Avoid Cheap Junk on Ebay

[Sean Dixon]

To most of you, this will be a most interesting story. In late January I became very excited by the idea of cheap 35mm adapters on eBay. Besides, the wonderful Letus35 began here at these forums, at about 300 dollars I might add, and if you think about it, it really should cost that much to produce a quality 35mm lens adapter. Any who, I decided to take a chance and buy one of the cheap auctions on eBay for such a thing.

I am sorry I ever laid eyes on it. I was stupid to bid the first time, but I did, not on the one I won, but another. Damn you winning bidder and my lesson unlearned, it seemed so convenient for some bidder with zero wins with eBay to bid on my auction when many from the same seller existed at the same time. Skip to now, one day after the four weeks I was told it would ship I receive word, after a pay pal complaint that will NOT be taken back, that my item was being shipped. Yah!

I was so happy, but alas, my favorite DV forums, dvinfo.net, had a [ name removed ] as a user with multiple posts proud of a certain eBay adaptor. Wow, I am so lucky. But wait, when I posted to said users posts with my hopes of reviewing the cheap, eBay, hope adaptors, the post disappeared. But why? Perhaps fear.

I received it today, and to no real shock, was severely disappointed. Small case, not large enough for a cd sized ground glass, and a cheap piece of plastic not big enough to fill the case it was in. Cheap and terrible, that’s what I found. Don’t make my mistake. Letus35 is magic. I wish I had one, but I don’t. Sad college student must take the loss, for all involved, and report back to those concerned. I know I have very few posts. But I have been the fly on the wall for years now, 2004 for those interested, and I believe in these projects are the future.

[Chris Hurd]

Hi Sean, you can see I have edited your post quite a bit.

First, I'm sorry that you had to go through this experience. I usually try to discourage folks from using Ebay for anything other than collectibles or other rare items. When I find posts that pimp Ebay auctions, I generally try to remove them quickly, although it's harder to do these days with all the traffic we get. Dylan Couper wrote an excellent Ebay Buyer's Guide that is still one of our more popular articles here on DV Info Net, and it's full of tips for avoiding this type of situation.

Originally Posted by Sean Dixon

...my favorite DV forums, dvinfo.net, had a [ name removed ] as a user with multiple posts proud of a certain eBay adaptor... But wait, when I posted to said users posts with my hopes of reviewing the cheap, eBay, hope adaptors, the post disappeared. But why? Perhaps fear.

Not fear. Quality control.

The title of this thread originally was "The Ghost of [ banned member's name ]." I have changed that to "Avoid Cheap Junk on Ebay." I've also removed the Ebay item numbers, seller's name and contact info from your post. I don't want that on my site. I can understand that you feel a need to get the word out about your experience, but if you want to publish this person's contact info, you'll need to start a blog or something and put it on your site. I don't want it on mine. I'm very particular about DV Info Net and how it's used and what is posted to it.

A day or so ago I looked through that person's posting history here and my BS detector went to DefCon 5, thanks partly to a response you made to one of his threads. I made an evaluation and decided to kill that person's account and wipe his posting history (it wasn't much, just a handful of threads) off of this site. He is finished here, and your report here just confirms what I suspected and that I made the right decision. Like I said, this is about quality control. No I don't feel the need to warn everybody about who that person is, because I've taken this issue one step further and am making the general warning to "Avoid Cheap Junk on Ebay." It's not a question of whose cheap junk -- it's all cheap junk. Therefore no auction item numbers or seller ID's are needed. My message is simply "Avoid Cheap Junk on Ebay" and that is the official DV Info Net stance.

Again, I am sorry you had to go through that. There were a lot of warning signs on that auction. No refunds or exchanges, all sales final, extreme likelihood of spoofed positive feedback, name doesn't match name used here, etc. All hallmarks of cheap Ebay junk or a ripoff in the making. I'm hoping that there are other folks who will read about your experience and make the decision to Avoid Cheap Junk on Ebay.