Schneider seller

[Herb Cunningham]

there is a guy on ebay selling new Schneider G Claron 355 lenses, ebay # 7520395498, who says he has 30 to sell. Anybody know anything about him or how one comes into 30 new lenses?
I guess I have a suspicious nature

[David G. Gagnon]

I see that his only feedback rating was left by Jim Galli, a regular contributor to this forum. It was on a sale of the same model lens, so the seller must be legit, or at least he was one time ;-)

DG

[Geary Lyons]

Actually, at least Two! Jim and I did a mini-group purchase. The lenses we received were as represented, promptly shipped and well packaged!

Cheers,
Geary

[Daniel Grenier]

Geary;

Can these be directly mounted in Copal 3 or are they of the older style that need special fittings?

Thanks for the info.

[Neal Shields]

If this person is legit, he is leaving a LOT of money on the table, as people like me (over 100 e-bay transactions) wouldn't even think about bidding on something this expensive when the seller has only 1 positive feedback.

He would be much better off to let one of the Ebay selling services sell these lenses for him and build up his feed back slowly with less expensive product.

I have NEVER had a bad Ebay transaction including buying my Deardorff V-8 , but I have never let greed get the better of me.

[Mike Schiller]

Neal:

First off, if you've never ad a bad eBay transaction, that just means you haven't had enough yet, wait, it'll happen! :( As for not buying from somebody with low feedback, hey, everyone has to get started somewhere. If a new car dealer opened up in your town, would you wait 5 years to make sure they were good before buying a car from them?

It sounds like this guy is legit, and quite frankly, while he might get a slightly higher selling price going to an eBay selling service, I'll bet overall he's making more money this way, don't forget, those services get a fairly nice sized commission for selling! And from what I've seen of some of them, they haven't a clue what they're selling, so can't/don't describe their items properly, which could mean again not getting top dollar for the item. Heck eBay is a gamble, for both buyers, and sellers, if you don't want to gamble, don't go to the casino!

Having said all that, I'm an active buyer and seller on eBay (if only I could manage to sell more than I buy!), and I've had great experiences doing both, and I've been burned doing both. I've even had a bad sale turn into something fairly good in a roundabout sort of way, but it's a long story.

[Herb Cunningham]

I got in touch with the guy and got a lens from him. He is quite legit, and was quick to ship. The lens is as advertised, in like new or new condition, does not have a mark on it, and I'm happy.

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

If this is the eBay seller jayk72 (which it appears to be), based on my experience I strongly recommend avoiding him at all costs. He must have run out of good G Clarons, because the one he sent me was a piece of junk. It had several large splotches, and many small ones, of what appeared to be fungus on the front element (I did not try to clean it, lest I be accused of damaging the lens by improper cleaning). It also had one of the worst cases of "Shneideritis" I have ever seen - both front and rear.

In addition to the fact that the seller was extremely slow to ship, he has completely ignored all my emails, both before and after I got the defective lens. I sent it back for a refund, which I have not received. I filed a complaint with PayPal, which he also ignored. I eventually got a partial refund from PayPal ($175, which is their $200 buyer protection minus a $25 processing fee) , but am still out $80 plus the cost of return shipping. Not a huge sum of cash, but it's the principle of the matter. As a last resort, I tried to call him using the contact information I got from PayPal. After repeated attempts to get ahold of him, he finally called back and told me the refund had been issued to my PayPal acount (I wasn't near a computer when he called back, so I could not verify). Of course, there was no such refund. I'm still waiting, but not holding my breath. Given this guy's behavior, I doubt if I'll ever see another penny of my money back.

Sorry to vent, but I remembered this thread and read it thoroughly before attempting to by a lens from this seller. I just wanted everyone to know his performance as a seller, and the quality of his lenses, has taken a nosedive since the ealier postings in this thread. Here's a summary of his last three feedbacks:

Some issues were quickly corrected to my full satisfaction. Top notch ebayer. A+

++++Nice lens, shipping a little slow, otherwise good, thanks!++++

Item as described (new), but very slow shipping and poor communication.

And, now my problems. Anyone else notice a trend here?

Anyway, if you are thinking of buying a G Claron from eBay seller jayk72, buyer beware!

Kerry