:-) smiley

And the very first reply was from one I warned about. Enjoy your 30 pieces of silver. It has as much to do with photography as a post on where to get the best ingredients pertains to cooking!

I think you mean: item was rough and in such poor working condition, that for you it should be thrown out. But you might mean actual scrap metal, no glass, complete fraud. But I doubt it. I think there's something missing.

if you're' willing to toss out all the good points, eBay must be even that much worse!
Here is a true parable. I have a cousin who was ranting over Thanksgiving dinner how bad PayPal's security is.

PayPal has never been hacked to the loss of it's customers. They run a bug-bounty program that pays hackers to break PayPal's security, and then Paypal purchases the hacks, for anywhere between a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars.

But she lost all her money! She was through with Paypal! Well, there was more to the story! She gave her username and password to Paypal security, who called her, and informed her that the caller ID might not say Paypal, because they're having trouble with their phones. OH, the caller was in room 271 at Paypal security.

She figured it was legit, so she gave her user name and password to the guy. As instructed, she didn't try to log in for an hour or so. Then, her balance dropped to a few cents. She said, "It's not 'my' fault! They won't give me my money back! I'm through with them!"

Sometimes you need certain equipment for a job. Many use rental services. But it can be easier to buy used and then sell after you're done. For instance, a Nikkor 200-400 f4 might sell new for 7,000.00. Used, maybe 2,000.00. And, after you use it for a shoot, you can get the same 2,000.00 back. So, you'll lose shipping and eBay fees, about 225.00. I don't consider that out of the question to complete a job. But to do it ten times would be.

'Focal length' and 'focal point' distances are quoted from simple lens technology, because that is a bigger number. But it only corresponds to the relative size of a given image at a certain distance, as would be produced by a simple lens. So, there is no mathematical way for end users to calculate anything from the advertised focal length. But we always know the focal point is behind the rear element, or front element if one thinks of a telephoto as a reversed lens.

FishIng and photography are both perpetual occasions for hope. They seem similar, but phtography takes a lot more effort and work! With fishing, the fish do most of the work. I guess if one thinks about what all a camera does, it saves all the work of having a bird inside it to chisel the image in stone, like the Flintstone's camera.

But the photographer does most of the work. And lugging is no walk in the park either. I have a sore neck and shoulders after a day of shooting. Fishing is also more relaxing, requires less concentration, but it doesn't pay as well.

FishIng and photography are both perpetual occasions for hope. They seem similar, but phtography takes a lot more effort and work! With fishing, the fish do most of the work. I guess if one thinks about what all a camera does, it saves all the work of having a bird inside it to chisel the image in stone, like the Flintstone's camera.

But the photographer does most of the work. And lugging is no walk in the park either. I have a sore neck and shoulders after a day of shooting. Fishing is also more relaxing, requires less concentration, but it doesn't pay as well.

Any time I see anything about all the hassle getting money back for defective merchandise purchased on eBay.com, I know it's made up. When a thing doesn't work, you check a box, 'return this item'. You are shown a list of 15-20 reasons for the return, asked to check one, and to elaborate in short prose.

Then, you click, 'send message'. If the buyer checks the box that the item is defective, he is sent a shipping label to print, and he packs the item and ships it back. When the seller receives the return, the buyer gets a refund. The seller has nothing to do with it. Ebay handles all payments to sellers, AND all refunds. The refund comes directly from eBay.

So, there is less hassle with returning items on eBay--because of the free shipping labels--than almost any other marketplace. If the buyer chooses a reason like, 'found the item cheaper elsewhere', he pays the cost of the shipping label. But the rest works the same!

Even if an item says,

No returns, all sales final, as-is, no refunds',

if the item is listed as 'used' vs. 'For parts, not working', it is a statement that the item works as intended, regardless of what else is stipulated.

If it doesn't work, the buyer can return it for a full refund, including shipping both ways. Ebay has been around for 25 years, or so. I have ~5,300 transactions since 1998. I have never lost out on a purchase. It is safer than Amazon, because the feedback comments carry so much more weight.

In this day and age, not using a market the size of eBay for buying and selling photo gear is bull-headed intentional ignorance, or 'counterfeit elitism'!

I've become aware of ne'er-do-wells, such as Ken Rockwell, lying about purchasing on eBay. If fact, almost every used piece of camera gear on eBay is a steal of a deal. If it's not, don't buy it! B&H, Adorama, and the other NYC exchanges hate eBay with a passion, because it cuts so deep into their profits.

They will do anything, even resort to dishonesty--through third-party websites--to draw people away from eBay. Truth be told, if left to the truth, no one would buy of sell used equipment anywhere 'but' eBay! And, or course, all the NYC dealers sell on eBay, sometimes under assumed names, because the market is just so huge!

The seller gets the highest price, and the buyer gets the lowest price on eBay.com. Most items are listed as 'buy it now, or best offer'. That means no bidding, and if the buyer wants if for less than the asking price, he can make a 'best offer', which expires after 24 hours. If the seller excepts the best offer, the buyer is obligated to make the purchase.

In any event, if both buyer and seller agree to cancel a transaction, the seller can cancel it. I have never found an eBay seller who wanted to stick a buying with something the buyer didn't want. There are some items for auction, but only a few in high-end camera gear.

You just have to watch the seller feedback rating. Less than 99% is bad. Don't buy from them, unless the seller has a small number of transactions, with one negative feedback something like, "I got my item a day late!" That's just bad luck to get a buyer who leaves negative feedback for that!

And check the 'sold items' list for your search. That tells what similar items are selling for. A quick estimate of what I've saved buying on eBay.com yields at least $35,000.00, in camera gear alone. I'm not an eBay.com evangelist, but the truth is the truth! It bothers me when people keep getting ripped off by liars! Ebay is a $2.5 billion per year company. It can afford to refund the cost of your 600mm f4.

I had a transaction overseas. It was a big mess. To have the buyer send the item back and receive it again would double the customs duties. So, eBay refunded the buyer, and didn't charge me--the seller--anything. Problem solved. The buyer got his item for free, and I got paid! You just won't find that level of service and support anywhere but eBay.com. If anyone does, and shows me, I'll eat my shorts!

You can buy an adapter to use the old lenses. You don't have to upgrade. BUt the adapters are not ideal, and the new lenses have features not available in the old ones. The main thing is that you are able to purchase the new lenses. They're smaller, lighter, and faster than dslr lenses. \

It's like when VR came out in Nikon gear. If I purchased a new body, I didn't have to upgrade everything to VR.

I say the big 2 are just hedging their bets! The dslrs have been around for a while, and like film, will come to an end one day. Sensor and display technology are such that mirrorless is not only possible but even better. You can't make the finder image brighter with a mirror. But mirrorless can. And that is one of the greatest pluses.

But Mirrorless gets the lens closer to the sensor, permitting much smaller lenses with larger max aperature, than dslr lenses. There just doesn't seem to be any drawback to mirrorless, except price. If you're not a pro, I say, "Just hang on to what you have until you need new gear."

I haven't gone mirrorless. But the writing is on the wall! I will shortly. I'm just waiting for the technology to settle in a bit, because I like to get 5+ years out of a new set of gear. I think the coming generation from Nikon, whom I deem to have better thought out the transition than Canon, will be fairly stable, and perhaps by then use of dslr lenses will produce acceptable results.

But the whole idea is not to use huge, clunky, slow dslr lenses. Well, I really like some of the glass I currently own. So, parting with it might leave nail marks on the barrels! I particularly like my 300 f4 PF ED, which is the best of all worlds on a D8xx body. I even shoot pretty good macro with it!

I think Nikon and Canon are both conscious of offending owners who bear an emotional attachment to their expensive gear, and may not like to hear just yet that it's obsolete. And, it's really 'not' for a few years yet. But mirrorless is a powerful platform ready to be supercharged with increased computing power available in todays microprocessors.

10 years hence we'll look back and wonder what the big deal was! B&W > Color > manual focus > autofocus > Film > Digital > Dslr > Mirrorless > telepathic control directly though a plug-in camera <> brain inteface that records exactly what the eye sees with whatever enhancements, zoom, etc. that the user can thinking of!

Ok, so there might be some steps between those last 2, but not as many as one might think!

I've used Darktable a bit. I like that if you want a certain feature, you just put in a request, and suddenly it appears! It also has developers, some of whom are pro photogs! The algorithms used are the fastest and highest quality I've ever seen. Anything I've wanted to do takes 5-10 minutes to figure out. And open-source projects strive to be compatible with every other major player.

GIMP can use any PS brush, if it's a separate module. I think it will convert PS hotkeys. Darktable staff just requires a few RAW images, and they will add compatibility for any format. The list of compatible DSLRS is endless. I've also found the open-source projects get the best programmers in the world!

A team of Debian developers recently received a $2.5 million donation to developed a security framework. No one gets paid a salary or wages working on open-source, but they are the wealthiest programmers on earth's surface! For every Macintosh program there at least 100 Linux programs.

Debian, upon which Ubuntu, and 2,000 or so other Linux's are based, has included 57,000+ software packages available on downloadable DVDs, or online one at a time. It is rare that one can obtain anything of value without investment of money, but Linux is among the most valuable things in the world!

80% of Internet-connected devices run Linux! And about 75% of Internet servers run Linux. The Internet as we know it would not exist without Linux! Android is Linux in a java wrapper. Amazon Kindle is Linux. Linux runs on every computer, whether mainframe, supercomputer, smartwatch, router, PC; and Mac is just fancy window dressing on top of BSD UNIX, another open-source project with slightly different licensing than Linux, so Apple can sell it.

Cinellera is a movie-making program used on almost every motion picture. It only runs on Linux. If left to Adobe Premiere, it would require decades to finish a movie! But Linux can run on a thousand workstations all tied together. So, open-source is the premiere in software, from top to bottom!

Darktable and The GIMP are both available for MacOS. They're powerful and free. You can do as much or as little as you want. I've referred to the documentation perhaps 5 times in 10 years. It's pretty easy to figure it out from the menus.

Those both have irc channels to ask questions in real-time.

If color film would have come first, B&W would have never been.

I highly doubt the problem is the lens, unless it is defective. It's difficult to tell the difference between top-end lenses in this focal length simply by examining the images. I could scarcely notice any definite, materially significant differences in sharpness between the sigma and nikkor 24-85 compacts.
So, I would ask, do other lenses you own produce better results in terms of sharpness? Or do they all leave something to be desired?
I can shoot macro with a Nikkor 300 f4 P such that inside an insects mouth is clearly visible it's prey, in perfectly sharp imagery. But, I need 50-100 frames to get a good one. Autofocus does not always work, either. Sometimes it is visible in the finder, so you can tweak it. Other times it is not.

Camera shake is the most likely culprit. It's kind of like buying a new set of clubs to improve your golf game. Most people are willing to invest money. But you can't buy skill. You have to experiment, take mental notes, shed bad habits. I have noticed the best photos are the ones that require the greatest skill and planning.

If you examine photos by anyone offering paid courses in photography, you won't see what is behind them, an incredible amount of work! I usually plan 1/2 day for the simplest projects. I make sure I've got what I want before I pack up. That's the attitude you need: you are going to get the shots you want, no matter what!

No more, shucks, I didn't get what I wanted. But you need to be your own harshest critic. No one else will. When I began years ago, I wanted to shoot photos like a pro! And, in objectively viewing my work, I discovered how to do it. Then, I became a pro for a while. But once you start earning a living, it isn't fun anymore. It's work. And it's hard work!

So, I hope some of this helps. I have faith in you.

I don't want a camera that many owners want to get rid of. I want one that is scarce and costly on the used market.