Anyone Buy the EBay Packages?

[Matt James]

Just out of curiosity, have any of you had any experience buying the big d-slr packages off ebay? it seems too good to be true to be able to get all the extra accessories for roughly the price of the body at a camera shop. so, my question is, is it too good to be true or are these venuse reputable? Anyone with experience would be very helpful. Thanks.

[Jboats]

well... I should have .. somewhat ..kinda
I was askin the same question and got pretty warned about it. mainly cause the gimmicks you get with it are pretty junk ( I mean the bag the lens cleaner, the tripod and such)

which is correct..... but I ended up buying that crap anyhow, just seperately so i ended up having a substandard tripod ( good enough for me ) A pretty silly lens cleaning kit and i found a bag which I use .. havent found the right bag yet...

sooo I ventured out and was lookin besides of ebay... I ended up with an outfit which i orderd from,,, what a joke ... it was the rudest and unpleasant experience I ever had buying anything.. look below in the threads.. I was able to cancell the order and went to BH and ordered the camera there ( and the tripod and a couple other things )

The 2 Nikon lenses I bought from a good outfit and my fisheye macro lense i bought on ebay, same as the 1 gig and 5122 sd card , extra battery , remote control, and a few small things...

I had a lot of agravation byuing it all seperate, it took me 4 weeks longer and i spend at least 200 - 300 bucks more .... ( comparable what i got )

If I would do it all over agin I would go ebay all the way . just make sure you check the feedback, and you pay with paypal ( as that is secured , depending on the paypal status you might have to pay a little extra for buyer protection )

Thor

[BrianFoster]

Anytime I've bought equipment from anyone other than B&H I've been disappointed. I recently got a D70s kit from some vendor off eBay. The shipping was very, very expensive, they give you no way to track the package. I wound up saving less than $100 compared to B&H on the kit. I bought my memory card, polarizer and new bag from B&H, so I spent money twice on shipping. My lesson is to get everything at once to save on shipping, and stick with a vendor that isn't making its money on S&H charges.

[another view]

There seem to be some pretty reputable sellers that have these kits, but personally I'd pass on them. Most of the other stuff (tripod, bag, etc) are really not very good. Check out some of the "which tripod should I buy" threads in the Help Forum for reasons why not to buy a cheap tripod...

[mjs1973]

I bought my camera as one of these ebay kits. I will never do that again. I love my camera, but the rest of the stuff in the kit was pretty much junk. The camera bag that came with the kit, wasn't even big enuf to hold the stuff that came in the kit. I was able to use the bag for my video camera tho, so no big deal there. The tripod is the biggest POS I have ever seen. I didn't get a huge kit, so I didn't have to replace much. Eventually, everything that came with the kit will be replaced. I would stick with a reputable dealer you know you can trust, and get good, quality equipment to start with.

[Nikonpenguin]

Everybody's experience is different.
I like to ask questions first then buy it when all things are good.
I bought my D70, 18-70mm, 70-300mm, 1GB CF, SLIK U9000 Tripod, camera bag, SB600, 2 battery, remote, and 4 year best buy warranty covered for $1000 over 6 months ago. (Originally he paid more than $1700 and he used them for just 3 months. I don't think they were used much at all.)
I sold all lens and now I have 50mm f1.8 and 18-200mm VR.

There are some good deals but there are some bad apple as well.

[Matt James]

So, I pretty much assumed that the tripod, bag, etc were kinda junky. However, almost all the kits have two lenses which would still bring the value of the kit above that of the the asking price, even though they aren't particularly fast. I suppose it is too good to be true, but you know how it is, I'm a relatively poor bicycle mechanic hoping to outfit myself for a horribly expensive career. Thanks for the heads up and I'll pay attention to the S&H issue. If anyone has any positive experiences, I'd love to hear them. Or negative, it doesn't really matter.

[Peter_AUS]

Matt, buy the camera if you must, but check with the service people first about warranty in your country, it might not be covered. Kit lenses are great for the average photographer, but if you want to learn then buy a good prime lens to begin with and get use to the camera and lens first. Then you will see where your short comings are and what length of lens you want. In the mean time save up more money and buy good quality lenses, referred to as quality glass by lots of people. Good quality lenses do make a difference, ask Liz.