Finding the value of digital gear question

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texchappy

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If I move to a different camera/system I would more than likely sell what I have now. Besides looking at flea bay completed and buy-now listings, is there a good way to see what the gear is worth?
 
Completed listings show selling price, that's it. Sometimes it coincides with real value, sometimes not. ebay is strange place, if we talk about prices and value.
 
When I looked, values were all over the map on there.

I also looked at KEH but don't know what their values mean to what I can get on the classifieds or the bay.
 
Advanced sensor technology, hi-MP sensors, hi-ISO, fast-AF are not anymore for pro-class cameras only. The last two years brought a lot of innovations, today we have excellent choices ranging from say $500 up to $3000; all delivering first-class results. From now on we must buy rather by thinking "I would use this camera at least for the next five years" or even better 10 years if they last that long...
 
How to find ebay sold price

How to find ebay sold price

To search for completed listings:
1. Click the Advanced link at the top of the eBay home page. (found to the right of the ‘search’ button.)
2. In the Enter keywords or item number field, enter 2 or 3 words that describe the item. If you know the exact item number, enter it in this field.
3. Select the Completed listings option in the Search including section. (found in the 3rd column down)
4. Click the Search button.

The prices in green sold for that price and the prices in red didn’t sell.
Good Luck

http://pages.ebay.com/help/search/questions/search-completed-listings.html#search
http://www.ebay.com/sch/ebayadvsearch/?rt=nc
 
Should have read your first post the second time.
How about checking camera specific forums buy/sell section. That will give you an idea what the photographers, owning similar equipment, are willing to pay.
Good Luck
 
Sometimes I do a google search. Say I want a 50mm summicron, I search for: FS: Leica 50mm Summicron ... and it'll bring up old / current ads from all different forum sites. The only issue is the rarer stuff can be very old ads so watch out for that.
 
A check of eBay completed listings will show a wide range of prices which depend (among other things) on the time of day, day of the week and time of the year that the sale finishes.

The key to success is to advertise items so that the sale ends at a time when the highest price is likely to be reached while buying them from auctions which end at a time when the lowest price is likely to be reached.
 
Richard C said:
A check of eBay completed listings will show a wide range of prices which depend (among other things) on the time of day, day of the week and time of the year that the sale finishes.

The key to success is to advertise items so that the sale ends at a time when the highest price is likely to be reached while buying them from auctions which end at a time when the lowest price is likely to be reached.
Click to expand...

Are there general times that this is true or just looking at the listings?
 
texchappy said:
If I move to a different camera/system I would more than likely sell what I have now. Besides looking at flea bay completed and buy-now listings, is there a good way to see what the gear is worth?
Click to expand...
I look at similar offerings from larger vendors when available (KEH, B&H, etc), both new and used, then at recent completed listings on Ebay, Fred Miranda, etc, to gauge the current pricing levels when I'm putting gear up for sale.

But ultimately, your gear's dollar value is what you're willing to accept when selling it. For everything I put up for sale at auction, I set the starting price at the lower I'm willing to accept and the Buy It Now at what I consider a fair price, for me personally. If no one buys, I lower my expectations on a second round. If it still doesn't sell, I put it aside and reconsider: sometimes just waiting a month and then putting things back up for sale at the original price does the trick.

There's no hard and fast rule. This works for me.

--- addendum ---

BTW, I've not really found much difference in pricing film vs digital equipment. Nearly all film equipment is now old, much of it has already been devalued as much as it's going to be, so if you bought, say, a Hasselblad 500CM kit and then go to sell it a year later now, you'll likely get nearly as much as you paid for it.

The same is true for older digital gear that is well past due on the depreciation curve. For example, my Olympus E-1 (one of the finest SLRs ever made IMO) was a $2000 camera in 2003 when it was manufactured. I bought the one I have in 2008 for $300. If I put it up for sale now, I'd likely get $250-275 for it. That's perfectly reasonable: it's a fully depreciated camera now, was close to that in 2008. If you buy new, however, and not at the high end of the market which holds value longer, you'll take a disproportionately larger hit on resale.

(Note: I love the E-1 and it's not for sale. It's worth more to me as a camera than its resale value. 🙂
 
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