VX1000 – Where to Buy
Everyone wants a Sony
VX1000 these days yet no one really knows where they should buy one from. The
answer is very simple though because there are really only a few choices. Keep
reading and you will gain a lot of information on how and where to purchase one
for yourself.
The number one way to
get a DCR-VX1000 is through none other than www.ebay.com. It’s very simple. Do a basic
search on eBay for “vx1000”and you will most likely come up with around 60
results, but not all of them will be the actual camera itself. A lot of the
results will be for accessories such as lenses and batteries. About 20% of the
results will be the camera. A secret is to search the string “vx 1000” with the
space between the vx and the 1000 and eBay will produce different results. The
results will be fewer but with less people typing in that string the auction
prices may be a little lower….or maybe they won’t be after this article.
A lot of people are
turned off from buying a camera from eBay because of the risk of losing tons of
money and being screwed over. Both are possible but pretty unlikely if you play
it safe and stay away from sketchy auctions. Well how do you know if the
auction is sketchy? Three
simple ways. The seller’s feedback, the payment methods accepted, and
the item description! If the seller is offering the camera for cheap, with 0
feedbacks, and money order, cashiers checks or cash only, then this is so
sketchy that you should hit your back button right away!
The first thing you
should check for in an auction is the seller’s feedback rating. The fewer he
has the sketchier he is. Although a lot of legit sellers start an account to
sell off expensive things, you should still be skeptical until you check for
the payments he accepts which is the second step.
The safest and easiest
way to do a payment for the auction would be through PayPal. PayPal protects
the buyer from seller fraud and even offers a money back guarantee now for a
reasonably small fee. Another way to protect yourself
is through an escrow service. Escrow services act as middlemen in the payment
process and after you send the money to the escrow company they send you the
product to check it and inspect it and do not pay the seller until you approve
of the item. There is a fee for doing this though and a lot of sellers overlook
this service so you should ask them if they would be willing to do an escrow payment.
Money orders, cashiers checks, cash or wire transfers are sketchy because they
do not offer a way to get your money back. When the seller ONLY accepts these,
make sure you know who your really dealing with.
The third thing you
should always check for obvious reasons is the item description. Check to see
if the seller says anything is wrong with it or if it has had problems, how
much useage it has had, what it comes with and what kind of guarantee the
camera has. If the camera is being sold AS IS with no guarantee then be warned that something might not be right here. A typical
problem with VX1000s would be a broken ribbon cable so the seller does not want
to fix it themselves so they are auctioning it off for cheap. If you know how
to fix this yourself then you might save some money and get a good camera for a
good price.
eBay is probably the best and safest way to buy a used VX1000 but if you must know
the other way’s then here you are.
The second way to buy
a VX1000 is www.soadv.com.
This website known as Southern Advantage offers refurbished VX1000’s with very
little use, or so they say, for $2,299. This is a lot of money for a VX1000 but
it is a safe way to go if you have a credit card.
The third way to get a
VX1000 is through a seller on a websites message board such as www.shumways.net, www.skateperception.com, www.digitalskate.net,
www.videouniversity.com,
www.2-pop.com,
or www.creativecow.net.
People are often upgrading there cameras and selling their VX1000s but be safe
and use PayPal, an escrow service or COD and make sure you have some way to
contact the seller. Ask for a phone number they can be reached at and speak to
them directly and find out what kind of condition the camera is in and if
anything has been wrong with it in the past.
The last way to get a
VX1000 is find a person in your area who is selling the camera and go test it
out. Sometimes it can’t be hard to locate someone in your area selling the
cream of the crop camera though. You can also try local camera and video stores
but it all depends on where you live. Just make sure you test everything out
first so you don’t get stuck with a $1200 door stop or paper weight.
Be very aware that
VX1000’s are old and ageing and are not all in perfect condition. It’s to bad that brand new VX1000s cannot be purchased anywhere
anymore, because it’s such a sick camera when it works flawlessly.
-Nate Kapitanski