Ebamazon is now just chinaexpress for the masses....

Well got to to have an exciting headline haven't you but just so to not be accused of clickbaiting, here's why I think so....

Most of what you can buy is just junk, redressed or otherwise....It's not an auction, it's a marketplace for cheap shite, even if you buy from some 'UK' sellers, it's from knockoffland no matter how many Union Jack pics they post on the listing, one guarantee is if it has a flag, it's probably dropshipped, yes it still does happen, why would one need to declare where they're from if you're on Ebay.**.uk, maybe it's to do with it pretty much ignoring your search preferences anyway, shoving, expensive shipping and customs bollox in my face from our US cousins or MIC sellers pretending to be based in the UK, it's easy to buy an address here, plenty of easy fraud/scam/sell crap opportunities especially as EB don't give a flying f....!

And why can I get something delivered from Japan to the UK in 3 days but takes a fucking week or longer in the UK....

As I'm talking mostly about Camera or Music gear as that's my thing, there's only a few simple things to remember when buying from Ebay:

1: If it doesn't say it's genuine or has OEM packaging then it's a cheap knockoff, it won't fit properly, it won't last as long and your sending your money out of the country.

2: Find UK (Your Country) sellers that don't lie by omission, ones that genuinely don't test gear, one might think because a trader sells Cameras they know how to fix or diagnose things, they don't, some do and are honest about it but it only takes one purchase from a dodgy seller to know to stay away from, if you need to test a seller, then just buy something small but useful and see what arrives.

3: Keep an eye out for mislabeled listings, I've recently bought a 80-200 f4 AIS for £30 recently, listed as an AI lens but it was an AIS in the pics, it turned up and nothing wrong with it at all, clean, useable and collectable. (Collecting for some has nothing to do with value or cost!) and certainly cheap enough for what some think it is.

It's the best manual focus, general purpose telephoto zoom ever made by Nikon.

4: Always check the 'Sold' Listings for true selling values, the BIN price means nothing if it's overpriced, if it's what your happy to pay then they can be useful, especially for stuff that needs fixing as some sellers just want to get rid after listing it several times.

5: Use your own judgement and instinct, if it goes wrong, you can just blame yourself for 5 mins then move on, always take a learning experience from something that goes wrong so you don't do it again!

6: DO NOT take the sellers word for anything, it might turn out to be true but until you know or deal with them, they just want your money and they'll say anything to get it.

7: When buying Filters, if it doesn't say in the listing it's clear of marks, then any other inference 'No mentionable marks etc....' is BS and assume it isn't the quality you might expect, I always try and buy, opened, never used ones or when it clearly states it's unmarked, I won't be burned again, only took once. 'Cleaning marks are damage and cannot be removed'

Ok, now go waste your money on stuff you don;t really need. : )

Example:

The above is a junk lens that is neither FAST or suitable for most DSLR's as it won't work properly depending on system, it's a junk lens dressed up, in fact you wouldn't even use it on a film Camera as it's so shite....Jump on the bandwagon with using old lenses with cameras but it's not hard to find the proper way to do it and you won't see this crap on most anywhere, it's worth a £5 note, if anything.

You can pick up a 135mm 2.8/3.5 Nikon if you don't mind it a bit rough or a nice Vivitar for the same money as above, don't buy this crap unless you are the person it's aimed at....DUH!,

Don't believe me, just look on EB's Sold Listings, as described in another spiel, the BIN Prices are mostly just normal retail SH, or exagerated used priced from the highest last sold price, regardless that most are lower if by Auction. There are exceptions as depending on what you are looking for, or need something quickly and in budget, I've never paid the 'normal' SH price for a lot of my equipment, one of my weirdest finds was a few months ago, we were somewhere we rarely go to, I only saw the item as I walked past the shop, it had double doors, both open and I glimpsed it, in the display cabinate, just out of curiosity I went in and saw it was labelled as a Behringer Device, priced at £99, unbelievably what it was, is a Black, Beatstep Pro, eh!

So I took it to the counter, to be expecting it to be noticed as it's so obvious, if you know what one looks like of course, what it is and also there's the big white logo along the back to match the ARTURIA one on the front, what is going on, is what I actually thought, the memory is so distinct as it shouldn't have been happening, when was my luck about to crash like Bonzo's career, some electronic passing of 0's and 1's later, it joined my massive smile, if it didn't work, 12 Month Warranty, take it back next day, so sometimes it's timing or patience I've found is the best way to pay, what I consider fair prices for what I buy, there are different levels of value though so that's up to you to decide

And before anyone gets ready to saddle up, I paid what I thought it was worth to me, the shop still made a profit on the ticket price, I got a good deal, they made space for more stock also, it happens, just don't take the piss and you'll sleep better.

Think there's already enough said about Amazon for me to add to the known, when you can buy fake goods from, probably one of the worlds most used online retailers, EB as well, it's about time to change your search engine, I did once see some Silicon Grease online for £14, when I paid £3.99 for the same one, from the same EB stores bricks ad mortar shop, 10 mins from my house, online is convenient, more expensive than you think, lazy and you see the same poop if you don't search for alternative sources, some High Street Shops have websites, but it's time consuming and the stock changes less often unlike the junk conveyor ebelt.