A better source than eBay, for used equipment, is this forum. The folks selling their gear here are mostly pros, or serious amateurs that tend to know what they are doing, and generally don't abuse gear like some of the stuff being sold on eBay (obviously, there's always exceptions).

There's some great advice here. Thanks. One final question: when would you advice buying new instead of buying used, or vice versa?

thanks.

Buying new (from a well established dealer with a good reputation) makes a lot of sense when you simply don't know much about what you are buying (lacking the fundamental knowledge/experience necessary to evaluate the condition of a piece of gear) or for folks that generally just tend to be easily taken in by scams. Warranties are another factor to consider, in some circumstances.

If the camera has only 10 hours on the head then I buy it used.

When I buy tape or batteries I always buy new.

Like my old pappy used to say... Don't buy used toilet paper.

For those of us who would make an overseas purchase, you would be tempted to use a credit card to pay due to the convenience factor. The issue here is that the currency conversion rate that you get on the transaction is up to the CC company, and you only learn of it when it is on your statement.

This won't be an issue on purchases worth a few hundred dollars or so, but when you get to $1000 or more it can potentially mean paying an extra $100.

For the higher amounts, it is worth investigating the use of a Telegraphic Transfer or a wire transfer for payment. For a small fee ($35 here in Oz) the money is transferred between the banks themselves and you get a much better currency exchange rate. Your money arrives in a few days and it's quite secure. This is how most international transactions are done.

You can have a cheque made out in a foreign currency such as USD, but you still have to post it to its destination. Posting from Australia to USA would take a week or two to get it to the destination, and then their bank needs to process it. The whole thing could take a while.

I've taken a quick look at Western Union etc in the past, and they're too expensive. Their niche of the market is for people who need to get the funds through urgently ... as in 15 minutes time.

Hope this helps.

Andrew

Further to Andrew's point (and at the risk of going off topic), purchasing with a credit card will also often give you an advocate IF the purchase turns out to be erroneous or misleading in some way. Visa is particularly well known for this.

Unfortunately they are of no help when it came to "your conversion rate sucked".

Andrew :-)