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A comment on I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon. Parent comment

Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by balls187 on Friday August 11, 2017 @05:24PM (#14994441)
> I never buy from third-party sellers in Amazon, but I am having such a hard time explaining to friends and family how to do the same. They keep buying from third-party sellers and keep wondering how it is not "Amazon".

3rd party sellers are usually fine.

There are things I check for:

1. A "critical" mass of 4-5 star reviews

2. Prime Shipping

3. History of selling the types of items I want to buy.

If I am going to buy from someone who is a one-off seller, I'll do so locally via Craigslist, or OfferUp.

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Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by Dove on Saturday August 12, 2017 @11:40AM (#14998275)
I feel pretty comfortable if the seller's name is the manufacturer, and their inventory is full of stuff they manufacture, with a long history of positive feedback.

I get scared off by seller names that sound like alphabet soup, small numbers of sales and reviews (for a $5 item I'll chance it, though), and recent reviews suddenly changing for the negative.

And I'm really skittish about clothing, unless I know the brand. Too many times, I've gotten what was listed, technically, and it really isn't what I was thinking. T-shirts that look glorious but are really crappy iron-ons, shirts that look great but are really, really thin... that sort of thing. I don't want to go to a store, but I order brands I like and trust directly from them instead.

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Re:I Fell Victim to a $1,500 Used Camera Lens Scam on Amazon by maxxxxx on Saturday August 12, 2017 @08:45AM (#14997680)
Especially with camera equipment there are a ton of sellers that have no reviews and great prices. I am sure they almost all are scams.

I also use only sellers that have many reviews and 90+% positive.

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