Buying From Ebay

[Shaun]

I know we say don't buy scopes from ebay but i have noticed on the US Ebay site some nice scopes at good prices, can anyone tell me some of the things to lookout for if i decided to get one of these scopes?

I guess the long distance it has to travel and the normal ebay warnings would apply but what else id different with US scopes.

[koputai (Jason)]

Doesn't the light diverge instead of converge because we're in the Southern Hemisphere? I think you have to look into the big end.
Other than issues of not being sure of the condition the item is in, and the possiblity of damage during shipping, I don't see any problem. You may get what you're after, you may even get a bargain, but you may also get a dog.
It can be worth it, a few years ago I bought a sonar system off Ebay from a guy in the USA. Sending over $10k to someone I didn't know was a bit nerve wracking, but it turned out perfect, and I got it for 20% of the normal price!
There being no local agent here negated the usual warranty issue that you get with self-imported goods.

Cheers,
Jason.

[Shaun]

Yes i understand most of the pitfalls from buying overseas and ebay but the things i need to know like i have to check eyepiece as i know they use 0.96" over there on some scopes and if i got a goto will it have southern hemisphere stars, i could use square trade if the item is in the thousands and shipping will be a big part of it, just as an example i could buy an ex demo Meade ETX-125ec for about us$500 plust pastage they are $1700 here even if the shipping was us$250 with excange rate thats about $850 thats half the cost.

[space oddity]

Do note, there are many scams with expensive items on ebay. Always go right through the seller's profile. Feedback is sometimes manipulated- lots of newbie "buyers". Check the sort of things the seller sells, I have seen a number of times where an ebay identity has been hijacked - they will take the money, the person who has had their identity hijacked is left with the negative feedback. Sometimes the item loction is different from all the others. Large numbers of expensive items on sale at the same time also should raise suspicion. Some of the more low tech crims copy legitimate seller's piccies. China? scam capital of the world. Eastern europe, Africa, Indonesia not much better. Remember the golden rule- if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Also beware of fake "second chance" offers. it is easy for scammers to send these saying the winning bidder fell through with the sale. I have had a couple of successful second chance transactions- by pickup. One very expensive piece of professional gear I bid on I received 4 separate fake second chance offers from 4 potential scammers! By the same token, I have had some great purchases from the US of A on Ebay eg my Fujinon 16 x 70s (US $400 beats the heck out of $AUS 2k)and some nice meteorite specimens amongst others.

[Shaun]

Aside from all the fraud on ebay,i am aware of this i buy from there all the time what i realy need to know is are there scopes very different from what we buy here and can they be used ok or do they need modifications.

[citivolus (Ric)]

About the only modifications I can think of would be (a) if it came with a polar scope that only had markings for the Northern Hemisphere, or (b) if it came with a power supply/battery charger limited to 120V power. I grew up in Canada and moved here 3 years ago, and honestly can't think of anything else you will run into, other than "amero-centric" manuals, but you'll get that on equipment purchased here as well.

Software versions on goto scopes will be the same, no worries there.

0.965 eyepieces are I think a thing of the past, as long as you stay away from department store refractors, which wouldn't be worth importing anyway.

When I lived in California, I sold an LX200 8" via eBay to a guy in Spain. It was about $450 to ship, but he claimed it was still $1000 cheaper than he could buy it locally. In any case, be careful of how much the shipping is, and how well the shipper will be packaging it. I wouldn't buy something from a person who had never shipped delicate equipment overseas before.

[Shaun]

Thanks for that, thats the info i wanted.

[mlcolbert]

Shaun, the other thing to do would be to check out the website
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/index.php?Cat=0

the guys there are usually pretty much on the ball when it comes to possible / probable scams for instruments as well.

Maybe you could get detailed information such as differences in production runs and performance etc.

Worth a try at least and the guys there are just as friendly and knowledgeable as people here.


michael