Refurb?

[frogleg]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

Why are there so many refurbished cameras on eBay (and elsewhere, I
suppose)? Are they so prone to breakig that there are always thousands
being sent back to the manufacturer? This is not very
confidence-inspiring.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 20:37:33 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:

>Why are there so many refurbished cameras on eBay (and elsewhere, I
>suppose)? Are they so prone to breakig that there are always thousands
>being sent back to the manufacturer? This is not very
>confidence-inspiring.

Possibly but in the past a lot of people were trying out cameras and
then returning them. In fact it got so bad that my local Compusa and
other places were really really tight about accepting returns.

Similar to the restocking fee situation with PC parts. In the mid 90s
a Computer City opened up in my city , right before they were taken
over by Compusa. I used to go and there would long lines of people
returning stuff. The guy in front of me was returning a $3k notebook
and zip drive and other stuff he had used for a two weeks. When asked
what was wrong with it , he got indignant and said he just didnt like
it. And then he ran off to try some other stuff.

I also had a friend who was in college and was too poor to afford lots
of things so he would just buy them and try them out and ten return
them for a kick. Of course every place has restocking fees now so its
not worth it now.

Also cameras can be damaged fairly easily by dropping them etc. And if
there are no visible marks Im sure many people have returned them. I
returned a Toshiba once and was surprised they accepted it when I said
the battery cover latch broke. They accepted it no questions asked and
sent me a brand new one since it was a new model. There are lots of
reasons including legit ones.

I remember Oly 700 series zooms. The 2100 got rave reviews the one
with stabilzation. They all tended to be expensive the big zooms. When
the 700 came out it seems like a lot of people tried them and when
several reviews came out talking about the chromatic aberration
problem - seems like a lot of people returned it. At the time it
seemed like a few reviews made it seem like the new 700 series was
exceptionally bad but later I saw other cameras which were pointed out
to have moderate CA. I suddenly saw lots of 700 refurbs at various
places. But then they seemed to dry up after the other reviews pointed
out lots of cameras had moderate amounts of CA.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

Thanks for posting this.

I feel that these people you speak of, are morally bankrupt.

Some people have something I call character. Others don't.

Pj


On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 16:09:11 GMT, "John@Smith.com"
<xxxxspud@newscene.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 20:37:33 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
>>Why are there so many refurbished cameras on eBay (and elsewhere, I
>>suppose)? Are they so prone to breakig that there are always thousands
>>being sent back to the manufacturer? This is not very
>>confidence-inspiring.
>
>Possibly but in the past a lot of people were trying out cameras and
>then returning them. In fact it got so bad that my local Compusa and
>other places were really really tight about accepting returns.
>
>Similar to the restocking fee situation with PC parts. In the mid 90s
>a Computer City opened up in my city , right before they were taken
>over by Compusa. I used to go and there would long lines of people
>returning stuff. The guy in front of me was returning a $3k notebook
>and zip drive and other stuff he had used for a two weeks. When asked
>what was wrong with it , he got indignant and said he just didnt like
>it. And then he ran off to try some other stuff.
>
>I also had a friend who was in college and was too poor to afford lots
>of things so he would just buy them and try them out and ten return
>them for a kick. Of course every place has restocking fees now so its
>not worth it now.
>
>Also cameras can be damaged fairly easily by dropping them etc. And if
>there are no visible marks Im sure many people have returned them. I
>returned a Toshiba once and was surprised they accepted it when I said
>the battery cover latch broke. They accepted it no questions asked and
>sent me a brand new one since it was a new model. There are lots of
>reasons including legit ones.
>
>I remember Oly 700 series zooms. The 2100 got rave reviews the one
>with stabilzation. They all tended to be expensive the big zooms. When
>the 700 came out it seems like a lot of people tried them and when
>several reviews came out talking about the chromatic aberration
>problem - seems like a lot of people returned it. At the time it
>seemed like a few reviews made it seem like the new 700 series was
>exceptionally bad but later I saw other cameras which were pointed out
>to have moderate CA. I suddenly saw lots of 700 refurbs at various
>places. But then they seemed to dry up after the other reviews pointed
>out lots of cameras had moderate amounts of CA.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 20:37:33 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:

>Why are there so many refurbished cameras on eBay (and elsewhere, I
>suppose)? Are they so prone to breakig that there are always thousands
>being sent back to the manufacturer? This is not very
>confidence-inspiring.

Another thing if you are thinking about buying a refurb --- there are
various degrees of refurb quality obviously. The two big ones are some
come with a factory warranty but only for 90 days. You can often buy
these directly from the company like Oly which has an outlet store
online and they sell on ebay too in the past at least. And some of the
same type are sold through others.

Other refurbs have NO warranty whatsoever from the makers.
The refub sellers often offer you maybe two weeks to return it and a
warranty from some independant warranty company for a fee.

The ones that arent from the firm that makes it can really vary in
quality and in some cases can be damaged to some degree - scratches ,
knicks and outright fairly major damage. Ebay used to or maybe they
still do - sell of messes up cameras of varying degrees AS IS , some
entity which was called Crazy Mo used to offer a general description
on the state of the camera and then sell it off. I was surprised at
how high such cameras often went.

That made me wonder if DIY or camera shops were buying these junk
cameras and trying to fix them and then selling them off.

I bought a 4040 refurb which works fine , no functional problems but
it did look a bit used much more than a camera that was returned in
two weeks or so. There was a scatch on the LCD which is no big deal
since that model has a hard plastic cover on the LCD, didnt quite
have that factory fresh look and the threads in the bottom for the
mount were stripped and it looks like someone put some silicone in
there to possibly hold it on the tripod.

Thinking back on it I should have paid a bit more for a straight from
OLY refurb or a new one. I didnt save all that much - in typical Ebay
fashion , moronic bidders bid it up much too high. Now you can get
display models , clearance models and stuff on sale not to mention
refurbs really cheap so it may or may not be worh the risk.

I got an Oly display model 560 for 25 bucks and an Oly 750 for 200
recently. The rubber around the viewfinder is cracked though on the
Oly 700.

 

[frogleg]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

On Wed, 04 Aug 2004 18:51:52 GMT, "John@Smith.com"
<xxxxspud@newscene.com> wrote:

>On Mon, 02 Aug 2004 20:37:33 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
>>Why are there so many refurbished cameras on eBay (and elsewhere, I
>>suppose)?
>
> I was surprised at
>how high such ["as is"]cameras often went.

I went to a couple of nearby local stores and checked online sites of
stores with local outlets to get some general ideas. Then checked the
web for prices. Then eBay, where I looked at completed auctions. Now
I've decided on a max bid for an A60. The seller I think I'll go with
has sold a number of them (new) in the past few weeks -- some at up to
$160 in spite of also having the same model with a "buy now" listing
of $120. Auctions do funny things to people's thinking.

A manufacturer's refurb with a 90-day warrantee seems reasonable if
the price is right. I would be hopeful that the process might have
corrected common flaws of original manufacture.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 12:41:36 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:

>
>I went to a couple of nearby local stores and checked online sites of
>stores with local outlets to get some general ideas. Then checked the
>web for prices. Then eBay, where I looked at completed auctions. Now
>I've decided on a max bid for an A60. The seller I think I'll go with
>has sold a number of them (new) in the past few weeks -- some at up to
>$160 in spite of also having the same model with a "buy now" listing
>of $120. Auctions do funny things to people's thinking.

HA I know that experience. Thats why I hate Ebay ! Well on some things
you can get decent deals but many others - I often think the people
are insane. I saw the exact samething.

WHY !!???? Why do people bid up things PAST The avg retail price and
more insanely - past a "buy it now" price? Thats exactly what happened
when I bid on the oly 4040 and it was the last of the bunch so I didnt
want to wait until another batch if ever came up for auction so I
insanely kept bidding too but there were a string of buy it nows at
lower prices so I thought NO WAY would it sell above $XXX since they
were all sold within days of each other.

>A manufacturer's refurb with a 90-day warrantee seems reasonable if
>the price is right. I would be hopeful that the process might have
>corrected common flaws of original manufacture.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

Of the several models of dcams I have been watching over the last few
months, no decent cameras sell on eBay for less then the online retail price
from reputable dealers.

"John@Smith.com" <xxxxspud@newscene.com> wrote in message
news:ktbbh0lf0o6uidse08d4ese4a5rvhnl0lb@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 12:41:36 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >I went to a couple of nearby local stores and checked online sites of
> >stores with local outlets to get some general ideas. Then checked the
> >web for prices. Then eBay, where I looked at completed auctions. Now
> >I've decided on a max bid for an A60. The seller I think I'll go with
> >has sold a number of them (new) in the past few weeks -- some at up to
> >$160 in spite of also having the same model with a "buy now" listing
> >of $120. Auctions do funny things to people's thinking.
>
> HA I know that experience. Thats why I hate Ebay ! Well on some things
> you can get decent deals but many others - I often think the people
> are insane. I saw the exact samething.
>
> WHY !!???? Why do people bid up things PAST The avg retail price and
> more insanely - past a "buy it now" price? Thats exactly what happened
> when I bid on the oly 4040 and it was the last of the bunch so I didnt
> want to wait until another batch if ever came up for auction so I
> insanely kept bidding too but there were a string of buy it nows at
> lower prices so I thought NO WAY would it sell above $XXX since they
> were all sold within days of each other.
>
> >A manufacturer's refurb with a 90-day warrantee seems reasonable if
> >the price is right. I would be hopeful that the process might have
> >corrected common flaws of original manufacture.
>
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 10:54:26 -0400, "Gymmy Bob" <nospamming@bite.me>
wrote:

>Of the several models of dcams I have been watching over the last few
>months, no decent cameras sell on eBay for less then the online retail price
>from reputable dealers.

Yeah the really big discounts on the Olys I mentioned I got from one
of the OfficeSupply stores not Ebay.

It also annoys the heck out of you to sit see the usual top of the
line OLY or Canon for $20 - ha ha. Of course its 8 days before the
deadline. And of course you sit around for days and stay up for the
deadline and the bidding suddenly shoots up close to retail or beyond
- a total waste of time. Ive always said Ebay is great for sellers not
buyers for many things. Ive sold many items I couldnt pay anyone to
take around my area on Ebay.

 

[frogleg]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

On Sun, 08 Aug 2004 04:48:40 GMT, "John@Smith.com"
<xxxxspud@newscene.com> wrote:

>On Sat, 07 Aug 2004 12:41:36 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:
>
>>has sold a number of them (new) in the past few weeks -- some at up to
>>$160 in spite of also having the same model with a "buy now" listing
>>of $120. Auctions do funny things to people's thinking.
>
>WHY !!???? Why do people bid up things PAST The avg retail price and
>more insanely - past a "buy it now" price?

How come this never happens with things I *sell* on eBay?

As I said, auctions do funny things. I've been to some 'live' estate
sales and the same sort of thinking is evident.

OK. I did it. I 'buy now'd a refurbed Canon A60 w/ 90 day warrantee
for $120 incl. S&H. If any think this is a bad deal, please don't rain
on my parade. 🙂 They promised to ship today, so I may have it by
the end of the week. I am really tickled. I've gotten a lot of use
(and pleasure) from my brand Z point&shoot, and am hoping for better
pictures now, within the limits (considerable) of my photographic
ability.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.dcameras (More info?)

If it was to Evrope somewhere (advertised in the States) and by Western
Union money transfer, yov will never see anything.

"Frogleg" <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:cjqeh0511s3nlddep9sk0l1k103ieb2n19@4ax.com...
> On Svn, 08 Avg 2004 04:48:40 GMT, "John@Smith.com"
> <xxxxspvd@newscene.com> wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 07 Avg 2004 12:41:36 GMT, Frogleg <frogleg@nowhere.com> wrote:
> >
> >>has sold a nvmber of them (new) in the past few weeks -- some at vp to
> >>$160 in spite of also having the same model with a "bvy now" listing
> >>of $120. Avctions do fvnny things to people's thinking.
> >
> >WHY !!???? Why do people bid vp things PAST The avg retail price and
> >more insanely - past a "bvy it now" price?
>
> How come this never happens with things I *sell* on eBay?
>
> As I said, avctions do fvnny things. I've been to some 'live' estate
> sales and the same sort of thinking is evident.
>
> OK. I did it. I 'bvy now'd a refvrbed Canon A60 w/ 90 day warrantee
> for $120 incl. S&H. If any think this is a bad deal, please don't rain
> on my parade. 🙂 They promised to ship today, so I may have it by
> the end of the week. I am really tickled. I've gotten a lot of vse
> (and pleasvre) from my brand Z point&shoot, and am hoping for better
> pictvres now, within the limits (considerable) of my photographic
> ability.