How to sell your camera stuff on the internet....so you can buy more stuff

bobbyk · March 16, 2011

Someone at work asked me how to sell a dslr camera that he had because he could use the cash to get another camera. He knew about craigslist and ebay but had never done anything with either. I have been using both for so long that I forgot that it took me a while to learn how to use those places. Now I mainly use ebay.

But.... I thought...maybe this is another excuse for a blog posting... a tutorial about some of the ins and outs of selling stuff on ebay.

I think this would be of great use for a beginner. I would also love to hear about any "tricks" that the more experienced people have that I might have missed. I can add them to my posting.

The posting is here : http://www.bobkeenanphoto.com/sell-dslr-stuff-internet/

ThatCanonGuy · March 16, 2011

I have not read your whole article, but I like it so far. You might want to consider doing some minor grammar changes though. I can add a few of my personal tips:

I actually like to try forums like here and FM first, because I won't have to deal with the listing fees and ebay fees (but Paypal still has fees).

For ebay, if I really want to sell an item for a cerain price I will start the bid at that price. It's above the average you can get for the item, but some buyers will bid on it.

If you're selling a white L lens with some paint chips on it, the chips will decrease the value. Canon Parts sells white touch-up paint, and, while not cheap, can increase the value of the lens. You have to do some math and look at the statistics though, the paint might cost more than the surplus you get for touching up the chips.

I could probably think of more but that's what comes off the top of my head.

JustinThyme · March 16, 2011

Not to impune your fine work sir just offer that my personal preferences prohibit the use of Fleabay and Craigs Lair.
While not totally free from lowballers and folks that think their gear is made of gold, I find online photog forums where the folks pretty much know what the going rate is (for a newb its just a search away). If you have a good feedback system that allows both good and bad it works more effectively than good only. One could sell 20 $10 items and get good feedback on those then rip someone for $5K. In the past 2 years or so I have bought and sold probably $25K in gear at online forums. The failure of the Fleabay system is what drove me to search them out.

I liked the old days of Fleabay when it was just plain old people swapping their stuff around. Now if you do a seach for an Item you get bombarded with a hit list 100 pages deep with 80% or more being etailers spamming it out with buy it now. Id much rather pool from a few small communities and deal with other photogs with good feedback.

mguffin · March 16, 2011

Although I disagree with the notion that eBay and Craigslist are a haven for scammers (buyer and seller alway should beware regardless of the platform), I am amazed that there is a need for such an article. Who, in the year 2011, doesn't know how to sell used stuff for cash? They bought a DSLR, but can't navigate through PayPal...?

Art Scott · March 16, 2011

mguffin wrote: »

Although I disagree with the notion that eBay and Craigslist are a haven for scammers (buyer and seller alway should beware regardless of the platform), I am amazed that there is a need for such an article. Who, in the year 2011, doesn't know how to sell used stuff for cash? They bought a DSLR, but can't navigate through PayPal...?

I agree with most of this and disagree with the open of JUSTINTYHME.....99.9% of all my photo buying is at EBAY with Paypal.....you have some protection with these 2.....online forums that I am a member (several) do not allow ANY negative feedback at all and I got screwed on a $1200 dollar lens purchase and had absolutley no recourse...also if it comes off ebay you can 99.9% of the time get a warranty from Square Trade.......Again y0u cannot do this off a forum......If I had bought off ebay...I am 99.9% sure I would have gotten a full refund including shipping.....but since I bought off a forum from someone that had tons of good feed back on that forum and other forums I was screwed........Now I have bought good off here that were in awesome condition like my Sekonic L558 meter (thanks mmatt).....but after my getting taken on the lens that would have cost me over $500 to get it fixed at Nikon service center and I would never have been able to recoup most of my 1700 investment......so it became damaged unfixable and came off my taxes.....I could have screwed my insurance company and told them I damaged it on a shoot, but I will not do that....I am done with forum buying if the item has to be shipped to me.....There is a NikonCafe member I will buy from, but he lives less than 20 miles from me and I will meet him in a parking lot of a store half way from his town to mine .........

ziggy53 · March 16, 2011

I moved this to The Big Picture forum because it surely didn't belong in the Cameras forum and I can't really think of any more appropriate forum than TBP.

Carry on.

ThatCanonGuy · March 17, 2011

For buying, I stay away from ebay because the prices are generally higher. For selling, I try forums first to see if I can get the price I want. If not, then I do ebay. I do not like paying the ebay fees, though.

How to sell your camera stuff on the internet....so you can buy more stuff

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