A new E**y experience with a lens!

[Steven Tribe]

A nice protar series IIIa 172mm arrived to-day. Very clean. At least some of it arrived. Someone, not the seller, had decided long ago to take out the cells. These were presumeably lost, but the next owner decided to make his own. Two carefully ground pieces of "window" glass were installed in approximately correct position - with pressure split rings. Unbelievably, it does produce some kind of image - at 45cm! It took half an hour for the seller to agree to a return - so he may have had his doubts. Any similar experience with modified optics out there?

[c.d.ewen]

Just lived through a horror story. Low-balled an 18" Graf Super Anastigmat, and got it for $24.50. The auction was an 'as is', 'no return' deal. When I received the lens, I was astonished to discover one of the internal air-spaced elements missing. I complained to the sellers (married couple), who rudely told me to take a leap, as the element was there when it shipped (the husband was a professional photographer).

Much sturm und drang followed, with lots of SHOUTING on the sellers' part, particularly after I left negative feedback. Being an old eBayer, I knew there was a special policy regarding missing/defecive parts - the buyer is entitled to a full refund, including shipping charges. I filed a grievance and collected the full refund.

The sellers were still extremely bitter, absolutely convinced that I had run some sort of scam. Having a clue to their real identities, I did some research and found that they were quite ordinary, church-going mid-Westerners. They weren't crooks, only mistaken somehow. I decided that the way for me to better about the whole experience was to do something unusual: I sent them $100 via Paypal, and asked them to donate it to charity. "Gobsmacked" does not describe their reaction.

Bottom line: they figured out a malevolent third party, motivated by jealousy, had removed the element. I retracted the negative feedback.

Charley

[goamules]

I've had very few problems with lenses on OhBoy. Some of the the ones that started out bad, like a missing part, turned out good like above. One seller didn't know there was a stuck iris in the old barrel lens (also an early Protar, Steven), and I forgot to ask. When I mentioned it after arrival, she apologized and sent me a "gift" for my trouble, which ended up being a nice old Wollensak shutter.

Now there are a couple of sellers that I avoid, having been burned and then no attempt to work it out by the seller. There are a couple that are notorious for misrepresenting things, and yet maintain 99.9% good feedback. It galls....

[domaz]

My worst one was ordering a Jobo. It tooks much longer than usual for the item to arrive- even though a tracking number was issued and checked out. Turns out the seller shipped the Jobo with the bottles still full of E-6 juice. The box almost broke apart because of leakage. Luckily everything did work in the end, but I pity the poor postal workers who had to handle that package.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

I bought a lens, but received a car part. Seller claims he mailed the lens, and that someone in USPS switched it. Yeah, right. Unfortunately it was not ebay, and I had no recourse but to swallow my loss and harbor bad faith.

[Steven Tribe]

The seller in my case was a major German actor on the scene - only photographic and with 5200 transactions! While I don't have a collection of "historic non-user optics" I have started a small collection of "blind" brass bodies. There is something (for me anyway) intrinsically attractive and interesting about these, very different, pieces of brass workmanship.
I proposed another price for the body alone - as the way to get out of a deal (the postage /feedback question) is long and messy. But no, he wants it returned. Of course, I'll be looking out for a relisting.