Is ebay worth the hassle?

[te1221]

Hi guys...

Over the last few days I've become disappointed in the optical performance with my 17-40 F4L when it is indoors. It just doesn't have the range I need (although I think wide angle is perfect), I often find it falling short.

I was shooting an event with my neighbor and I know it's comparing apples to oranges but he has a 30D with 24-70 F2.8L with 580ex in full auto while I was shooting manual XT with 17-40 F4L with 580ex in full manual and e-ttl.

His images just had so much more pop than mine right out of the camera. I shot in RAW to gain back more sharpness and saturation but overall his images were much more consistent and it seems like because I had my lens wide open and dragging the shutter (down to 1/40, ISO 800) it hurt my image quality a lot.

Now I'm looking towards the EF-S 17-55 2.8 IS, I think it has the range I need plus a little more reach and it's a much faster lens. I think F4 is probably too slow for my needs.

Now my real question is... is ebay worth the hassle? I've listed this lens on craigs list with no luck and I see on ebay that the auctions end up finishing close to almost the price of new. The problem is I hear about a lot of people getting scammed by paypal because it always favors the buyer. Should I be worried or do you think its still safe to post? I'd probably want to have the buyer pick it up locally.

P.S. This isn't a plug for me selling my own lens I am really just asking for advaice :)

[cdifoto]

Go sell it on POTN in the Sell section - www.photography-on-the.net/forum. It's dedicated to Canon and you'll unload it fast if you're not asking too much. Don't use eBay unless it's a last resort. If you can't sell it on POTN, shoot me an email and I'll write up a little tutorial so you can avoid being scammed on eBay.

[shoey]

I've been looking at buying that lens on ebay and was going to say i'll buy yours as i'm really worried about parting with that much cash on ebay, on a lens that i haven't seen)or is buying ok?), but now you want rid of yours i'm not sure its the right thing for me. Is it specifically because of the low-light issues or is it the image quality as well, i.e. sharpness and contrast etc. I've heard your lens is good at f/8 but thats not really what i want it for.

Cheers, shoey

[te1221]

I'm also starting to wonder if it's my XT body that isn't focusing correctly either. I'm looking through my shots and the only problems I'm having are more in extremely low light, but I'm relying on the 580ex focusing assist. Maybe its more of a body issue than a lens issue, but I think the lens would definitely help with focusing if it is taking in more light.

[24Peter]

FWIW - the 17-40L I had was pretty unimpressive on my XT. I had focusing issues indoors and outside I felt hampered by the short focal length. I returned it within a week. The 17-55 F2.8 IS is probably the way to go.

[te1221]

FWIW - the 17-40L I had was pretty unimpressive on my XT. I had focusing issues indoors and outside I felt hampered by the short focal length. I returned it within a week. The 17-55 F2.8 IS is probably the way to go.

Don't get me wrong... I think that the 17-40 had its moments where it was really sharp but I agree with you on that it was too short of a focal length. I read that the weakest performing part of the lens was 40mm wide open at F4.0, which is what I usually use indoors. :(

I hate to have to change being that I'm happy with the color and sharpness outdoors and the occasional indoors...

http://www.timeng.net/photos/wedding/madilyncurtis/7.jpg

http://www.timeng.net/photos/wedding/iankati/1.jpg

[mcenut]

I buy and sell camera stuff all the time on eBay. I have never once had any real problems. I sold my old Tamron 18-200mm lens and bought a Canon 17-40mm a couple of weeks later. The Tamron sold for only $40 less than it cost new and the Canon was picked up for a savings of $168 off of the new price.

The trick with selling on eBay is making sure your auction ends at the right time. Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon are the best times.

When buying on eBay, make sure the auction doesn't end during the peak selling times. The Canon 17-40mm ended a few minutes after midnight on a Tuesday so I got it cheap.

When buying I always look for a reason they are selling the lens. If I'm not buying the reason, I'm not buying the lens. My seller was switching formats and was selling off his Canon EOS lenses and equipment. I confirmed this because he had purchased several items, on eBay, already in another format. Plus the seller made the fatal error stating there was a few specks of dust in the lens even though it did not affect image quality. That was death of his sale, only someone who knows all lenses have some dust in them would now bid on his auction. And the funny thing is the dust was under the UV filter he had never bothered to take off and check. His loss, my gain.

[NewTekBuzz]

I think that if you are selling.... you are better off. the buyer only gets lucky once in a while. My last buy from ebay.. the lady sent me the wrong lens. she made it right in the end but what a mess. you just dont know what your gonna end up with.

[Nickcanada]

What do you guys think of this one? http://cgi.ebay.ca/Canon-EF-S-10-22MM-F-3-5-4-5-USM-Lens_W0QQitemZ200067265744QQihZ010QQcategoryZ30070 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[GaryS]

Nick... I don't like the looks of this guy. Most of the other things he sells are ointments for cheap prices. Also says to contact seller for shipping terms... Description is not very good...

This is the kind of auction I avoid like the plague. But thats just me!

PS: Its not that I don't like ebay. I bought my camera, filters and other stuff there....

[cdifoto]

What do you guys think of this one? http://cgi.ebay.ca/Canon-EF-S-10-22MM-F-3-5-4-5-USM-Lens_W0QQitemZ200067265744QQihZ010QQcategoryZ30070 QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

That's a sure sign of a highjacked account.

[JMWallace]

I have the 17-40. I agree the FL can get a little frustrating. That is one of the reasons I am looking at the 17-55 in the future. I couldn't do without 17 end. Well, I also want the 2.8 that the 17-55 offers. Wish the 17-85 was a 2.8...that would be perminantly stuck to my camera.

It is suppose to be sharpest at 5.6, but feel pretty good about what my copy does at 4.

Recent sample: ISO 400, f/4, 1/60, 580EX with Lightsphere
19028

I like the lens and it is a great starter L for the price...especially to get the wide side. That being said, I crave the usefulness of the extra FL and 2.8 of the 17-55.

e-bay worth the hassle...well, maybe to sell. People get carried away bidding and I have seen many, many, many lenses go for more than what I have found them for new + full warrenty.

As for buying...I would trust buying more from someone on FM or POTN.

[te1221]

Greatttt.... someone bought it... but the winner is from Auckland, New Zealand... I just calculated shipping costs from UPS.com and it said it was $142 for shipping :eek:

Anyone know the best service for international shipping? Provided that the winner pays...

[DrCamera]

Ebay is fairly safe if you know what you are doing. You need to make sure you fill out all the insurance and confimation forms to prove that you sent it. Ebay prices on canon lenses tend to be quite high close to new, but people will only buy from trusted sellers. People with low feedback tend to get lower prices.

To Ship to Austrailia your best bet is usps airmail parcel post. It's not cheap to ship things to the other side of the world!

Next Time you can consign your lens with http://www.sellmycameras.com They will be able to get you a great price for your lens to contribute to the cost of the new f2.8 IS lens you want!

[drew_viii]

ive spent almost thousand bucks in ebay when buying my camera equipments, bags, battery grip, lens, tripods, all buy and sell, i do it on ebay, well, it is worth the try really, i never experienced problems with ebay and paypal, but you still have to be careful with scammers, first paypal dont send confirmation through email right away without indication it was in your account, and they dont ask your address and other details cuz they already have it in paypal, so most likely emails asking information bout you are scams... so when you receive an confirmation mail, log in to your paypal account, dont click the link of the suspected mail, cuz it will lead you through their fake site, so better type paypal.com in your web browser and log in and check if the money is there then immediately transfer the money to your bank account, better do it as soon as you can, cuz if paypal freezes your account, it will take weeks or even months for them to solve the issue...

tip for buying on ebay, check for power sellers, they usually are trustable, tip for selling, dont send the package unless you have withdraw the money to your account already, and be sure to get the tracking number or receipt or your postal.

also, read carefully through the paypal protection policy, its pretty secured and safe, the only thing i hate bout paypal is they take so long to solve certain problems... sometimes it will take months for them to figure out what to do... but most likely it happens when package were lost and unlikely to happen

[Rhys]

I'm trying to sell my Tamron 70-300 on ebay having had only little nibbles elsewhere. I'll let you know how it goes. Until now I've only sold china (and been disappointed by the sales).