Best place to sell/trade camera gear?

Question

I know Adorama and B&H will buy or trade cameras, etc? Are there any others and has anyone had any experience doing this? Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

craigslist in a city near you.

No shipping, dealing with payment (other than cash in hand) and the buyer gets to hold and examine the camera/lens

Answer 2

Hi Jade.   One that I have personally traded with is Jack;s Camera.. you will have to google it.    About your camera gear....  I can say... as you mentioned, there is no great demand and especially since Minolta went out of business... so even trading with companies....  they are trading knowing there is a market for the items they exchange..  so you might want to try on eBay,  or Craig'sList in your city,  or with Photo.net (where you will have to join their site - but it is free).   Also... here is a suggestion... you might look in the yellow pages for camera stores in your locality.   I know in our store,  people come in all of the time wanting to sell their equipment (not trade).  If it is in good condition,  we look it up in the blue book and determine the value by that.    Also, it is getting close to the fall school season.  Kids in high school and college will be looking for manual cameras with accessories.   Try posting with the schools,  colleges, in the news paper,  church and grocery store bullitin boards.  SOMEONE wants your camera.  :))   Thanks for reading and best of luck.

Answer 3

ebay

Answer 4

Normally I would say go with the Ace, he knows his stuff; however, I only partially agree here. I've sold cameras on both eBay and Craigslist. My analysis:

Craigslist: you can get away with a quick listing, but you're reaching far fewer people, most of whom are looking for freebies and cheap bargains; you have people coming to your house (maybe dangerous) or you have to meet them somewhere; they have to have cash, which puts some people off.  That said, it can work -- I did it once for a good point-and-shoot by posting a firm fixed price, somebody wanted that kind of camera fast and it was OK -- I got $150 for a camera that I didn't feel was worth the few extra $$ I might get on eBay. (I based my price on eBay research).

eBay: To move my no-longer-needed high-end SLR's and lenses, I always use eBay. Start your auction at an evening hour, say 5 pm PDT (8 pm E Coast) and run it for ten days. Here you need a quality listing with good description and photos, complete disclosure and honesty. Prohibit foreign bids and bids from people with zero feedback; require PayPal, no exceptions -- this gives both parties protection and confidence.

You have to be prepared to ship -- this is very easy, actually. Pre-pack the stuff but don't seal the box; list the carton weights and dim's and allow USPS parcel post or Priority mail or UPS (you should not care which). Use a shipping calculator. Make insurance optional or compulsory for high-end stuff. Don't send an invoice -- tell the winning bidder in your listing to proceed immediately to checkout via PayPal. The next day you have your money, you buy and print a shipping label and print a packing list with a couple of clicks, you stick the packing list in the box, seal it up and take to the post office or UPS. It's finished and you can move on. Do NOT accept money orders or checks. Those who don't have a PayPal account are not going to bid up good stuff anyway. You will get many inquiries from Europe and Asia -- just say NO -- they never end up bidding anyway.

There you have the sum total of my three years of eBay learning curve (55 transactions, 100% positive feedback). I just moved two vintage Nikons and got twice what B&H or Adorama would have given me -- those are fine companies, I know them both, but they have to make a profit -- they look at your stuff, make a fair but LOW offer, and most people end up accepting it since they've gone to the trouble to ship the stuff, so at that point they just take the offer.

You have to put some time and care into a good eBay listing, but this approach will get you the best price for the least risk. With all due respect to Ace, 99% of your potential buyers do NOT live within driving distance.