[Sliver-Surfer]

I did a quick search on ebay to see what the prices were like and was heart broken. I have purchased over the past year most of the lenses that caught my fancy and was going to start thinning out the one not used much or did not appeal to me. Except one lens purchase on a whim without doing a price search, I got very good deals. Their selling prices are so low now that it makes no sense to sell, they are not eating very much just sitting in their lens case

The US$ dollar is very strong right now and ebay is a world market so what seem low price to you is high to other countries.

[RonHendriks1966]

It's not easy to sell some of the lenses. Some lenses are wide spread in the market and there is not to much Demand for over the past year. So that makes used lens prices go a little more down then a few years ago.

[Quartermaster James]

I believe that the upcoming Pentax full frame will be very popular. It will cause many photographers to switch systems and come over to Pentax.

Because the full frame will likely have the pixel shift feature, I believe it will be of special interest to those of us who like to shoot stationary objects using slow and deliberate methods (manual focus, spot meters, Hoodmans with live view for super accurate focusing).

I suspect that a few of the older manual focus Pentax lenses will be outstanding on the full frame. The word will soon spread that certain older MF lenses offer premium performance on the full frame. The demand for these older MF lenses will pick up, and so will their prices.

I would not be surprised to see Pentaxians with a large hoard of older MF lenses making some good money selling them after the full frame comes out. Get your high quality MF glass now, before the full frame comes out - I did.

Shhhhh!!!!!

[Des]

The US$ dollar is very strong right now and ebay is a world market so what seem low price to you is high to other countries.

+1. A few years ago the $A and $C were above parity with $US. Now the $A is below $US0.70. Prices in the US need to drop further to make them attractive to those of us with weak currencies.

As a general reflection, few lenses hold their value or increase over time. Even many high quality lenses get replaced with more recent models, or lose their appeal somewhat. Take the FA*300 f4.5 for example. A premium lens at a premium price in its day, but many people now would prefer the quiet AF, QS, WR, faster aperture and better coatings of the DA*300 f4, so naturally the price falls in real terms. Other good screwdrive lenses are outshone in similar ways.

At the other end of the spectrum, gumtree and ebay are awash with average quality consumer zooms. What is the appeal of a 3yo kit lens now (unless it's the redoubtable DA-L 55-300!)? Even well-regarded consumer zooms will generally go the same way. The DA 16-45 is very cheap now, as are even the better superzooms. Even the well-regarded Tamron 17-50 f2.8 is quite cheap.

Some lenses lose value because of reliability concerns (e.g. DA*16-50, DA 17-70) or because they weren't really best-in-class (e.g. Sigma or Tamron 70-300, Sigma 28-70 f2.8).

What will my lenses be worth in 5 years time? I would guess the following:
- Big decline in real terms: DA 12-24 (likely to be superseded), DA 18-135 (likely to be replaced, and pushed out as 16-85 becomes affordable), DA-L 55-300, Tamron 18-250
- Modest decline in real terms: DA 35, FA 43, FA 77, DFA 100 (may be superseded but FF will keep demand up), Sigma 400 Tele Macro (because of shortage of alternatives).
Hmm, bit of a divide between zooms and primes isn't there?

[timb64]

I am not trying to make money on the lenses, just made an observation that its sad that I paid $700 for my DA*16-50 a year ago and there are some selling for $350. I paid $400 for my DA10-17 fisheye and have seen some selling for less than $200!

So have you taken photos with the two lenses which were worth $350 and $200 respectively,to you?If not,yes you wasted your money or not used them enough!

[micromacro]

Around BF time is great for buyers, not for sellers. Just wait.

[tim60]

It's just a sign that the global economy is tanking again...

When I was buying the Takumars on eBay (mainly, a few on PF) I noticed auction closing prices seemed to be quite closely correlated to DowJones index and things like the first Greek crisis. But something that seems ironic about people, we celebrate by shopping when Target et al have a 10-30% off sale, but everyone cries when the stock market has a 10% off sale rather than celebrated that all those shares that were expensive yesterday can be picked up cheap today, instead they join in the selling and push the price even lower. Leads me to wonder if the people dumpling large enough quantities to really affect the price are fund managers who want to scare ordinary people to sell so they can buy back even cheaper.

[Nicolas06]

When I was buying the Takumars on eBay (mainly, a few on PF) I noticed auction closing prices seemed to be quite closely correlated to DowJones index and things like the first Greek crisis. But something that seems ironic about people, we celebrate by shopping when Target et al have a 10-30% off sale, but everyone cries when the stock market has a 10% off sale rather than celebrated that all those shares that were expensive yesterday can be picked up cheap today, instead they join in the selling and push the price even lower. Leads me to wonder if the people dumpling large enough quantities to really affect the price are fund managers who want to scare ordinary people to sell so they can buy back even cheaper.

Another possibility is that when stocks are going down noticably, we are in a crisis. In a crisis, people loose their job or make less money or see their friend/collegue familly in that situation. News say it all day long and there example on the TV of people suffering it. So people are less willing to spend money on non necessary stuff and more willing to keep it in case of problem. Also for the one that are in the worst situation, selling quite non necessary stuff is a good way to get back some money to buy food or pay clothes for their children.

Ideally if you buy things as non necessary as lenses (except if you are marking money as a photographers or are a reseller) you should buy only in the knowledge that you'll never resell it or that you could get back almost no money. If you buy thinking already on how much it could resell, to justify the buy to me you are already in a severe case of LBA.

[pathdoc]

If you buy thinking already on how much it could resell, to justify the buy to me you are already in a severe case of LBA.

True. Granted, there are doubtless people out there who buy grimy lenses dirt cheap at garage sales & estate sales and CLA them themselves to sell later at a better price, but by that stage you're getting into business territory. Heavy dust and sticky aperture blades are a sale-killer to many of us, but if you have the skill and are willing to invest the time to get the lens apart and solve that problem, and you ENJOY pulling lenses down and CLA/rebuilding them, that could be quite lucrative as well as being fun. By the time you get into doing the same to cameras, though, it gets trickier - if you're going to sell those on, you need the equipment to calibrate the shutter, meter etc., and that's more of an investment. That being said, I've often considered buying a dirt-cheap parts camera or lens just to be able to strip it down and play with it without having to care if I mess something up.

[grahame]

The prices are ... don't know what to say.
I almost moved to sony E mount completely late last year or earlier this year, sold most of my DA limits and stars, primes and zooms, even FA 31 and 77, only kept some M42 lenses and FA 20, 24, 43, 135 and 300/4.5. because on A7, there are some other MF glasses are almost as good but cheaper. most importantly, I can just go ahead and use them and not worry about nicking on the barrel or paint loss on the limits.
But then I saw the prices of pentax lenses kept going down and really could not resist. I bought two FA limits back, bought all DA limits 15, 21, 35, 40, and 70, and 20-40. Bought 16-50 and 50-135 back, bought 18-135 back, bought 17-70 back, bought DFA 100, bought da 300/4, ALL in the past 10 month!
If I want to keep them, I shall say I am happy, very happy. (Partially) left Pentax for a while helped me I realizing how much I love pentax.
If I need to sell them in the future, I might cry.

[carrrlangas]

The prices are ... don't know what to say.
I almost moved to sony E mount completely late last year or earlier this year, sold most of my DA limits and stars, primes and zooms, even FA 31 and 77, only kept some M42 lenses and FA 20, 24, 43, 135 and 300/4.5. because on A7, there are some other MF glasses are almost as good but cheaper. most importantly, I can just go ahead and use them and not worry about nicking on the barrel or paint loss on the limits.
But then I saw the prices of pentax lenses kept going down and really could not resist. I bought two FA limits back, bought all DA limits 15, 21, 35, 40, and 70, and 20-40. Bought 16-50 and 50-135 back, bought 18-135 back, bought 17-70 back, bought DFA 100, bought da 300/4, ALL in the past 10 month!
If I want to keep them, I shall say I am happy, very happy. (Partially) left Pentax for a while helped me I realizing how much I love pentax.
If I need to sell them in the future, I might cry.

Funny, I sold my k-3 some months ago and last week bought a used Sony A7 and 4 primes.. I am posting my DA15, DA21, F28, DA40XS, F50, DA70 on the marketplace this week!
I almost bought a K-S1 since they are quite small and their price is not so high now so I could justifiy keeping some of these lenses but reality is I like the brigther, smaller system I have put together. And even though I bought a k-mount adapter and got really good results i can only justify keeping the FA100/3.5 in case I need macro or a long-ish telephoto..
I am living in Germany now and cant find sources to price the lenses other than the sporadic sale on the marketplace.

Anyway, I hope I wont regret it like it happened to you....

[grahame]

I did not regret selling Pentax gear in the past, nor did I regret buying A7 or pentax lenses back. I sold the pentax lenses when prices were still high. the $$ from selling was used for A7 and later buying pentax back.
Very interesting, although the sony cameras (NEX7 and A7) are more expensive than my Pentax cameras (K5iis and KS2), and sony lenses focus fine, resolution is great, and they are easier to carry, but I never used the sony as serious cameras. Even when I "only had very few" lenses left for pentax, whenever I need a camera that I can trust, that can do what I expect, I grab Pentax. Later I sold FE lenses, and use A7 for adapting my Minolta, Pentax, a few Nikon and other MF lenses, just for fun. I started to buy Pentax gear back when I was asked to photograph a wedding.
Sony goes with me when I am by myself,
Pentax goes with me when I need to get something done.

[Just1MoreDave]

From another thread, you need to sell an F50/1.7.

[Nicolas06]

The US$ dollar is very strong right now and ebay is a world market so what seem low price to you is high to other countries.

Yeah that's an important factor there. With current euro/dollar exchange rate + custom most used lenses offer there are actually costing as much as getting a new lens with waranty and possibility to get another sample if you got a bad one. You have to really ask a low price in US dollars if you ever hope to sell to somebody in european union theses days.

[osv]

Funny, I sold my k-3 some months ago and last week bought a used Sony A7 and 4 primes.. I am posting my DA15, DA21, F28, DA40XS, F50, DA70 on the marketplace this week!
I almost bought a K-S1 since they are quite small and their price is not so high now so I could justifiy keeping some of these lenses but reality is I like the brigther, smaller system I have put together. And even though I bought a k-mount adapter and got really good results i can only justify keeping the FA100/3.5 in case I need macro or a long-ish telephoto..
I am living in Germany now and cant find sources to price the lenses other than the sporadic sale on the marketplace.

Anyway, I hope I wont regret it like it happened to you....

i don't think that you'll regret it, because you aren't selling a comparable selection of ff wide lenses... basically most of what you have there can be done better on ff with other lenses, especially with pentax glass.

fa31, m28/3.5, k28/3.5, fa35, etc., are all winners on ff... his mistake was getting rid of the ff limited glass, especially the fa31

if you are fortunate enough to own a clean fa31, it should go to the grave with you... i mean stipulated in your will as such; when they view your body at the wake, the fa31 should be sitting on your chest