded a few things in and had a lens rejected by Wex because they said it was faulty and the fault was uneconomical to repair.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top