What are your thoughts on Ebay?

RoJo

RoJo

Recently my company has hit a hiccup and now we have to buy a lot more gear than we attended on for our upcoming feature. We do not have the budget to buy all the gear new and we figured we cold save a decent amount of money by buying on Ebay.

Have others bought used gear before? Do you recommend using ebay for gear? Have you had problems with gear?

I just wanna check out some stories before i drop 2K on gear.
 
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you will find alot of used gera, and alot of new. Most of the new will be knockoffs, and some used could potentially be knockoffs as well. But sometimes knockoffs can end up works just as good.. or sometimes close. Sometimes they wont. research the seller before you commit to buying.
 
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What're you buying? I've purchased a lot through ebay. Some of it is good some of it is bad.

If you're buying used, and I've bought some, then buy used from reputable places. You'll pay a premium, but that'll ensure you don't receive a dud.

If you're buying lights or camera rigs, the Chinese knockoffs have gotten progressively better.

I've purchased used and new lenses from eBay. Haven't been disappointed. Check the "feedback" before you plunk down the cash. If you're purchasing an expensive item, read the feedback.
 
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instead of ebay i've found that amazon is a great to buy quality for a discounted price and also kijiji (if your canadian) or any other local classified website (craigslist) is also a good place to look since you can actually try the product before handing over money.
 
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The Camtree and Proaim stuff is pretty decent quality as well. Shipping will be a bear though, since it ships from India, but considering it ships halfway around the world it's reasonable and relatively quick.

Depends on what gear you're needing I guess.
 
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It doesn't matter which site you use if you are buying used gear, you need to research the seller thoroughly.

Keep in mind that, when buying new, the best price is not always the best deal. When buying new gear I always go with a reputable vendor, some of whom have sizable inventories of used gear. The reason to go with a reputable vendor is for the customer support. The bigger vendors have always been a great asset to me when resolving repair issues, and were an especial help when I needed duplicate receipts for insurance purposes when my studio was flooded in '07.
 
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I've had wonderful experiences with eBay - and Alcove is entirely correct - with any website you're buying used gear off of of, it's your job to research the seller to determine the validity of the sale. Usually, a very high rated seller on eBay isn't going to be selling you knockoffs.

eBay in recent years has gotten very good about buyer protection, and the program they have in place for it is very reassuring - Essentially, if a dilemma isn't fixed with the seller and yourself, eBay will step in and pay you if need be.

I buy an insane amount of vinyl and old music stuff on eBay, but I've also bought a lot of microphones for recording. I got a wonderful deal on some genuine Audix microphones I needed for vocals, and saved hundreds of dollars on them - I've also bought and sold items as large as expensive guitars - so I feel pretty confident in the service.

With that said, Amazon has some great used deals as well - I'd try to buy from Amazon Verified sellers, though.

There are some other sites sometimes worth checking out, too. I have a friend who shops around on Goodwill's online sales website and picks up cheap used electronics and instruments and resells them on eBay.
 
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Just be careful. I have bought and sold on ebay and never had an issue.

But always buy from sellers with excellent reputations.

To save money, use an auction sniper tool (do a google on: ebay auction sniper) - never get caught in a bidding war as they are always costly.
 
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