Selling Used Equipment!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

I am interested in knowing what is the best way to sell used camera equipment?

I recently sent two lenses to a large company located in New York City (not B&H) to get the value of some used equipment. Specifically, I want to sell my Canon 18-200 mm lens and my 50 1.8 lens. I know I am not going to get what I paid for, but here is what happened and I want to know what others think.

I bought the 18-200 from this same company refurbished for $399.00. I bought it in April, 2013. I was told they gave it an E rating (for excellence) and valued it at $200.00.  The guy also told me Canon had dropped the price of this lens new to $473.00 and that is why they had to give me so much less. On their website this camera is still selling new for $699 and used for $359. The 50 mm was valued at $50. He also talked about 70% the value, but I misunderstood what he was saying.

I decided not to sell the 18-200 mm for that price and was still willing to sell the 50 mm.  I also offered to trade both for a used 50 1.4 lens for $299.00.  When I called back, he was not willing to do the trade and then said I would only be getting $10-$15 for the 50 mm. Apparently, it was a package deal. In addition, the 70% he was referring to is, if I sold both lenses, I would only be getting 70% of the $250. This all seems a little dishonest to me.

I am new to all this, so it may be how things are done, but I am curious to know how others sell their used equipment. Luckily, it was free shipping to and from, so this experience cost me nothing. Live and learn.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Crazy, but Amazon sent me an email today telling me about a deal on a Nikon D50 for only $1,500! Really? Seriously?
The camera is a 6.1meg pixel and is 10 years old. Crazy

[F, Calla & Luca]

What the doodle?

[GBK]

I'm interested in this also.  I have an older Cannon with not a lot of use and three lenses.  But on Amazon for the camera and all lenses it only comes out to $170.00 trade in for all.....  The same camera on Amazon is still selling for $699.00....  I've literally used the 50mm lens for maybe 3 different events.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Gina, Which 50 mm lens do you have? Is it the 1.4?

[Diane Margetts]

I've sold camera equipment on ebay.

It really depends what type of gear you are selling. Many times, it's best to go to photography forms specific to your camera brand. People are the forums are usually willing to pay a fair price for your equipment. you will run into problems if your gear is older and everyone is wanting to upgrade . . .

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thanks, Diane!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thanks, Sandy. I like B&H, so I will try it just to see.

[Richard Crowe]

I don't sell my gear to companies because, though it is painless in that there is really not much work and no danger, you never get what the gear is worth.  The company has to sell the gear at that price and needs to make a profit in the transaction.

I stay away from craigslist because there have been some pretty crooked deals here in the San Diego area, Including one murder. If I sold gear on eBay, I would meet the buyer in the parking lot of the Escondido Fire and Police Headquarters Building or some other such place and even so, I would want the meeting to take place in daylight...

I do eBay which is pretty painless after you jump through the hoops to get an eBay seller's account and a PayPal account (which is just about necessary).  There are lots of safety dos and don'ts for eBay use but, I will not go into them now.  Do a Google search on eBay safety.

There are several Internet websites that have their used equipment forums:

PTON: Photography On The Net calls theirs: Classifieds Buy and Classifieds Sell

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/

Photocamel calls theirs The Marketplace and you must have 20 posts on Photocamel to use this feature.  That is easy to do, just make comments on 20 different photos posted.

http://photocamel.com/forum/

I am sure that there are other sites.

Perhaps a posting on doodlekisses would find someone interested in your gear.

BTW:  Top-line gear like L lenses hold their value best and are easiest to sell.

Whenever I buy a new piece of gear, I always justify the price by thinking that I will sell some gear to, at least partially, fund the purchase.  However, I seldom get around to doing it.  Then there is the fact that older cameras are worth so little that I hate selling them for 10% of the price I paid. So, I just keep them as spares.  Soon, I will have so many spares that I will have to build a spare house to keep them in...

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thank you, Richard!! This really helps!

[Camilla and Darwin]

I'm not sure, but I would guess that selling used equipment would be most effective if you knew someone, or if you could sell it locally. The problem with online places is that they often take a very large portion for themselves. My sister sold an Ipad on ebay and they took $90 of the $500 dollars the ipad was listed for - but they wouldn't say how much they would take before it was listed.

We sent my 50mm f/1.8 lens into Amazon and they gave us a $50 dollar Amazon credit...

[F, Calla & Luca]

For $50 I'd keep my lens or give it away. Aside from low light the Nikon lens of 50mm f1.8 scores highter than the 1.4 or so I've read.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I read this many times too on the reviews for 50mm