[Fenwoodian]

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For decades now, I've bought and sold photography gear. Lately, I'm finding that the buying/selling environment has changed and is different then I've seen before.

On the buying side, I've scored some terrific deals in the last few months ($6,000 USD Nikkor lens for $1,700 USD - new old stock Canon 5D full frame body with 6 batteries & 2 chargers for $120 USD).

On the selling side, it's just the opposite! I've got dozens of items for sale at extremely low prices, but not only are none selling, but I'm not even getting low ball offers.

It seems that this is a great time to buy used gear; but not a very good time to sell gear.

What's been your experience lately buying and selling photography equipment? What do you think the future holds?

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Last edited by Fenwoodian; 08-12-2022 at 01:18 PM.

[nutz]

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For decades now, I've bought and sold photography gear. Lately, I'm finding that the buying/selling environment has changed and is different then I've seen before.

On the buying side, I've scored some terrific deals in the last few months ($6,000 USD Nikkor lens for $1,700 USD - new old stock Canon 5D full frame body with 6 batteries & 2 chargers for $120 USD).

On the selling side, it's just the opposite! I've got dozens of items for sale at extremely low prices, but not only are none selling, but I'm not even getting low ball offers.

It seems that this is a great time to buy used gear; but not a very good time to sell gear.

What's been your experience lately buying and selling photography equipment? What do you think the future holds?

I agree with your comment, I have had some lenses for sale here and on the bay going on a month and half and not one question or on bay not even any looks! Very disappointing

[gatorguy]

I'm with you Fenwoodian. Bad time to be a seller. With so few new camera buyers now, and IMO quite a few who di in recent years but no longer (as) interested in SLR's, I've no doubt there's now a glut of good but older lenses.

I certainly wouldn't buy a new lens today with the idea that if I didn't care for it I could just sell it on for close to what I paid.

[Unregistered User 8]

Just a reminder folks, that General Talk is only for non-photography related topics. Thread moved to General photography.

Thanks.

[Fenwoodian]

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I dislike selling gear to "new camera buyers". A couple of weeks ago, a fellow bought a Fuji X body from me, and he didn't have a clue on how to use it. I suspect his only prior experience was with a cell phone. Daily I've been getting multiple questions from him on how to use and set up the camera. He seems in such a big rush and refuses to either read the manual or watch YouTube tutorials. I'm stuck with holding his hand because with the liberal return policies on Ebay, if I don't work with him I'm afraid he'll send it back to me.

[Dartmoor Dave]

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I dislike selling gear to "new camera buyers". A couple of weeks ago, a fellow bought a Fuji X body from me, and he didn't have a clue on how to use it. I suspect his only prior experience was with a cell phone. Daily I've been getting multiple questions from him on how to use and set up the camera. He seems in such a big rush and refuses to either read the manual or watch YouTube tutorials. I'm stuck with holding his hand because with the liberal return policies on Ebay, if I don't work with him I'm afraid he'll send it back to me.

It was because of that sort of thing that I gave up selling on ebay completely. Again and again, people with no clue what they were doing would buy an item from me, then expect me to answer question after question about how to use it. And I'm talking about idiocy on the level of buyers assuming that the auto/manual switch on a fifty year old M42 lens is supposed to switch it to autofocus.

[ChristianRock]

Ok so on one hand you guys complain that it's hard to be a seller because no one's buying (a lot of people are leaving cameras behind to use just their cell phones).

On the other hand, you complain when new people join the photography world because they have questions (they're newbies, they'll ask newbie questions). Just be nice and polite and point them to some instructional videos. Help them pick up the photography bug.

Sorry if I can't find myself having a whole lot of sympathy for this conundrum...

[ChristianRock]

Oh and I think people are realizing that Canon and Nikon DSLRs are now dead systems.

I look forward to buying a D750 with a couple nice primes next year for a couple hundred bucks

[R.Miller]

On the selling side, it's just the opposite! I've got dozens of items for sale at extremely low prices, but not only are none selling, but I'm not even getting low ball offers.

It seems that this is a great time to buy used gear; but not a very good time to sell gear.

Agreed. Not complaining, just making an observation is all. Since the Pentax market is relatively small it stands to reason that the used equipment scene would be very saturated at some point. Plus, with people selling off their Canon, Nikon DSLR gear to move to mirrorless that will glut the market even further. People that were on the fence to add\try other vendors kits are probably very tempted right now.

[Fenwoodian]

Oh and I think people are realizing that Canon and Nikon DSLRs are now dead systems.

I look forward to buying a D750 with a couple nice primes next year for a couple hundred bucks

Great, another Canon and Nikon hater!

[biz-engineer]

It seems that this is a great time to buy used gear; but not a very good time to sell gear.

Depends how old is the gear being sold. The relatively new models still benefit from the umbrella effect created by the marketing of the camera industry, which bring customers to buy what you sell without much advertising effort from you as a seller.

After a few years a product has been released to market, the camera industry stops advertising that product line, the product gets out of the corporate advertising umbrella and the demand for such products fades quickly.

[biz-engineer]

What do you think the future holds?

Used DSLR prices may go like film SLR camera prices went during the growing years of digital, then go up again once DSLR gets a vintage image, e.g a decade long cycle of very low prices for DSLR and then prices stabilize and go up again when the supply of used devices naturally decrease due to some devices breaking of old age.

[btnapa]

What's been your experience lately buying and selling photography equipment? What do you think the future holds?

No recent (last year or so) experience selling in open market. A few Pentax items I have sold have been to friends discounted from going prices. However, I did sell a Hassy 501CM with and an 80mm 2.8 lens that has doubled in price since I sold it. At the timeI sold the camera (6-7 years ago), film was dead and digital was all the rage. Now it looks like film has made a comeback and anything film is now worth a lot more than a few years ago.

I had two Fuji X cameras and three lenses that I sold about a year and a half ago. I sold them locally. They sold fairly fast and at decent prices. At the same time, I tried to sell a few remaining Pentax lenses I have but got zero response in my local market through OfferUp and Craigslist. So I kept my Pentax lenses as I do not want to deal with eBay or other remote platforms.

[gatorguy]

Oh nvmd.

[ChristianRock]

Great, another Canon and Nikon hater!

If I was a hater why would I say that I would buy one?