Safe to buy digital cameras on Ebay?

[yeedog]

I was looking on Ebay and i saw some canon S-30's and S-40's that are quite cheap at the moment. The S-30's are around 200 bucks and the S-40's are in the low 300's. I mean that's preatty cheap when the canon S-40 is retailed at $800 and the S-30 is at $600 The auctions end in 2 days so I guess there is time for them to go up, but i was thinking of putting in a bid at about an hour before the auction ends if the price was still right.

So I was just wondering if it was safe to buy this kind of stuff on Ebay? The description says "New in Box" so I'm assuming it's all shrinked wraped up. So if anything goes wrong I could just send in the warrenty and get a replacement.

Anybody have an optinion of this? the sellers username is: cametaauctions and has a 5000+ positve rating.


what do you think?

Thanks!

 

[Psylence]

How many negatives?

 

[yeedog]

here are the stats on the guy....


5505 positives. 5320 are from unique users and count toward the final rating.

22 neutrals.

20 negatives. 19 are from unique users and count toward the final rating.

 

[badluck]

Here is what you should do.......E-mail the seller and ask:


Is there a warranty?
Is it a refurbished item?
Can the seller provide a receipt from the place they purchased it from or if they are an authorized seller, tell them to include a receipt
Is it brand new in the box meaning sealed, never used?
Make sure you look at their feedback.....
Ask about return policies if the camera is DOA....

Also, be sure to just look at the completed items, for a brand new camera you will find that the auctions typically end around the same price. If the current price is far away from that "usual ending price" with 2 days left, you can be sure the price will migrate to the price they normally sell at over the next few days.


That's what I can think of off the top of my head


Oh yeah, DON'T ASSUME ANYTHING!!!

 

[LukFilm]

Yes, just because it's new in box doesn't mean it's brand-new, i.e. not refurbished. Some sellers sell refurbished cameras and call them new in box. Make sure that it's never been touched before. Also make sure that it includes 1-year warranty, some of them only have 90-day warranty or so. Last, but not least, make sure it's a camera with USA warranty. There are plenty of gray-market cameras and if anything goes wrong with it, you'd be stuck with it. If it has a USA warranty, you can send it to the manufacturer to have it fixed. Good luck.