(Money) Safe Camera Buying Guidelines

[slave_to_anime]

Don't know if ziggybecket or kuronosho or me or anyone else has put up a post on this already. I'm sure people other than us have posted about this before. But since I've seen at least 3-4 people I know get burned or nearly get burned by this, including recently, I figured I'd better post about this and drill it in.

WHEN BUYING CAMERA EQUIPMENT ONLINE, YOU NEED TO

Comments

[clueless_case]

Thanks for posting this!

[kamuishirou1999]

Heh. I've shopped at all 3 that you recommend for my camera equipment.

And I have scene the glory that is B&H. O_O

[slave_to_anime]

I don't think I've ever bought camera equipment via Amazon yet. Though I've been tempted on occasion to pick up one or two before. But obviously, I've spent a lot of money online with B&H, and have made one or two purchases at Adorama. Just not whole DSLRs yet.

And I have scene the glory that is B&H. O_O

<=========||== This stabby knife is ready for your back. -_-

[kamuishirou1999]

they've all equally took my money..i bought my 85 f/1.2 from Amazon. LOL They had it the cheapest of the three. Ironically, come to think of it, most of my lenses purchases have been through Amazon...

[blanklogo]

I make the majority of my camera purchases from Amazon. At least for what I've purchased in the past they have almost always beaten both Adorama and B&H in terms of pricing.

[shuupoo]

alot of this is common sense that I amazingly didn't have when I bought my first camera (CASIO EX-600) online from some random never-heard-of-online-retailer with a kind of ugly/text based site for $199 without really doing any research on the retailer background. It was the best deal I could find at the time and it came with free shipping O-o amazingly, I got a safe and fast shipment from them but I sure as heck wouldn't try that again.

[slave_to_anime]

Actually, even if this is common sense, it's really easy to ignore. We're all a bit too used to bargain shopping online, and we have a tendency to want to get this good equipment at a bargain price, because it really is awfully expensive otherwise.

The space probably used to be a bit better, when there weren't a billion people selling things online. Now, it's obviously much worse than it used to be.

[shuupoo]

that makes sense, I actually haven't shopped online in a long time so I guess it might have been safer in 2005 when I made that purchase. Kind of sad how things like this deteriorate D: And even back then I've been scammed before, an ebay seller used alternate accounts to spam over 98% positive ratings and to hide the true, negative ratings from outraged sellers about 100 pages behind and they never responded or shipped the item I bid on. Good thing it was only $2.00, but I've learned my lesson :x

[slave_to_anime]

Great minds think alike. Or at least know where to shop.

I wanna see the B&H superstore, too. I might just collapse to my knees and start saying "I'M HOME" or something like that.

Haha, yeah, pretty much agreed on Bel Air. I hit Bel Air only because they're cheaper compared to Samy's for the most part. But then again, I love Fry's, so I'm used to that. They're not particularly helpful, but at least they let you try the equipment like the other stores. I don't go to Bel Air to browse a lot. I go to try to buy.

[kamuishirou1999]

the only thing Bel Air has going for it is the ice cream shop down the street. XD

[slave_to_anime]

Hey, it's a pretty damn good reason. Shop at Bel Air, and then get an ice cream sandwich from Diddy Riese. It's a nice way to spend a day. :D

[mognetcentral]

B&H was a dream!!! ::starryeyesunicornsandglitter::

[slave_to_anime]

T_T