Serial Number

A guy wants to know what my serial number is for one of my lenses that I'm selling. What information does it convey? He specifically asked 'serial number' although I think he means date code.

Edit- No longer need assistance, thanks!

Serial number or date code? The number (if it is an L lens) on the back mount is the date code.

The serial number isn't all that useful really other than to check against a stolen equipment database, check with Canon to see if it has already been registered, or maybe a given lens had an issue between some serial range. Just an educated guess more than anything on the uses for a lens serial number though.

I'm not 100% sure but is the date code part of the serial number?

merlin2375 wrote in post #8851007
I'm not 100% sure but is the date code part of the serial number?

No.

Some lenses have had issues/recalls and it is done by the serial number. The 70 - 300 is one that comes to mind.

Teamspeed, how can someone check a serial to this stolen database? is this something you can call canon about? I always wonder about stuff like this when buying used. would hate to buy something stolen or something that someone frauded their insurance for. then send it in for service and they say its stolen and lose your equipment or even get charged or something for having stolen equipment that you actually paid for. i would assume canon gets a call saying this serial number is stolen? i'd like to start making sure stuff isn't stolen before i purchase. would love to know how to find out.

jorl wrote in post #8868737
Teamspeed, how can someone check a serial to this stolen database? is this something you can call canon about? I always wonder about stuff like this when buying used. would hate to buy something stolen or something that someone frauded their insurance for. then send it in for service and they say its stolen and lose your equipment or even get charged or something for having stolen equipment that you actually paid for. i would assume canon gets a call saying this serial number is stolen? i'd like to start making sure stuff isn't stolen before i purchase. would love to know how to find out.

No, there should be some sort of national database or website where people can list their items and serial numbers, but then somehow somebody will use that to their advantage. However, if you look around on the forums where people put in posts with their serial numbers, you can at least check that. Not sure if Canon offers this in any way, but I doubt it.

ive asked for the serial number a lot for laptops and the like to see if they were stolen

you could always give the buyer a serial number with the last two digits xx's.

for example: 5687xx.