Any Experience buying lens boards or flanges from newssuperstore?

[Alan Townsend]

I just found this company, newssuperstore, when searching for a flange for an Ilex #3 shutter. https://www.newssuper.store/detail/G...bgaf9adbg.html

The website says they have 100 of these, which will work out to about $25 each including shipping. Not certain if this is the correct flange, they claim it to be a used "Genuine ILEX #3 flange for all Ilex 3 shutters. 1 7/8″ threads. Fits a 2″ hole.".

They show a measuring rule, looking like about 1 7/8, which is pretty close to the 1.91 40 tpi, but no mention of threads. So this may be what I'm looking for.

This company appears to sell a fairly oddball collection of surplus items, including lens boards for view cameras, mounting flanges for same, analog electric meters, and clothing items. They give an address that does not show results on Google or map.Google. They are on "Wescam Court" which is obviously scammy, since that street doesn't exist. They did not answer the phone on Saturday, but I will try again tomorrow. They accept only PayPal or bitcoin payments. My spider sense is tingling, but why would a scammer on wescam court be selling lens boards and analog meter movements and not things that are more popular?

Anybody know about this outfit?

[Oren Grad]

Identical copies of many of the item listings there can be found at other fake-looking storefronts bearing different names and contact info. See, for example:

https://www.marvelgood.space/shop/Ca...to_jblxtw.html

[Alan Townsend]

Oren,

Thanks for that. Just taking information from people, I guess. Strange fake.

[darr]

I took a quick look, and as someone that has done product photography for websites, I felt their images looked odd.
They have no consistency, which immediately made me feel they could have been screen grabs from auctions, google images, etc.
Thank you, Oren, for posting the info you have.

[BrianShaw]

Too weird to be true, it seems. Who has 100 obscure flanges, or 100 old Deardorff lens boards????

Appears completely bogus, and what a weird collection of stuff... but if the prices were better I might be interested in a thing or two.

And weirdly... clicking on Contact Us shows a map of London in the United Kingdom and a completely different identity.

If this is legitimate, they sure aren't doing anything with t hat fancy website to instill buyer confidence!

[Alan Townsend]

Too weird to be true, it seems. Who has 100 obscure flanges, or 100 old Deardorff lens boards????

Appears completely bogus, and what a weird collection of stuff...

And weirdly... clicking on Contact Us shows a map of London in the United Kingdom and a completely different identity.

Must be the work of a deep fake AI web designer in China, England. I really wanted that lens flange, too.

[Oren Grad]

They have no consistency, which immediately made me feel they could have been screen grabs from auctions, google images, etc.

Yes, the pictures look and the text reads as though they've been grabbed from auction listings, though I wasn't able to match any current ones for the handful that I checked.

Also the point that Brian makes about purporting to have 100 of each of these items.

Doesn't add up.