Misleading/scammy lens auction on ebay

Nov 12, 2016
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I already reported this to ebay, but just a heads up, I just found this auction on ebay. It only has a few hours left. Everything about the title and photo makes it out like you're buying a lens, but then the description says the auction is for the case only, which is admittedly pretty rare, but probably not worth $1000.

I'm guessing the seller made the auction just clear enough that they could claim ignorance when someone gets angry about not getting a lens, and just misleading enough to fool some people.

If anybody on here is bidding on this, you may want to pull out your bid if you think you're buying a rare lens for this price.

Edit: You know ultimately I think maybe this is just a case where ebay filled in all the information/photo for the lens automatically, and the seller wasn't smart enough or didn't care enough to know how to change it to clarify that this is not a lens for sale.

 
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Maximilian

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Those aren't fast enough. I need an f1.8...
For sure we can drill a hole into them giving you f/1.8.
But I've never seen a pinhole camera working well with f/1.8 ;)

Back to OP:
Kit Lens Jockey, thanks for keeping us aware. Would be nice if you tell us, what ebay does answer to your report.
Such scam must not be tolerated. And to me the missleading title is enough to call it scam, because the title should include "case" here.
 
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Jan 29, 2011
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Nov 12, 2016
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Yeah I suspect that someone is going to be very disappointed when they get a case in the mail and there's no lens inside when they open it.

As I said, I suspect that ultimately it was just an inexperienced seller that messed up the listing. When you list a product on ebay, you have the option of just letting ebay fill in all the info for you, and I think it will even pop up a stock product photo of the item. I suspect the seller just typed in the lens the case went to and let ebay fill this info in, and either wasn't observant enough or smart enough to know how to change the title or photo to clarify that you were buying the case only.

The seller was very clear in the description that the auction was for just the case, but that description was way at the bottom of all the lens info that ebay filled in. The auction said no returns allowed, so I am really wondering how that will play out. While the case is probably just about as rare as the lens itself, I doubt anyone really intended to buy just the case for a thousand bucks.

It doesn't seem like ebay did anything to shut down the auction when I reported it, but granted I only saw it and reported it when it had 5 hours left.
 
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Maximilian

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The original offer had the following bottom line:
I could only see what you had linked to. It might have just been a error from a copied auction. The seller is from South Korea and has sold lots of photographic items with a good reputation.

In any event, the auction has been closed. If ebay removes one, its totally gone, this one is just closed.
 
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Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
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I could only see what you had linked to. ...
From my qouted link I can still see this (if I scroll down):
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1579197076730.png
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The top of the auction looks like this:
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1579197183970.png
 
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