UPDATE: Be Careful If you Are Selling on Ebay - I was almost just scammed out of my 300mm lens!

[lynx0069]

thanks for sharing that denise..........its not just ebay you have to watch out for, about 3 months ago i thought i found a great bargain on craigs list, for a 100-400 for $1200 canadian. his add said he was in toronto, so i send off an email to him asking for particulars on the lens.....i got an email back from him at 3 in the morning, he said he actually lived in vancouver, but was currently in africa on business, but would ship the lens fromeurope once i western unioned the moneyto him..........LMAO........i didnt even reply back to him.......

[canon-ball]

Lives in vancouver, but in africa on business will ship from europe? lol


hahaha best line ive heard in awhile.

[scalesusa]

Unfortunately, on craigslist there are lots of scams. Most are easily spotted. They depend on greed of the buyer to save a lot of money.


As long as you are able to meet the seller in a public place, and see or try it out, you only have to worry if it was stolen.


I've bought many cameras and lenses on our local Craigslist, and only had a couple of problems with (inexpensivelenses.) However, I am very careful now to check out lenses even more, particularly if I'm buying a high priced one.


Most of the time, I just buy lenses new, but occasionally, a neighbor or someone nearby lists one for a very good price and I jump on it.

[peety3]

And its not just the seller that gets taken in these scams either. Just last week, an engineer in my office purchased an awesome golf club at quite a good price. Turns out many other people did also ...from a seller who never shipped them or ever had them to begin with...he's says he got robbed on the way to the post office!

How was payment handled? I got scammed by somebody on Ebay who wouldn't take paypal (so I had to get a money order, which I mailed to them). He sent "2GB" memory cards which only showed up as 1GB. I shipped back for proper replacements, and never heard from the seller...closed the Ebay account and everything.


Two years later, after I'd deleted all of my email trails, someone from either Ebay or the Postal service asked for info, as they were pursuing the seller for mail fraud, a federal offense. That could be a great way to pursue someone...

[ddt0725]

I even put in the ad shipping in the US only, Paypal ONLY, shipped to registered paypal address only and that address would be verified!

The person probably doesn't even read the ads and just attacks any that have a substantial dollar value attached!

In both email requests for me to use a fedex label that they were going to send me...they signed off the email with "thank,s".