Advice from those who have sold A-mount gear

I'm getting ready to sell my A77 kit. Was wondering where people feel they have had the best luck selling? I'll probably start with FB Marketplace (since it's local) before heading to EBay (although that seems like too much work). Are there specific camera gear sites that work well? Not too concerned about getting top dollar, but not willing to give stuff away either as I'd like to use those funds to put towards other gear.

Hi Kwah,

I've used the Australian FB page to purchase and found it very good. Even developed enough trust with a gent on the other side of the continent to go through and purchase a good lens without seeing it.

So we are out there in Australia looking at the Sony/Minolta FB page.

Good Luck

Richard C

kwahaus said:

I'm getting ready to sell my A77 kit.

Click to expand...

You mean the camera with all those lenses, or separate sales?

kwahaus said:

Was wondering where people feel they have had the best luck selling? I'll probably start with FB Marketplace (since it's local) before heading to EBay (although that seems like too much work).

Click to expand...

Try all the options.

kwahaus said:

Are there specific camera gear sites that work well?

Click to expand...

Fredmiranda.com is popular.

kwahaus said:

Not too concerned about getting top dollar, but not willing to give stuff away either as I'd like to use those funds to put towards other gear.

Click to expand...

Lots of posters choose to sell everything at once to online resellers like KEH or MPB in the US, or UsedPhotoPro in Canada. Less money, but less risk and less work.

It was easy and painless.

They paid shipping to their location.

Their final payout was $100 more than their original estimate.

They direct deposited to my account within a day.

I sold them an a65 body, two FF a-mount lenses (that I'd paid a combined $3000 for originally) and several other a-mount zooms. All less than 10 years old and all in excellent condition.

By kit, I mean pretty much everything. I’ve switched to FF e mount. A couple of lenses would work with an adapter (I have the LA-EA3) but selling everything gets me that much closer to buying native e mount glass. The one exception might be to keep the Minolta 100mm 2.8 macro, but then I’d need to keep the adapter too. I know the Sony 90mm macro is excellent, but I don’t do enough macros to justify the new lens.

So besides the body and lenses (I think I have five or six) I have a Sony battery grip and Sony Hvl f43 flash and the aforementioned adapter.

Last thing to consider is whether to sell everything together or piecemeal? My guess is I may get more by selling individual items, but it might not be worth the requisite added effort.

kwahaus said:

I'm getting ready to sell my A77 kit. Was wondering where people feel they have had the best luck selling? I'll probably start with FB Marketplace (since it's local) before heading to EBay (although that seems like too much work). Are there specific camera gear sites that work well? Not too concerned about getting top dollar, but not willing to give stuff away either as I'd like to use those funds to put towards other gear.

Click to expand...

I hope you're not expecting to sell it quickly or to make any reasonable money.

All SLR mounts are dead. Sony users are well aware of that, Nikon and Canon are still living in denial, Pentax users refuse to let go.

Selling any SLR gear is unfortunately hopeless. You need to be ready to cope with huge loss of value.

If you're expecting to sell gear reasonably quickly and painlessly, you'll lose even more value, but you won't have the lenses lying around as paperweights.

If you're expecting to lose as little as possible, it will take a very long time to sell the gear.

If you price it higher than market prices, it's still a loss, and you will probably never sell them unless you have something really unique. If it's popular gear, buyers will always find a cheaper seller.

If it's unique, you might find somebody interested in it, but then you need to consider who would be a likely buyer and why would he be interested in it.

Looking at your gear list, there's sadly nothing that would be unique and command a higher price.

Look at current prices and offer gear for less. That way at least you won't lose time waiting for a buyer that will never come.

Your comments match your user name!

Sadly you are right. I don’t expect to get much. The real decision was whether I should just keep it or get rid of it. Think I’m ready to move on. Honestly if any of my kids wanted it, I’d let them have it.

Just another thought Kwah ... I've only recently aquired an LAE5 adapter so can't speak on it yet ... but have you thought of that as an option?

Cheers

Richard C

kwahaus said:

I'm getting ready to sell my A77 kit. Was wondering where people feel they have had the best luck selling? I'll probably start with FB Marketplace (since it's local) before heading to EBay (although that seems like too much work). Are there specific camera gear sites that work well? Not too concerned about getting top dollar, but not willing to give stuff away either as I'd like to use those funds to put towards other gear.

Click to expand...

I've always had good luck selling on Craigs List. I've sold 5 cameras and several lenses and always got a fair price.

kwahaus said:

Your comments match your user name!

Sadly you are right. I don’t expect to get much. The real decision was whether I should just keep it or get rid of it. Think I’m ready to move on. Honestly if any of my kids wanted it, I’d let them have it.

Click to expand...

Sell it all. There aren't that many A Mount users left so the individual lenses might be tough to sell but if you sell everything it would be great for someone starting out.

I found KEH to be a good place to sell old cameras and lenses. You will not receive the maximum $$$ for your gear but it is a very easy transaction when you have a lot of gear to sell. I believe KEH pays about 40% of the value of camera gear that it charges on its website. I assume the same would apply if you sold to other firms that bought camera gear (B&H Photo, Adorama, etc.).

I sold A-mount gear to KEH in October 2018 and November 2019 and received a total of $1,000 for an A700+grip and about 20 lenses in those two sales. Here are a few items sold with $$$ received on those sales:

Sony A700+vertical grip - $100

Sony Flash HLV35 - $35

Konica Minolta 17-35mm - $135

Two Minolta 24-105 - $95 each

Two Minolta 24mm f2.8 RS - $75 each

Tamron 60mm f2 Macro - $100

Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 - $75

Samyang 8mm f3.5 - $75

Sony 30mm f2.8 Macro DT SAM - $30

I also sold several old Minolta Maxxum (50 f1.7, Beercan, 100-200mm, 35-70mm, 28-85mm, etc.) and cheap Sigma zooms (70-300mm and 20-80mm) and received $5 to $15 for those lenses. The KEH Representative stated that they were going to discontinue the purchase of those older and very common A mount lenses.

I still have my A77 and several A-mount aps-c and full-frame lenses. I kind of wish I would have sold a few more items because the prices have fallen over the past couple of years. I plan to buy an A99ii once the price has fallen on that camera and then use some of my full-frame lenses with that camera. It's too expensive to start over with the Sony E mount full frame line. I already did that with my Sony A6000 aps-c lenses.

I've also had good experiences with MPB for small sales. Everything is handled well, including having items picked up at my door without charge.

kwahaus said:

So besides the body and lenses (I think I have five or six) I have a Sony battery grip and Sony Hvl f43 flash and the aforementioned adapter.

Click to expand...

How much do you want for the flash?

Last June, I got a quote from MPB for my a99ii for $1400. I was curious, but not sure I'll ever sell the camera.

Pako,

Thank you for the inquiry. I haven't done much research so I honestly don't know how much to ask for the flash.

Before I sell it, I'd like to see if I can trigger it wirelessly from the little HVL-20M flash mounted on my A7Rii. If so, it might be worth hanging on to...or not.

I sold my A77, a Tamron 18-270, and a vertical grip last year to MPB. I got about $530 for those items. They weren't interested in my A300, flash, or older lenses.

kwahaus said:

I'm getting ready to sell my A77 kit. Was wondering where people feel they have had the best luck selling? I'll probably start with FB Marketplace (since it's local) before heading to EBay (although that seems like too much work). Are there specific camera gear sites that work well? Not too concerned about getting top dollar, but not willing to give stuff away either as I'd like to use those funds to put towards other gear.

Click to expand...

I traded my A77 and some lenses in against an A7 IV and 24mm & 40mm G lenses with LCE in the U.K. They offered a much better price than Wilson Cameras and MBP.

I could have probably got more off eBay but I really could not be bothered with the effort. The pain of the depreciation in the value of the gear was offset by the fact Sony were running a special offer of £200 off both those G lenses (so a £400 saving).

I have kept a Sigma 105 macro, Minolta 100-200 F4.5 zoom, Sony 70-300 G & Sony 500mm F8 mirror. I have the LE-AE5 adapter and all of these work well with it. In fact the 500 works better than on my old A77.