I am writing this as a buyers/sellers beware.
I have been both buying and selling photography equipment from MPB for years. However, my most recent experience was so bad I don't think I will ever return.
So I decided to sell my old Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8
Il and Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8. My initial quote from MPB was the best from all the other online retailers, which it has been for years honestly. $955 for the Canon lens and $345 for the Sigma. I thought, yeah that's fair. I did send the canon lens without the hood, but it had the case, so I thought it would be slightly less, but once the gear arrived at their warehouse, the quote was reduced for both. The offered $905 for the Canon lens and $185 for the Sigma.
I decided to give them a call and ask why such a big decrease. The representative explained that the hood was expected and that the case was not so they could not increase the price. Fair, but disappointing because you can find one of the hoods online for like $15, but whatever.
The sigma lens was the one that surprised me. MPB claimed the autofocus did not work. I checked before sending the lens and it worked just fine. I asked the rep to review this and they sent me a grainy 2 second video of them "trying" and showing that the autofocus doesn't work. I was so disappointed, but l did not take any video or photos with the lens before sending it in to prove that it worked. It was my word against theirs.
Luckily, I decided to not move forward with the quote of the Sigma and had MPB send it back. It arrived today, and to my surprise, the autofocus works FLAWLESSLY!! They really tried to scam me!
I emailed back the original rep with a 10 second video showing that the autofocus works perfectly. I highly doubt anything will come of this, but I just wanted to share my experience.
If you decide to sell equipment to MPB, take photos and videos of the equipment before boxing it up.
Preferably with a timestamp. That could also help with them adjusting down the rating.
As I said at the start, I don't think they can do anything to win me back. I will update the post if I hear anything from them.
