Buying Used Gear
We’re all guilty of it - we lust after all those shiny new gear at the camera store just like a 6 year old inside a candy store. Problem is, photography can be quite an expensive hobby. But at the same time, it is this lust for new gear that has also created a huge thriving used gear market for photographic gear.
One of the best places to look for gear is still of course the world’s biggest mall - eBay. Not only has it been around for years, with a proven system - it’s probably the place with the best selection of gear and one of the best places to start.
KEH.com is another popular marketplace for photographers. Unlike eBay and most other marketplaces, KEH is your seller here. You’re not buying directly from another individual selling his gear - you’re buying from KEH. The prices are competitive with current used market prices and they have their own grading system in determining the condition of equipment.
Local buy and sell websites are also great places to get great deals on used and not-so-used gear. Check if your city has a hub on sites like Craigslist ; Kijiji or Buysell.com. Some cities have very active ‘boards’ where dozens of items are posted by sellers every hour. The key to these sites though, are that they are local. The idea is, you’re supposed to drive out to the sellers place, or arrange a place to meet. Inspect the goods and pay in cash.
Now, sometimes on these local sites - you might run into deals that sound really good. So you contact the seller, then he tells you, oh, he just moved out to the UK and could you please send him payment by Western Union or something and he’ll be glad to ship you the item. Don’t! This is most likely a scam. Sites like Craigslist and Kijiji were designed only for local transactions, there are no feedback systems, no buyer protection systems unlike places like eBay. So the key is, if buying from sites like craigslist and kijiji, buy local only!
Other great places to look for gear are the buy and trade forums of popular photography websites. Nikonians is one such excellent place. Now obviously the place is limited to mostly Nikon gear, so if you’re a Nikon shooter that’s great news. But in order to post in their Buy, Sell and Trade forums though, you have to purchase a Nikonian membership. Personally I find that this is worth it. Not only are the prices on Nikonians sometimes lower than those found on eBay, you’re also not competing with that many buyers. Plus membership has other benefits too.
Other great forums are the classified ads section of Photo.net - here sellers place their ads, in either auction format where they accept offers from buyers or with a fixed price. FredMiranda also has an active Buy and Sell forum.
These forums don’t have an elaborate system of feedback unlike eBay. And there are no buyer protection in the case of a fraudulent sale. But unlike local sites like Craigslist though, the community tries to police itself. So there threads where previous buyers have posted feedback for sellers. So if you see a deal you like, just do a quick search through the forum for that seller’s username to see if you’ll find feedback from previous transactions.
But despite these boards charging a subscription fee before sellers are able to put their gear up for sale, there is always the chance for fraud. One good way to avoid this is to look at the post count of members. If you see a seller with hundreds if not thousands of posts and has been an active member of the community for years, then you’re probably safe. But if you see an ad for a great deal posted by someone who just registered 2 days ago? Then proceed with caution.
Often times, the sellers themselves will tell you where to check for feedback. Maybe they’ll provide you with a link to previous posts with satisfied buyers or sometimes they’ll provide you with their usernames on eBay or other forums and tell you that “I had perfect feedback out there,” so you can check and verify. So you look up their usernames on eBay or this other forum and find that they do indeed have great feedback. So how do you know that it’s actually them? Easy, just message them and ask, are you really the person selling this gear at this forum? This way you can confirm that they didn’t just browse eBay for some other person with perfect feedback and pretend to be them.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article with more tips on helping you purchase used gear. What to look for, what to avoid and etc..