olemikey wrote:
I have bought fine used equipment, appropriately graded by the vendor, from the following (MPB, KEH, UsedPhotoPro-Roberts, Adorama, B&H, Cameta) and have heard good about Hunt's and Samy's. The items from MPB have been spotless, and appeared either unused, or (if camera body) you could only tell by shutter count, all the rest have been good vendors, and the merchandise has been excellent, and I feel the grading was honest.
I am a very picky buyer, so it all has to line up and check the right boxes, or I go elsewhere. If I ever decide to re-sell an item, I want to be in possesion of the best example I could find, appropriate to $$ invested.
For camera bodies - Some do provide shutter count, some do not, my money usually goes where the information, pictures and shutter count are provided, Note - I've sent none back. With camera bodies, I want to know everything prior to shipment, I don't want to find out the fine looking camera has 50K shutter count, when I could buy a "hardly used" version for similar money from another vendor.
Lenses - I've bought from all above, only returned one to KEH as it was just as bad as they described (I had hope for it), but issues with AF and VR - shake, rattle and roll, all the time.....it would have been a good manual lens, but was costly to repair, requires laser equipment to properly re-set. In each case the re-seller has provided accurate description, but some do tell you more, and I want to know the whole deal, no surprises.
I do buy used from Ebay and even here on UHH, No bad experiences on UHH, several on Ebay, but all were resolved by either the vendor or Ebay, to my satisfaction.
My $.02
I have bought fine used equipment, appropriately g... (
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Seems I have met someone who changes equipment as much as I do, or more! Technology advancements are so rapid and my own interests have evolved so much that I change my setup every couple years and always have two camera bodies plus about three or more lenses at any given time. That may not sound like a lot but I only do photography for a few weeks out of the year when I travel out West.
Thanks for sharing your experiences, olemikey.