Where to buy

abdabs

Suspended / Banned
Messages
371
Name
Jill
Edit My Images
Yes
Well I missed out on the pentax mx on eBay by £2 gutted I was sleeping. I'm going to keep glued to eBay but apart from here aswell where is a good place to buy used 35mm film cameras
 
Ffordes have a good selection and are very knowledgeable and reliable and have a good web site. If you can get to Manchester Real Cameras is an Aladdin's Cave of film cameras, I could quite happily camp there for a week.

Andy
 
Well I missed out on the pentax mx on eBay by £2 gutted I was sleeping. I'm going to keep glued to eBay but apart from here aswell where is a good place to buy used 35mm film cameras

Jill

dont know what it would be like posting to you but

just a ''note'' that I'll be putting up my Nikon F3 for sale this evening
with a 28mm Nikkor Lens

it's a ''classic'' film camera...in the meantime, have a read...''link''

john
 
Don't lose faith - many come and go regularly on fleabay, don't get flustered by missing one slightly, because another one will probably come along. Misspellings are always your friend as well!
 
In rhat topic, I swear eBay have incorporated a fuzzy spelling search lately. It's finding all sorts I wouldn't have expected before.
 
you could try www.rockycameras.com they have a massive range, or there are a few on the classifieds here at the moment
 
you could try www.rockycameras.com they have a massive range, or there are a few on the classifieds here at the moment


Before you try rocky cameras, just google their name, and read some of the horror story threads...

Not saying they dont sell some good kit, but it does seem that when things aren't quite right, their customer service isn't the best at smoothing problems out...

(is that tactful enough for "I wouldn't touch 'em with a bargepole personally!" ?)
 
Rocky Cameras: keep your expectations low, grade it yourself (the gradings are completely off) and be aware that sometimes it's not as cheap as some other places on the internet. With that in mind, you can get some good deals.
 
their customer service is pretty dire tbh, they didnt reply to my emails asking for a refund on a broken film back, but when i used paypal they came around quickly. ive found they are fine for non mechanical items and some mechanical items as long as you have a good long look at them
 
I'd also suggest Googling Rocky Cameras before using them.. I didn't, but I did get my cash back in a reasonable amount of time. "Tested" and "full working condition" turned out to mean nothing of the sort.
 
Last edited:
Before you try rocky cameras, just google their name, and read some of the horror story threads...

a ''mint'' UV filter had so many scuff marks it appeared to have been cleaned with a Brillo pad.......:shake:
 
I've been waiting for ten days for some stuff from them, and as has been said no response as of yet to my mail I sent last night. I'll leave it till 14 days after date of sale and start Paypal proceedings I think. I was sceptical to start with and wouldn't have bought from them other than with Paypal.
 
Don't wait too long, allow 2 working days for an email response and then file a Paypal dispute.. Rocky won't like it, but it's the way to keep all communications recorded and tracked by Paypal. It takes long enough for Paypal to process a dispute as it is, no point delaying it more than you have to.
 
Fair comment Alastair, I'll start it tonight.
 
You'll get an uppity comment from Rocky when he reads it.. but it's in Paypals Help/FAQ section that you should open a dispute promptly. The more disputes raised againt problem traders the more likely that Paypal will take some sort of preemptive action.
 
How can he be 'uppity' when he's trying to resolve a customer complaint?
 
I should perhaps post the transcripts of the dispute thread in a fresh topic. He's been civil up to now and if he carries on being that way then it might help his reputation.
 
Even if (....a big if ) he remains civil and pays you back everything he should---remember:-

One swallow does not a summer make......

If you're not already involved with him stay away from his warehouse of crap.....
 
Woo....

Thread from the dead time!!

Thread necromancy.. .. but Rocky does tend to create deep and lasting impressions with those unfortunate enough to have had dealings with him.
 
I'll definitely agree with that, hence my warning in #7 :lol: Crooked as a bucket of corkscrews operated by weasels!
 
Make sure you return it "signed for" ....and keep the paperwork.....good luck. There are those, so the old legends tell us, who have received a refund ....
 
I'm still awaiting a response after 2 weeks of contacting them about returning a lens which doesn't stop down at all despite it being advertised as stopping down correctly. I've opened a paypal dispute and sent him multiple messages saying I want to return it for a refund but still nothing...

I had heard that some of their stuff could be a little suspect but I never expected it to be this bad. Don't think I'll be using Rocky again unless the item is exceptionally rare, cheap or unbreakable!
 
I did get a refund from Paypal, but the Paypal dispute process takes a long time to conclude as they have fixed periods for response. Just keep track of progress on your Paypal account, make sure you respond when you're expected to, and keep all communications through the Paypal Resolution Centre.
  1. You raise it as a dispute for "significantly not as described" goods.
  2. Rocky refuses the refund on principle (the principle being he's a .. .. ..)
  3. Paypal escalates it to a Claim at Rocky's request (he has two options, pay or raise a Claim)
  4. Paypal review the incident (this is where it helps if you're polite and precise in all your communications through the Resolution Centre)
  5. Paypal tell you when to return your goods, they give a date that the goods have to be back with Rocky and tell you how it needs to be sent and how to put the tracking details onto the Resolution Centre
  6. Rocky confirms the goods have arrived (or there's a time period for him to report non-arrival, I'm not sure which)
  7. Paypal eventually refunds your payment
Oh, and Paypal don't actually tell you directly when the refund has actually been made.. you get the status update that thanking you for providing the tracking number and then sometime later you spot the money returning into your credit card. This is based on the correspondence I have in my Inbox from my own dispute over a RB67 with a naffed mirror box supplied with a 90mm Sekor with a naffed shutter. Both described as working and confirmed in an email query exchange before purchase.

Do everything through the Paypal Resolution Centre. Everything.
 
I did get a refund from Paypal, but the Paypal dispute process takes a long time to conclude as they have fixed periods for response. Just keep track of progress on your Paypal account, make sure you respond when you're expected to, and keep all communications through the Paypal Resolution Centre.
  1. You raise it as a dispute for "significantly not as described" goods.
  2. Rocky refuses the refund on principle (the principle being he's a .. .. ..)
  3. Paypal escalates it to a Claim at Rocky's request (he has two options, pay or raise a Claim)
  4. Paypal review the incident (this is where it helps if you're polite and precise in all your communications through the Resolution Centre)
  5. Paypal tell you when to return your goods, they give a date that the goods have to be back with Rocky and tell you how it needs to be sent and how to put the tracking details onto the Resolution Centre
  6. Rocky confirms the goods have arrived (or there's a time period for him to report non-arrival, I'm not sure which)
  7. Paypal eventually refunds your payment
Oh, and Paypal don't actually tell you directly when the refund has actually been made.. you get the status update that thanking you for providing the tracking number and then sometime later you spot the money returning into your credit card. This is based on the correspondence I have in my Inbox from my own dispute over a RB67 with a naffed mirror box supplied with a 90mm Sekor with a naffed shutter. Both described as working and confirmed in an email query exchange before purchase.

Do everything through the Paypal Resolution Centre. Everything.

Correct on all but point 6, there is no option to report the return as not received. You get 2 weeks to mark it as received and they'll return the money, or if you don't at the end they return the money anyway!
 
s162216

Don't bother with emails, you could send a thousand and he'd never get them. I've had to speak to him several times on the phone and he says his email provider (BT) has an over-zealous spam filter so basically none of your emails will ever show up.

Only way to do this is to ring him, there is a phone number on the site you can ring. Ring between 9-11am as he is pretty much guaranteed to be there at that time, the rest of day he's out buying/selling cameras. Phone him first before you go down the Paypal dispute route first, he is always happy to refund items from my experiences.

The main reason you don't see the top notch stuff on the site is that he doesn't sell it on the site, he has a list of collectors he sells to all over the world and makes most of his money from, he lives in a big house with a pool and drives an aston martin vanquish s. He also told me there's about 10-15 people who have written scripts that monitor his whole site for changes/updates and when it changes they get instant updates and the stuff is sold in minutes of going up.
 
s162216

Don't bother with emails, you could send a thousand and he'd never get them. I've had to speak to him several times on the phone and he says his email provider (BT) has an over-zealous spam filter so basically none of your emails will ever show up.

Only way to do this is to ring him, there is a phone number on the site you can ring. Ring between 9-11am as he is pretty much guaranteed to be there at that time, the rest of day he's out buying/selling cameras. Phone him first before you go down the Paypal dispute route first, he is always happy to refund items from my experiences.

The main reason you don't see the top notch stuff on the site is that he doesn't sell it on the site, he has a list of collectors he sells to all over the world and makes most of his money from, he lives in a big house with a pool and drives an aston martin vanquish s. He also told me there's about 10-15 people who have written scripts that monitor his whole site for changes/updates and when it changes they get instant updates and the stuff is sold in minutes of going up.

That last bit certainly bsounds about right, I check the newly updated list often and anything realy decent has already been sold by the time I get there. Still there are some good things lurking around on there, but an even larger collection of utter junk!
 
Bit late unfortunately - I opened the dispute nearly a week ago and still have yet to receive a response. I've got until the 6th to sort it out with him so if he doesn't reply by then I'll have to get Paypal to have a look at it I suppose.

I did try ringing twice as well as emailing before I opened the dispute but evidently I did it too late in the day!
 
but an even larger collection of utter junk!

There's a reason for that Alan, i sold him a load of stuff a few months ago so i got to meet him and have a friendly chat. I had all my stuff laid out so he could inspect it, and at one point he said something like (paraphrasing here), 'you see all this, a lot of buyers would come here, pick and choose the bits they want the most and leave you with the rest, i don't do that, i buy the lot regardless'. I would deduce from that the main reason there is so much junk vs. good stuff is that he buys pretty much everything and then lists it, he also didn't inspect the gear i sold him as much as i thought he would so i guess some stuff falls through the cracks that way as well. He said he's getting so much stuff this year he's going to have to rent another unit to store it in.

He's a nice enough bloke and knows a hell of a lot about camera gear, as you would expect from a dealer who has been in that business for 20 something years, and probably knows that a lot of the stuff on the site is junk or nerfed in some way, so has always been happy enough to refund defective stuff from my experience. I mentioned the time of day because i remember him saying he is pretty much guaranteed to be there between 9-11am (unless abroad on a buying trip) because it's the time of day he does all the packing and posting for the site, after 11am you'll be lucky to catch him on the phone it seems.
 
It would be better if he was honest about the junk.. most of the complaints (mine included) refer to items that have been specifically described and confirmed as functional, and when they arrive not even the most basic of checks has been done.

If he described that he lived in a big house with a pool and drove an Aston Martin.. then going by the accuracey of his sales descriptions I could quite well believe it would turn out to be a Robin Regal parked outside a council flat in Peckham.
 
i agree with Alan as well. some people don't mind the cameras aren't working but for my case, i was expecting something which is described as 'a working item,shutter firing correctly'. he should be honest to state that he is unsure about the performance/functions, then we can judge whether to risk to buy it or not. now is just wasting time on the refunding process and disappointment on top.

not everyone is free to phone him between 9-11am as we do have other commitments as well. surely a very bad experience shopping in there!!!
 
I've only bought from him once, a Vito CLR advertised as a "working item,shutter firing correctly". When it arrived the top plate was loose (screws missing), light meter was defunct, and it possessed the slowest, stickiest shutter I've ever seen.
I've kept the camera as a reminder to myself to never buy from him ever again.
 
If he described that he lived in a big house with a pool and drove an Aston Martin.. then going by the accuracey of his sales descriptions I could quite well believe it would turn out to be a Robin Regal parked outside a council flat in Peckham.

:lol::lol::lol:
 
I wasn't defending the quite obviously large amount of falsely described items (having received my fair share from him), i was only pointing out why a lot of it is junk and that finding time to make a phone call is easier than going through a paypal dispute.

Funny you should say that Alastair, when i met him he was dressed like he just walked out of a council flat, though when he pulled about 3 grand in £20's out of his pocket like it was chump change to count out my money from it, it was pretty obvious he didn't.

I would agree it's pretty ****** because if you aren't familiar with the quality level of the site you can get ****ed over easily.
Personally i generally only buy bits and pieces from it now, his prices for Cokin filters can't really be beat anywhere, i got a good 10 or so for the price you'd pay for 1 or 2 on ebay. I'd only buy simple cameras or cameras i wanted as ornaments from it now, the more expensive stuff over £100 is probably a safer buy as i would think he'd check the expensive stuff.

The motto for cheap stuff should be "sold as is".
 
The motto for cheap stuff should be "sold as is".

That should be his motto surely?

I've just had to send back a camera (not to him) for exactly the same reason, described as fully functional and arrived with all sorts of shutter/light meter related problems.
 
Its not just me then, I bought a Yash 50mm f1.9 from the bay and when I opened it up yesterday it was a Bell & Howell 2x teleconverter in a Yashca 50mm box. I contacted the seller and he blamed his m-in-l for putting it in the wrong box but he did say that he would try and get the person with the lens to swop and he would pay the postage or refund the money and I could keep the converter, which would be good as its a C/Y fit anyway.

Andy
 
Back
Top