Another questionable eBay listing

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3416
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Another questionable eBay listing

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Actually, two.

I can't seem to find the listing now, but you might have seen the listing for Rayfact 3.5x lenses a few days ago. The seller listed 5 available for ~$2200 each. A day or two later the listing disappeared, with reason that the lenses were lost or damaged. I suppose the seller could have made a deal to sell all 5. Anyone on here buy five RF3p5x lenses?

In separate listings, a seller in the Czech Republic has three 105mm Apo-EL-Nikkors for sale. Old style, all in boxes. They are all ~$2400, with slightly different pricing since eBay won't allow multiple listings of the same item at same price. Problem is the seller listed the serial number of the lens in the title, and all three listings have same serial number! Here is a link to one of the listings:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nikon-Apo-EL-N ... 2372861790

Could be honest mistake, and they were just lazy, or they might have thought the serial number was part of the model number and actually only have one lens for sale, listed 3 times. I have contacted the seller asking for the serial numbers of the "other two" lenses. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, caveat emptor.

dickb
Posts: 342
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:54 am

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by dickb »

It is not an honest mistake. It is intentionally offering the same item for sale as three different sellers, as Leica Post (aka Photo Vision in Prague), as Cam Express (aka Camera Express in Slovakia) and as EU Tradefactor (aka Tradefactor s.r.o. in Slovakia). They all claim the item is currently located in Prague, Czech republic. Exactly how dishonest this is I can't say for certain, they are likely to claim it is just for adding exposure to their item, but is not credible that this was done by mistake. They seem to do so with multiple high priced items, I see at least an expensive Apo Lanthar 300mm offered the same way at all three sellers.

Troels
Posts: 600
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2016 11:06 am
Location: Denmark, Engesvang
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Troels »

I don't know the sellers actual motivation. But I think this strategy could make an innocent buyer believe that since three different shops demand almost the same price it must reflect the generel accepted market value of the actual item.

Of course this strategy would only work for legendary items rarely offered for sale.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

Lou Jost
Posts: 5947
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Lou Jost »

I wondered about thatRayfact listing. When I saw it, there were six available.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3416
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Lou Jost wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 11:01 am
I wondered about thatRayfact listing. When I saw it, there were six available.
When it showed 5 available, it didn't say 1 sold, so he must have changed the qty to 5 at some point.

I wrote down the serial number of the one shown in the picture...200354. Mine is 200360. Jonathan has one as well. I will PM him to see what his serial number is. I suspect it might be 200354 and they were using old images, but perhaps we are talking about a third example.

Lou Jost
Posts: 5947
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Lou Jost »

Maybe I am mis-remembering. Scary dishonesty in any case.

Macro_Cosmos
Posts: 1511
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

200354?
Yeah it's a stolen listing. Jonathan has that one.

These people will keep doing this kind of stuff as long as we and many other people in relevant industries provide them with fuel.
Worst case for us is several days of interest and annoyance, but refund from ebay. For companies working on crucial stuff though maybe needing a part to repair a discontinued machine, a week's worth of mess/non-shipment could be several tens of thousands gone. The negative comments these people get says it all.

There's a seller called Chendata, he sells this stuff at a markup too (nothing wrong here), and he at least tests them and has the actual item in his hands.
Last edited by Macro_Cosmos on Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3416
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Macro_Cosmos wrote:
Wed Sep 02, 2020 12:38 pm
200354?
Yeah it's a stolen listing. Jonathan has that one.
That's what I thought, thanks for confirming.

Lou Jost
Posts: 5947
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Lou Jost »

I've bought something from Chendata, and it was in great condition. He also seems knowledgable. But there is something a little dishonest (perhaps not intentionally) about many of his listings. For example, he is currently selling a Linos 608 lens which he more or less claims is an industrial variant of the Rodenstock 150mm apo-Sironar Digital. But his evidence for this is quite weak. Some of his other items are "guessed" IDs. And he currently has a Magnagon "f/1.4" lens jejjee.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3416
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by ray_parkhurst »

I too have bought from Chendata with good results. He's an excellent packager, very secure but not over the top. Did you remember that the 3.5x was being sold by him? I can't find a link to the closed auction to verify.

Lou Jost
Posts: 5947
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Lou Jost »

Yes I do remember that. I recall the price was good.

Macro_Cosmos
Posts: 1511
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2018 9:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Macro_Cosmos »

I don't think he ever sold 3.5x RFs, there's only 2 I know of, Ray has one, John has the second.

Chendata did recently sell some Macro Varons at really good prices. With this silly virus spinning around and grim future prospects, I might do something similar. I have a setup that allows me to quickly test optical performance, needs some improvement currently. I want to be able to test decentering without spending more than an hour.

Once that's up, I'll probably buy lots of stuff from China, test them, and offer them for sale. Chendata sold a 1x lens he called "16k line-scanner", it's an old 8k reproduction lens. Still $299 isn't bad for an 8k repro lens I must say. I try to avoid overhyping stuff.

Lou Jost
Posts: 5947
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by Lou Jost »

Chendata sold a 1x lens he called "16k line-scanner", it's an old 8k reproduction lens.


Yes, that's the kind of thing I was talking about above with respect to Chendata. Decent stuff but not carefully described.

I think he did sell the 3.5x Rayfact but did not say it was 3.5x. I think I had to look up the model number. May have been a slightly different one....I did not pay much attention to it.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3416
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by ray_parkhurst »

Lou Jost wrote:
Thu Sep 03, 2020 5:59 am
Chendata sold a 1x lens he called "16k line-scanner", it's an old 8k reproduction lens.


Yes, that's the kind of thing I was talking about above with respect to Chendata. Decent stuff but not carefully described.

I think he did sell the 3.5x Rayfact but did not say it was 3.5x. I think I had to look up the model number. May have been a slightly different one....I did not pay much attention to it.
Yes, he often has interesting stuff. The "16k" 1x lens was only f4 though so I did not pursue it.

I too only saw the RF3p5x when I started up a search for actual Rayfact part numbers rather than descriptions.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3416
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Re: Another questionable eBay listing

Post by ray_parkhurst »

I just received reply from the seller of the 105 Apo lens:

" Hello,

this is the same lens listed on Ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr "

So the multiple listings were intentional and there is just one lens as expected.

I guess they just ignored the global nature of eBay .

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic