The danger of Ebay

[jp]

I went on Ebay to look at closed auctions to see what an old 100' spool of 35mm tmx goes for.

I searched for "Kodak Expired" in the current auctions to be thorough.

A few days later, I have a 42 pound 50m x 1m roll of Kodak fixed grade rc paper show up at my place for not much money. Looks like I'll have to do some paper negatives now. And may be some big paper negatives after I get 8x10 paper negatives figured out.

[vinny]

a couple years ago I was selling my long expired plus-x (1988) for more than fresh stuff was going for. go figure.
I occasionally check ebay for drum scanners. Now I own two of them for less than the price of my epson flatbed.

[Ari]

People knock it a lot around here, but it's been invaluable to me, at least for the smaller stuff.
And thank God the Chinese are producing LF parts!

[cyrus]

I often wonder what we would do without Ebay! 99% of my photo gear is from ebay. I've gotten slightly ripped off two or three times out of at least a thousand purchases over the years.

[Bill Burk]

Ari, I don't think jp498 was complaining at all, except that now there's a new project on his plate. vinny, I thought all the drum scanner auctions were scams.

[Kuzano]

My current account with eBay opened in February 2003. It's been an enjoyable and fruitful experience. I use the account to generate income, aside from finding items to buy. While I only have 382 feedback at present (I had another 109 on a previous account), I am happy with my experience. I am riding the 100% positive feedback train, and all the work to keep it at 100% has been worth the effort.

Happy enough to develop and teach a class for eBay at the community college where I was already a Community Education Instructor in computer classes.

Why the class? Over time, I had determined that all my instruction served me well as "continuing education" for myself. So, I learn from the questions from students, as well as the occasional student who alerts me to some function on eBay that I did not know.

To that end, the eBay class has taught me much about using eBay effectively.

It's been a pleasant ride.

[Ari]

Ari, I don't think jp498 was complaining at all, except that now there's a new project on his plate. vinny, I thought all the drum scanner auctions were scams.

Bill, I know jp498 wasn't complaining; I meant that eBay gets a lot of flack on this forum in general.

[domaz]

E-Bay gets flack the same way Microsoft does. When you are the defacto-standard you get a lot of criticism. But I don't see anyone seriously going away from either company.

[John Conway]

I think ebay is simply fantastic. All the camera shops in my area are long gone. The labs are gone as well. I must go to New York for lab work. The big stores are still in NY but many of the small camera stores are history. With the exception of KEH,which is a wonderful company, ebay is my only source for large format equipment.

[hiend61]

I live in an area where nobody knows what a film sheet is, and thanks to Ebay I can purchase rare items from anywhere in the world, pay them with a couple of computer clicks, and they come home in a week.

[E. von Hoegh]

I went on Ebay to look at closed auctions to see what an old 100' spool of 35mm tmx goes for.

I searched for "Kodak Expired" in the current auctions to be thorough.

A few days later, I have a 42 pound 50m x 1m roll of Kodak fixed grade rc paper show up at my place for not much money. Looks like I'll have to do some paper negatives now. And may be some big paper negatives after I get 8x10 paper negatives figured out.

A buddy of mine got into the beer one night and was surfing epay. He bid on an ex-USAF radio transmitter, $800, which he discovered next morning was a winning bid. Panic time - the gear weighed about a ton and was in San Diego; he was in central New York state. He got it trucked to Albany NY for another $800, so all ended well. He runs it on the amateur bands now.

[Kevin Crisp]

I hope your luck with developer-incorporated expired paper is better than mine.