Selling gear question

BarnesPhotoInVT · May 7, 2018

So, I picked up the A7III a month ago, I've been very happy with it, and I'd like to sell some of my gear to pick up more sony stuff.

My question is this, where do I sell stuff? Every content creator I know is constantly saying "blah blah its such a great investment because you can resell it and get most of your money back". I've tried selling on amazon, selling through ebay, selling on craigslist and facebook. Amazon and eBay in my opinion take way too large of a cut, and if a dispute arrives (seems like a lot of people like to buy used gear and then return it after "renting" it for a month?), both companies seem to blindly side with the buyer every time. I live in rural vermont and facebook and craigslist suck when no one lives near you.

Interested what other people do.... help me fund my sony addiction!

Fred Salamon · May 7, 2018

Have you tried the buy and sell boards on this and other photography forums?

noggin2k1 · May 7, 2018

Depends on your geography.

Here in the UK, eBay do a "Max £1selling fees", every few weekends. Last time I checked, this saved me £1,000+ in selling fees.

Yes, I still get stung by the 2%ish PayPal fees, but that's a lot better than to 15-20% less kit fetches on Gumtree/Facebook/trade in.

Roses · May 7, 2018

We've been taking a heavy loss on selling used gear, so we started waiting longer and buying on greentoe and/or buying used to begin with so that the loss is lessened. That doesn't help you in this case though.

The Fred Miranda forums has a decent amount of movement on the buy/sell boards, and sometimes you just have to be patient with craigslist/ebay/online selling sites. It has taken us a few months to sell stuff previously.

DFPanno · May 7, 2018

Just sold two lenses on Craig's List and an A7R II on eBay.

Craig's list is great when the buyer is nearby.

Overall I find eBay easiest. I indicate that there are no returns.

Fees are high but that's the cost of doing business I guess.

The Fat Fish · May 7, 2018

noggin2k1 said:
Depends on your geography.

Here in the UK, eBay do a "Max £1selling fees", every few weekends. Last time I checked, this saved me £1,000+ in selling fees.

+1

I never sell on eBay without using these deals.

Ms Bigglesworth · May 7, 2018

If you can't do a direct sale via local ads - you're stuck with Amazon/Ebay - unless you get lucky and connect on DPR/FM. These latter mentioned ones have more scammers so extra care is necessary to verify credentials before selling. It can save you the 7-10% commissions though.

Chris Crevasse · May 8, 2018

I need to sell several fine Canon lenses. Are you saying there are more scammers on FM and DPR than on Craigslist or eBay? That's counter to what I've heard.

DFPanno · May 8, 2018

Chris Crevasse said:
I need to sell several fine Canon lenses. Are you saying there are more scammers on FM and DPR than on Craigslist or eBay? That's counter to what I've heard.

There are scammers everywhere.

What you increasingly see on places like FM are "low-ballers" that often want to resell your gear.

These sites are not quite the "gentleman's club" that they once were as more and more people became aware of them.

BarnesPhotoInVT · May 8, 2018

DFPanno said:
I indicate that there are no returns.

Stflbn · May 8, 2018

"no returns" on ebay means nothing if the buyer pushes a problem with ebay resolutions. You'll end up taking it back, and ebay will yank the money from the sale.

Chris Crevasse · May 8, 2018

Pardon my ignorance on this matter (and many others), but where the buyer is not local, how is payment handled? PayPal? No shipping until payment is confirmed?

BarnesPhotoInVT · May 8, 2018

Stflbn said:
"no returns" on ebay means nothing if the buyer pushes a problem with ebay resolutions. You'll end up taking it back, and ebay will yank the money from the sale.

DFPanno · May 8, 2018

BarnesPhotoInVT said:
DFPanno said:

I indicate that there are no returns.

Click to expand...

Ms Bigglesworth · May 8, 2018

Chris Crevasse said:
I need to sell several fine Canon lenses. Are you saying there are more scammers on FM and DPR than on Craigslist or eBay? That's counter to what I've heard.

I'm saying there is NO AFTER SALE SELLER SUPPORT on FM and DPR if things go bad. Amazon, Ebay, PayPal will protect sellers to a small degree. They also sort of prequalify their buyers.

With DPR/FM you *must* do your own due diligence. With the world of the WWW it's not so hard to drill down and find people's tracks. A buyer can verify a house, phone number, address, Facebook, LinkedIn etc., place of employment, what websites they own, emails they use etc. If they refuse to divulge any information and you cannot verify a single thing as ever existing - RUN!

That why CL and FB is the best possible choice. CASH I give the 10% off of Ebay/market price just to avoid Ebay if possible.

Though I almost got taken once on CL - they sold me a camera for a very low price but after a short amount of use it was glitching out to the point of non functional. I'm sure that's why they sold it so cheap. I updated the firmware and it became perfect - so it turned out to be their loss.

RicksAstro · May 8, 2018

Ms Bigglesworth said:
Chris Crevasse said:

I need to sell several fine Canon lenses. Are you saying there are more scammers on FM and DPR than on Craigslist or eBay? That's counter to what I've heard.

Click to expand...

I'm saying there is NO AFTER SALE SELLER SUPPORT on FM and DPR if things go bad. Amazon, Ebay, PayPal will protect sellers to a small degree. They also sort of prequalify their buyers.

With DPR/FM you *must* do your own due diligence. With the world of the WWW it's not so hard to drill down and find people's tracks. A buyer can verify a house, phone number, address, Facebook, LinkedIn etc., place of employment, what websites they own, emails they use etc. If they refuse to divulge any information and you cannot verify a single thing as ever existing - RUN!

I've used FM for many, many years and probably several hundred buys and sells and have a perfect 180+ feedback there. I've never been scammed there and 95% of the time, if you buy from someone with a 25+ positive feedbacks, you won't have any issues. I've returned one or two items that aren't what was described and the best sellers there will stand behind their sales unless you are being overly picky.

Only use full Paypal on FM (by far the majority of payment types there) and they tend to protect the buyers quite well.

As you gain reputation, you will become more trusted and it's a superb resource for buying and selling. You tend to get ebay prices for selling stuff without the % fees.

Lowballers don't bother me much...only get one or 2 each time. If it bothers you, people sometimes put "No Lowballers" or "Price Firm" in their ad.

--
Rick Krejci
http://www.ricksastro.com

techjedi · May 8, 2018

BarnesPhotoInVT said:
So, I picked up the A7III a month ago, I've been very happy with it, and I'd like to sell some of my gear to pick up more sony stuff.

My question is this, where do I sell stuff? Every content creator I know is constantly saying "blah blah its such a great investment because you can resell it and get most of your money back". I've tried selling on amazon, selling through ebay, selling on craigslist and facebook. Amazon and eBay in my opinion take way too large of a cut, and if a dispute arrives (seems like a lot of people like to buy used gear and then return it after "renting" it for a month?), both companies seem to blindly side with the buyer every time. I live in rural vermont and facebook and craigslist suck when no one lives near you.

Interested what other people do.... help me fund my sony addiction!

berni29 · May 8, 2018

Hi

My brother and I have sold at least 100 lenses and bodies in the last year or so on ebay. We also go for the low fee selling deals. I have had to accept a couple of returns in that time, but if you only sell to higher feedback buyers, you can avoid many problems. As has been said, provide high res pictures and be truthful and accurate.

Actually we had one guy send back a scruffy LX3 that worked perfectly and had an unnaturally sharp lens (probably why it was so well used) and ebay/paypal refunded his money. My brother complained and actually got them to reverse the decision. That is almost unheard of though.

Ebay is pretty hateful, especially for sellers, but it is the best option by far for speed and reach.

I think things will improve when the shed the paypal only option. Something which should happen relatively soon I hope. I truly hate paypal.

DFPanno · May 8, 2018

techjedi said:
BarnesPhotoInVT said:

So, I picked up the A7III a month ago, I've been very happy with it, and I'd like to sell some of my gear to pick up more sony stuff.

My question is this, where do I sell stuff? Every content creator I know is constantly saying "blah blah its such a great investment because you can resell it and get most of your money back". I've tried selling on amazon, selling through ebay, selling on craigslist and facebook. Amazon and eBay in my opinion take way too large of a cut, and if a dispute arrives (seems like a lot of people like to buy used gear and then return it after "renting" it for a month?), both companies seem to blindly side with the buyer every time. I live in rural vermont and facebook and craigslist suck when no one lives near you.

Interested what other people do.... help me fund my sony addiction!

Click to expand...

Cameron Swinton · May 8, 2018

My experiences on FM have been similar. If you use common sense, buy from or sell to people with good feedback, and accurately describe items you're selling, it's likely you'll have a good transaction.

As for the low-ballers, I just politely reply and then ignore them.

FWIW, I also avoid selling or buying things on sites like FM using "gift" payment methods. I've never had to dispute a transaction, but side-stepping some of the (small) transaction fees by using non-protected transaction methods isn't worth the risk to me.

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