I do like the fact that they've provided space for reviews. It could become one of the largest dbs for older/alt lens reviews if people adopt it, but of course you could only see the review when the items are in stock. Otherwise, agreed. It's pretty lame.
Yeah, it very slow for me too. Before I could search using brand -> lenses, now I have to pick one of the 4 lens categories. Also, my order history is gone, great!
I dislike the new site too. With the old site, I could type a few terms in the search box and receive only results that had those terms in the description. Now, I get what I'm searching for but also pages and pages of items that I did not search for.
For example, with the old site, if I typed "canon manual focus 85 f1.2" in the search box, I would get only the FD 85/1.2 lenses and the hood as results. Now, I get 5+ pages of results that include "Alpa - Fixed Focal Length Lenses 135 F3.2 ALGULAR OLD DELFT PRE-SET (48) FILTER RING DAMAGE 35MM SLR MANUAL FOCUS TELEPHOTO LENS" and " Mamiya 645 Autofocus - Camera Bodies 645AFD MEDIUM FORMAT SLR AUTO FOCUS CAMERA BODY".
I know their prices and ratings are not what they used to be. So I stopped buying from them. Now it's really no different getting it from the Adorama or B&H used dept...
Plus I met with the KEH reps at a couple of camera shows.... I was not there to sell any of my gear, but saw them buying gear from several people.....it is amazing how little they pay for used equipment and how much higher they sell it for... talk about profit margin.
pascal03 wrote:
I know their prices and ratings are not what they used to be. So I stopped buying from them. Now it's really no different getting it from the Adorama or B&H used dept...
Plus I met with the KEH reps at a couple of camera shows.... I was not there to sell any of my gear, but saw them buying gear from several people.....it is amazing how little they pay for used equipment and how much higher they sell it for... talk about profit margin.
Yeah, I was a little shocked; a year or so ago I was looking to move from Pentax->Canon so figured I'd just call them and see what my mint, 6 month old K20D was worth to them. $220 or something similar. At the time, used K20Ds were selling for $600 on the camera forums.
I bought a bargain lens from them last week ( Kiron 28/2 in c/y mount) for a really good price. The lens had a small fold in the front filter ring which was very easy to straighten out other then that it was excellent, I'm happy.
pascal03 wrote:
I know their prices and ratings are not what they used to be. So I stopped buying from them. Now it's really no different getting it from the Adorama or B&H used dept...
Plus I met with the KEH reps at a couple of camera shows.... I was not there to sell any of my gear, but saw them buying gear from several people.....it is amazing how little they pay for used equipment and how much higher they sell it for... talk about profit margin.
Well, that's not good to hear regarding a change in ratings. They had always been conservative in the past which is why I liked using them.
Ebay must have really hurt KEH. Before Ebay, I recall one might be lucky to get 50-60% when selling used equipment to a business like KEH. With Ebay around, why in the world would anyone sell to them for that much of a discount when it's fairly easy to compete with KEH in selling your stuff directly. Ebay has really democratized the selling of used photo equipment which has dramatically hurt those business that sell used equipment. Prior to eBay, I remember frantically going through new issues of Shutterbug every month just to see what used equipment was available. There was so much to browse. Anyone picked up a Shutterbug lately to look for used equipment?
I quit Shutterbug when guys like Don Chatterton and Jim Kuehl stopped advertising.
I guess they must have retired; the ads just don't have the appeal they did before the i-net.
pascal03 wrote:
I know their prices and ratings are not what they used to be. So I stopped buying from them. Now it's really no different getting it from the Adorama or B&H used dept...
Plus I met with the KEH reps at a couple of camera shows.... I was not there to sell any of my gear, but saw them buying gear from several people.....it is amazing how little they pay for used equipment and how much higher they sell it for... talk about profit margin.
B&H used has been awesome. I've bought so many things in excellent condition and rock bottom prices there. I've seen even more stuff go for great prices that I didn't buy too. All of my KEH BGN orders for the last year have been awful. I mean if I owned the gear I'd throw it away. Two broken LXs, a broken, beat up OM-4.
In the end these guys are a business. You can't fault them for making a profit. If there are crackheads willing to sell their gear for a bag of peanuts then so be it.
TWoK wrote:
B&H used has been awesome. I've bought so many things in excellent condition and rock bottom prices there. I've seen even more stuff go for great prices that I didn't buy too. All of my KEH BGN orders for the last year have been awful. I mean if I owned the gear I'd throw it away. Two broken LXs, a broken, beat up OM-4.
In the end these guys are a business. You can't fault them for making a profit. If there are crackheads willing to sell their gear for a bag of peanuts then so be it.
But it sounds like your recent BGN purchases have not been what would pass for a BGN. That is, something fully working. That's what BGN used to be anyway.
