My first try of selling a RF in a antique fair

Rhodes

Rhodes

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Today I took my Kiev to the antique fair, to sell it. The fair is made each first saturday of the month and I wnet to the sellers that have only or mainly film cameras.
The first one began to see the camera and ask how much I asked. I ask for 50€ (overpriced, but I wanted a bit os cash) he gived me the camera and say "No" and that for that price he would not see it. I then ask for 30€ ( a fair price IMO and normal one), he said no and not interested.
I respond that is funny how this cameras apper in his stand by 100 euros or more and he didn't want to buy one for 30.
The sign in his stand saying "If you want to buy please do not toucht" should me indicated that it was not a good person to try to sell it.

My second try, the person saw the camera but decline do to the business being slow.

My third, the person said that the camera was not in the deal cameras the he sell, he sell more antique cameras. Pitty (has I respond) that the gross of the cameras that he had in his stand were from the same year or after that!

Sorry for my rant , but that why the antique fair of my town has no people buying and the same sellers with the same old thing.
 
Selling to dealers always means being ripped off. They want to pay you nothing then sell it for big money. I worked for a short time at a camera store that did that. They told people looking to sell used cameras that what they had was garbage no one wants, isn't worth anything, but we'll pity you by giving you $20 for it (they'd then sell it for $300)
 
Hei, I only thought that was normal only here. Yes, but i didn't mind that they bought the camera from me by 30 and sell it by 100 or 200! I just wnat to sell it. I do not use it so often and it's a pitty the camera being stop.
 
If a dealer wants to buy, they pay no more than 25% of the actual value... IE: $25 for a $100 value at his/her end.
IF, I say IF, the item is hard to find, (And you know it as well as the dealer), you may get as high 50%,....

I think that 1st guy thought he could deal with you pay below wholesale for it (25% of sell value).. Glad, you stock to your guns...
your low offer was a good price for a dealer. it was well within the wholesale range.
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Selling to dealers always means being ripped off. They want to pay you nothing then sell it for big money. I worked for a short time at a camera store that did that. They told people looking to sell used cameras that what they had was garbage no one wants, isn't worth anything, but we'll pity you by giving you $20 for it (they'd then sell it for $300)
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I think you've have had a bad experience, not all dealers are rip offs. They generally have overhead to cover and have to guarantee their goods. Also they've tied up their capital in a pile of gear they will be lucky to sell a small percentage of. You never have to accept their offer and if you educate yourself on the value of what you have you won't get ripped off. Most dealers will pay 1/2 the retail value... the one they will be bargained down to. The safest way to sell is on consignment, you can generally get 60-70% of what it sells for. But you won't leave the shop with cash.
 
It is the same everywhere. Sell on this forum.

Dealers need to mark up 50% or more to stay profitable. Understand they have business expences, tables, travel, taxes, time.
 
Trying to sell anything at an antiques fair is difficult at the best of times (many sellers don't even recover the cost of their pitch), but trying to sell cameras is probably the hardest of all.

I regularly visit one of the biggest international antiques fair in the UK and all the dealers who trade solely in cameras have stopped attending as they find it nigh on impossible to sell anything.

John
 
John Lawrence said:
Trying to sell anything at an antiques fair is difficult at the best of times (many sellers don't even recover the cost of their pitch), but trying to sell cameras is probably the hardest of all.

I regularly visit one of the biggest international antiques fair in the UK and all the dealers who trade solely in cameras have stopped attending as they find it nigh on impossible to sell anything.

John
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There's a guy in the Pannier Market in Tavistock.
 
It's funny that when they (dealers) are buying a camera they carefully inspect but if you do the same to one of their cameras they get offended...just my little rant...
 
Yes I know how many dealers are in the fair, and also know the valour for the camera. He was possibly a little piss off since my father (that was with me) ask if the golden leica that he had was like mine, and I said no, that was a imitation, a zorky 1, etc.
Ronald M, I already put it here last week, selling also a zorky 4k and a mamiya body. No takers, so I decided to try my luck in the fair.
It's funny that when they (dealers) are buying a camera they carefully inspect but if you do the same to one of their cameras they get offended
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Yes, but I learn here long ago that if a dealer is like this, should turn my back and go away!
 
Roger Hicks said:
Isn't Tavvy Market a hell of a long way from you? It's on the edge of Dartmoor, after all.

Cheers,

R.
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Well, yes, but my wife is from Devon, my great grandfather was from Cornwall and my mother in law lived at Grenofen which is just down the road from Tavistock. Although born in Australia I learned my trade as a miller in Avonmouth.
We go back to the South West every couple of years for a visit. Last year we stayed in a flat overlooking the river in Flushing for a week.
 
I don't know how anyone can pay the table fee at antique show or the rent for a booth at an antique shop. Be it guns, cameras, or other antiques, I seldom see a sale made at shows. But the few sales that do occur are dealers, that buy from the few actual smalltime sellers, and then set the item on their table at a high price....for months or years.
 
goamules said:
I don't know how anyone can pay the table fee at antique show or the rent for a booth at an antique shop. Be it guns, cameras, or other antiques, I seldom see a sale made at shows. But the few sales that do occur are dealers, that buy from the few actual smalltime sellers, and then set the item on their table at a high price....for months or years.
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A friend of mine who has a pitch at the fair I've mentioned told me that his costs for travel to the fair, bed & breakfast and the pitch amount to nearly £300.00 sterling - and that's before he's sold anything!

John
 
nikon_sam said:
It's funny that when they (dealers) are buying a camera they carefully inspect but if you do the same to one of their cameras they get offended...just my little rant...
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It's hard for them to know whether or not the person handling the camera actually knows how to handle it. I'm a little weary of people handling my cameras not because I don't like them but because I'm not sure if I'll get a working camera back. Which has happened before, once from an outright drop and once from grabbing and turning every dial visible with no disregard.
 
ItsReallyDarren said:
It's hard for them to know whether or not the person handling the camera actually knows how to handle it. I'm a little weary of people handling my cameras not because I don't like them but because I'm not sure if I'll get a working camera back. Which has happened before, once from an outright drop and once from grabbing and turning every dial visible with no disregard.
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Not just cameras - I once sold a manual wind Rolex watch with a screw-down crown to a guy who swore blind he knew about watches. A day or so later he telephoned me to say that it wasn't working. I took it back and found the crown badly damaged and marked. Apparently he didn't know to unscrew it prior to winding, thought it had got stuck, and decided to 'free it off' using pliers!

John
 
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