having talked w/ the seller a couple times now all is well it seems. he said he is totally unfamiliar w/ 4x5 & never took the lens off the camera he got w/ it @ a garage sale for $25, w/ the intent of reselling it for some profit. it is a very noticeable scratch though, but he is very polite & concerned, & i will run sheets thru it & if unaffected will keep the lens w/ 50% of the purchase price returned. if images are affected i will return it for full refund.
It is doubtful that you will be able to tell of any effect. Be cautious.... If you are concerned of the results, get rid of it. Your bias about the lens will affect you more than test results will.
The 90 days are just a minimum. It can be more. I carried out a little search and found the seller's business phone! He promised he would pay wihin the next 3 days, but the tone of his voice said I could count on it and go out pick daysies. I'm waiting a few days and will continue bothering him on the phone if he does not, or contact the Dispute Resolution services. Thanks for your advices!
I admire the toughness of this crowd. I hope everyone is as tough on themselves when they are the seller. Buying long distance is an inexact science; even buying at a camera show is. When I have bought directly from dealers, I wasn't so sure that the same dynamic bemoaned here also didn't apply-equipment kind of is dispatched out to buyers-settling finally with the person satisifed with value for dollar; too fatigued to return it; whatever. Even brand new equipment isn't flawless; how can used stuff be???
Mr. Stein makes some good points. My theory on how to view claims of condition is this: the rating of goods by the seller is, with limitations, inversely proportional to the rating of the same goods by the buyer. That is, the seller of an item, in the context of his actual awareness of its condition, will praise and "embellish" its condition as much as he thinks possible (sometimes resulting in outright lies); meanwhile, the buyer of that same item, again within the context of his actual awareness of its condition (which is, on eBay, often greater than the seller's), will scrutinize and "embellish" its condition as much as possible (sometimes resulting in simply being a jerk). Incidentally, it is my experience that this occurs with sales of used equipment of all types in any venue, not simply online auctions.
Occasionally I've found that the opposite is true; KEH deals with a great deal of used equipment, and they tend to be ultra-conservative in their rating system-- what others might (rightly) call EX+, KEH will call EX. This is frustrating as a seller-- they won't offer nearly as much for good gear-- but great as a buyer. I regularly buy gear from them listed in "Bargain" condition that I find to be very good user gear.
When I sell, I try to put as much information about condition as I can in my ads, and I'm sure to list it as "user grade"-- there is nothing that I own simply for the sake of collection, so I try to be upfront about that fact. I wish I could hope the same for other sellers. Perhaps the "Large Format Forum" could develop a "known sellers list" of folks who are willing to commit to a full-disclosure, non-embellishment attitude towards equipment sales. What a service that would be!
Don't by ANYTHING from anyone who says somewhere in their description "I don't know much about this stuff but....." no matter how many positive feedbacks they have. They are either garage resalers or dumpster divers and you are buying a pig in a poke. There are hundreds of sellers of camera equipment on ebay who are knowledgeable and honest. Like Midwest Photo Exchange.
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