Tips on buying and selling cameras

by Stanley LearyPhotography
This is the main photo I used to sell my Nikon D3s on ebay. It shows all the original packing and even the unused Nikon D3s camera strap.

When I bought my first camera I was really excited. This was back in the early 1980s and when there were camera stores in almost every town in America.

Wayne Hitt, owner of The Camera Shop in Morganton, NC sold me my first Nikon FM2 camera and gave me some tips across that counter.  This is how most people learned photography years ago, it was done by the camera store employees and owners across America.

September 11, 2012 Wolf Camera and it’s owner Ritz Camera have filed for bankruptcy and are closing all their stores. Before they folded they had already closed many of their stores across the country.  I would venture to say that there will be very few bricks and mortar stores for you to walk into outside of major metropolitan areas in the near future.

I think it is becoming increasingly difficult to walk into a store and have a photographic expert to help walk you through your purchase.

Good news!

Today we do have more resources available than when I bought my camera.  DPReview.com is one of many different places on the web where you can go and have some solid research to help guide you to the camera that best suites your needs.

The odds are also better today if you find a photographer doing what you like to do, who has a blog telling you what equipment they use and recommendations. Here are some of those blogs other than mine that are doing just that:

Moose Peterson: http://www.moosepeterson.com/blog/category/technology/camera-tech/moose-bag/
Dave Black: http://www.daveblackphotography.com/
Joe McNalley: http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/

There are many places other than these guys to help you know what cameras to choose to get the job done.

Lenses are important

While your first camera purchase will focus a great deal on the camera, the lenses you choose are just as important. Most every photographer expert will recommend you stay with your camera’s brand for lenses rather than off brand lenses.

While not all of us have the resources to get exactly what we want, spending the money on something that you will keep longer is better than something you might not keep as long. As a rule it is safe to say your lenses will outlast your camera.  Therefore you will be replacing your camera more often than your lenses if you continue to do this professionally or as a hobby in the years to come.

Think Resale

When you buy a camera today, it is more likely than in the film days to replaced sooner. They will come out with a model that will do something you wish you had on your camera and so you upgrade.

  • Buy a camera brand that is established so that when you decide to upgrade the camera you have still has some resale value.
  • Keep all the original packing material. This will help with resale.
  • Don’t use the camera strap that comes with the camera, buy a different one. (resale)
  • Baby the camera. Take really good care of the camera. Just like a car that looks like it just came off the showroom floor the value of the camera goes up the better the condition.
Upgrading
Timing is very important to maximize your opportunity in the market. There is a sweet time slot to sell and buy a camera.
The sweet spot is when your used camera has it’s greatest value.
Camera manufacturers have a lineup of cameras very much like the auto industry does on their lots. 
  • $300- $600
  • $800 – $1,500
  • $2,000 – $3,500
  • $4,000 – $6,000
  • $7,000 – and up
In general you are going to loose between 25% – 50% on a camera that is well taken care of with all the original packing materials.
From the time you bought your camera till they replace your model is about 18 months on average. This follows the Moore’s Law since so much of the camera is a computer anyway. Moore’s Law is about the power of the computer chip doubling in power every 18 months and for the most part this has held true.
Camera manufactures do not as a rule roll out all their new cameras every 18 months. The new roll outs are staggered and therefore a new camera is almost introduced every 6 months.
Let’s say you bought the high end camera at $5,000 18 months ago.  The new one comes out to replace it is about the same price of $5,200.  In those first 3 months you can sell your used camera for a maximum price of maybe $3,750 on the high end to about $2,500 on the low end.  Just depends on how many Shutter Actuations (How many times the shutter fired) since you bought the camera, how the point looks on the body of the camera and most important how good the sensor is performing.
As you get closer to the 6 months mark after they introduced the new camera most likely the price point just below it is getting their new model. It will sell for $3,000.  Since it is newer than your used camera it most likely will be a better camera except in durability.  But now you are competing selling your $2,500 – $3,750 with a new $3,000. This is when your camera now will take another hit to it’s price value on the market.  I would guess roughly another $500 less than you could have gotten had you tried to sell it just a couple months ago.
Where to Sell
I highly recommend using ebay.com to sell your gear. The days of going to the local camera store and trading your gear in and upgrading are gone for the most part.  KEH.com still will buy your gear, but usually at half the price they would sell the camera gear.
ebay has some great buyer protection in place making it even better than selling the camera on your own. While they get a cut it is still better than having a bad check in your hand. Even a cashiers check can be bad these days.
Take photos of the gear you want to sell. Take every angle possible and at a high resolution. This helps those looking at your gear zoom in and see the imperfections if there are any.  
I use PhotoMechanic to find out the actuations. Here are those instructions:

Edit> Settings> Set Info Text and select the “actuations” variable. Don’t forget to type in some form of label before the variable so you’ll be able to tell what number goes with this variable.

Then the actuations will appear in the panel when you bring up “Restore Panes”

IMPORTANT: Be sure and keep copies of everything. More than 6 months after selling a Nikon D3 the buyer filed a fraudulent charge against me through PayPal.  Because I had all my records this was taken care of right away.

Keep your cameras protected in a camera bag or you can even buy a silicon protective cover to avoid scratches. Here is a link to some of those silicon skins.

Inventory

After doing this for a while it is quite common to have camera gear laying around that you no longer use. Go through your closet and pull everything you no longer use in to a pile to list on ebay.  Many things that we think are worthless are even more valuable because they are hard to find.

You can search for each item you are no longer needing and then say you want to sell a similar item and it will help you put your listing up even sooner. If you don’t see anything like your item on ebay, you may want to start a little higher on price, because it is rare.  If no one buys you can always lower the price.  Auctioning it can also be a great way to get a better price than you thought you could have gotten.