Selling old camera gear on craigslist.com
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
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Out with the old, in with the new.
So, with the announcement in September of the canon 5d mk ii, one thing was clear to me, I needed to get some extra cash and needed to make some room in my camera bag for all the new gear I now plan to get.
My list of gear included 2 bodies and a bunch of lenses. I like the idea of having a backup body, so I decided to sell my canon Digital Rebel (300D) body and keep the 30D body. And, since the 5D is a full frame camera, I thought it best to get rid of any EF-S lenses I owned with the Rebel.
The Gear
I decided that my best way to get rid of all of my gear was going to be to to offer it up as a bundle. My bundle included:
- Battery Charger
- RCA Video Cable
- USB Cable
- Camera Bag
- Canon EF 35-80mm lens
- 1GB and 256MB compact flash cards
- Lithium Ion Battery
- Canon Digital Rebel 300D body
- Lens Brush
- USB Card Reader
- Sakar 2x teleconverter
- Quantaray 28-200mm lens
- Canon EF-S 18-55mm lens
- Remote Shutter release
- Misc Filters
Where to post?
Now that I knew what I was going to sell, I needed to figure out how I was going to sell everything. The two options that came to mind were ebay.com and craigslist.com. There were a lot of factors that made me reluctant to post on ebay. Things like seller rating, fees, shipping, minimums and the bidding system in general were all potential risks in my mind. Craigslist, on the other hand, was free, I set my terms for a price and I could target only local people so that shipping wouldn't be an issue.
It was because of those those issues that I decided to list my gear on craigslist. After all, it was free, so there was no risk on my part and I could always go to ebay later. One other benefit was how very easy posting to craigslist was. I was able to put in my email, a title, a price and some HTML for the body of the post.
The Posting
In order to promote my entry and sell the gear quickly, I decided to post a lot of pictures and to provide all the details of past use to let interested people know exactly what they were going to be getting. I took pictures of each piece of gear and I made sure to highlighted any wear/tear on the gear.
Here is a link to what the content of my posting looked like: http://www.4tay.com/Craigslist/CameraSale/index.php
After putting up my post I received replies very quickly, within a few hours, but the first 4-5 were all scam posts. They would either be in poor english and/or would offer more money than I was asking to accommodate for shipping costs. The 6th offer turned out to be legit and I was able to sell everything to a local woman. I met her in person and received cash for everything.
The Result
In the end, the detailed posting helped me both sell everything quickly and get the price I was looking for. Now I'm $500 closer to picking up the 5D mk ii (which shipped yesterday). I have a few focal lengths that I'll have to buy new lenses to make up for, but I'm fine with making an upgrade.
I recommend selling on craigslist to anyone, just be realistic with your asking price and be as up-front as possible in your post. And most photographers should take advantage of their passion and get great pictures of what they are selling to put potential buyers at ease. Also, keep an eye out for scams.
That's all for this bog, see you all on the next one. |
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