I Came across these on Ebay. Seller says inventory from Factory who made them, guaranteed quality control checked for proper working order. Shipped from China .... I always regretted selling my last perfect operating pair. This is the 7x36EDII version. Was there a EDIII version or 4th ? . Seller from China does not except returns, has good feed back with buyers saying as Described but Ebay always refunds total purchase cost if purchase is not as described. Any thoughts ? .... Thanks
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Price New From China Factory 7x36EDII $289 Shipped On Ebay Is It Worth The Risk ? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter gcole
- Start date
I brought the same model EDII 7x36 in the Zen Ray end of life fire sale for $199. They are excellent but focus knob has come a bit loose and now there is no warranty cover. I wouldn't be that worried about the bona fides of the supplier but I would be a bit worried about buying a brand that has the reputation for poor QC without the recourse to a warranty.
dries1
Member
Gwen, I'm not 100 % sure but there's a good chance I bought from that seller a while ago.
It was my first Zen product and I wasn't really impressed. The view was nice, wide FOV and sharp image, but didn't wow me the way I thought it would (for the sake of comparison, over the same period I bought a 2nd hand 7x50 Vixen Ultima for way less money which I prefer).
There were two things: build quality-wise the device itself reminded me of the Celestron Granite 7x33 (the view through the latter was more compromised by a warm hue and extremely poor edges). I found the plastics and rubber not particularly exciting and the focus wheel was terrible. The feeling was mushy and spongy like in other bins from a similar price range I've tried (Bushnell, Vanguard) and it had a lot of play, like 5 mm where there was nothing... and then it started to focus. Like an old turbo engine with tons of lag.
Then there's the fact that, at least in Spain/EU, you have to pay a considerable import fee and (this I've never experienced) not only did I have to pay the shipping costs to the Ebay vendor (that's ok), but I had to pay an extra to Fedex, which eventually made the binoculars quite pricey.
If you're not really pressed, it could be better to look for something else (although I know that the family of 7x with a wide FOV is not really large).
It was my first Zen product and I wasn't really impressed. The view was nice, wide FOV and sharp image, but didn't wow me the way I thought it would (for the sake of comparison, over the same period I bought a 2nd hand 7x50 Vixen Ultima for way less money which I prefer).
There were two things: build quality-wise the device itself reminded me of the Celestron Granite 7x33 (the view through the latter was more compromised by a warm hue and extremely poor edges). I found the plastics and rubber not particularly exciting and the focus wheel was terrible. The feeling was mushy and spongy like in other bins from a similar price range I've tried (Bushnell, Vanguard) and it had a lot of play, like 5 mm where there was nothing... and then it started to focus. Like an old turbo engine with tons of lag.
Then there's the fact that, at least in Spain/EU, you have to pay a considerable import fee and (this I've never experienced) not only did I have to pay the shipping costs to the Ebay vendor (that's ok), but I had to pay an extra to Fedex, which eventually made the binoculars quite pricey.
If you're not really pressed, it could be better to look for something else (although I know that the family of 7x with a wide FOV is not really large).
Pinewood
New York correspondent
Hello Yarelli,
I think that I may have had a similar experience with FedEx with a shipment from Germany. United States custom duty of $5 was imposted on the item. FEDEX paid the duty and charged me $25 for making the payment. That would be a 500% service charge. The US Post Office does not do anything that outrageous.
Stay safe,
Arthur
I think that I may have had a similar experience with FedEx with a shipment from Germany. United States custom duty of $5 was imposted on the item. FEDEX paid the duty and charged me $25 for making the payment. That would be a 500% service charge. The US Post Office does not do anything that outrageous.
Stay safe,
Arthur
Arthur, I wish anything I imported had such a cheap custom duty!!
I'm not 100 % sure how it works (since I've purchased binos from around the world, from the US to Australia, Japan, China or Russia), but when buying a 200 - 300 € device, one can expect to pay around 80 € custom fee, and this time Fedex charged an equal amount (so you can easily add up and see that my Zen Ray was anything but cheap; unfortunately I sold it for peanuts). The hard thing is that I think there is a fixed fee and then a % over the value of the goods, so buying a 60 € pair would actually be worse, since the basic fee would be there, and you could end up paying a ludicrous custom fee. Such are the wonders and charms of buying our lovely and cherised binos from abroad... but then, sometimes you just can't resist, can you?
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