Selling Used Lenses

[rab3rd]

So I recently contacted an online used lens sales company (I wont mention the name) and told them I had a 100-400mm L f4.5-5.6 and a 24-105mm L f4 that I was looking to sell or trade towards a 300mm L f2.8. Both my lenses are in perfect shape, they offered me 1300.00 for both as a cash deal or 10% more as a trade in....

I understand that they need to make money, but damn! I was a bit insulted...

[DigiSLR]

Originally Posted by rab3rd

So I recently contacted an online used lens sales company (I wont mention the name) and told them I had a 100-400mm L f4.5-5.6 and a 24-105mm L f4 that I was looking to sell or trade towards a 300mm L f2.8. Both my lenses are in perfect shape, they offered me 1300.00 for both as a cash deal or 10% more as a trade in....

I understand that they need to make money, but damn! I was a bit insulted...

I'll give you $1500 for both of them.

[tml]

You should not be insulted. They are there to maximize return on investment. Those items may have to sit on the shelves for a while before they are able to sell them. During that time period, they have overheads to pay for. Try this forum, or even ebay. Those are popular items, you should not have too much trouble selling them, especially on ebay. I have had good luck with both. Good luck. Tri

[L Stegall]

It's just like trading in your nice, well-kept used car. You're never going to get what you want from a dealer and you'll always sell for more if you do it independently. As Tri said ^, I'd offer to sell them here first and then, if no takers, move to eBay. Even with eBay's fees, you'll still come out better than selling to a dealer.

[brewercm]

I had the same thing happen a while back when I was selling a couple of lenses I no longer needed due to a purchase to replace them. Neither was worth a lot of money but what they were offering was half of what I had already sold them for. Just sent a thanks, but no thanks they had already been sold.
I do understand they have to pay overhead and everything themselves. Not to mention for many buyers they may be the last place to check for a deal because they can be gotten somewhere else cheaper if you are just willing to wait.

[rab3rd]

Profit is not a bad word, but if these lenses are soooo popular then they wouldnt sit on their shelf long now would they? Rape is rape not matter how you package it. I was kidding about being insulted. I kindly declined the offer. I only posted here as a talking point...

[janikphoto]

I guess I don't know what those lenses would go for on ebay, so I don't know how good or bad the offer was. However, I do know that a reseller will normally offer you 50-60% of current used price retail, so they can actually make a profit from the transaction. If you want to know that the offer was fair, look at recent ebay sales and take 60% of the final bid.

[brewercm]

No problem on feeling that way here. I had the same feeling at the time and just figured all they could do is ask. You never know how desperate somebody is wanting to get rid of something. Not meaning to take advantage of someone but I'm always willing to expect offers that may be a "bit" low when selling something like that. No different from my other hobbies when buying/selling.

[Abel]

Yea private sales will always yield you more money in your equipment since you're eliminating the middle man and that one extra instance of money changing hands.

good luck with the sales..