Fuji X Cameras are a tough sell these days

[Ron (Netherlands)]

I guess a lot of us don't like kits and want to buy separate parts, at least I always skip ads were only kits are presented......I bought recently the only E-X1 second hand body in chromium offered....all the others were black and part of a kit and guess what, I am able to do more with this camera X-E1 already than the M8.2 I had for 4 years....and thus I am very happy ... for the time being. I won't expect the X-E1 to deliver a good price when I want to sell it, why, since it is digital. Further, look at the many M9's offered at the moment, I already saw a few offered for less than 50% of their initial price. It all has to do with the digital market and also with bad economy...

 

[back alley]

split the kit...that usually sells easier.

 

[Bill58]

I've had trouble selling most things recently, I think the fact is that forums such as this represent a keen, but tiny market compared to eBay. I can sell things fairly easily on eBay, rarely get bites here.

Not sure if this applies to you, but also I see people asking near the new price for some gear, which is probably just not worth the risk for most people.

My experience exactly. Another factor here is maybe the guys are full to the gills w/ gear. Anyway, I won't waste the $ advertizing here anymore. It's too bad cuz' I like to think the gear I pass on is getting used by a real enthusiast.


(PS-The "$5.00 dumpster diving" stories don't help much either.)

 

[jubbaa]

You shouldn't have trouble selling anything if e price is right , but if you want to achieve the most for it the eBay is e place to list it ( of course then you have fees to factor in )

James

 

[enero]

Nico, Have you considered selling the kit off in pieces? It might attract more buyers. I saw your listing, and it was a great price. But as a kit, at least for me, it wasnt something I was interested in (I was looking for a 35 last week when I first saw your listing). You might sell everything off quicker individually and actually get more money for them....or not... I too am having the same issue you are, here and on the bayz. I currently have about a dozen different things listed, all listed at prices that are lower then any competing item, but still no bites. Lots of people watching, but no offers or BINs. It seems to be a slow month. Maybe its people saving up for vacations this time of year, or they already spent all their holiday money. Who knows. whatever the case, it seems like a bad time right now for a lot of gear. Fujifilm or otherwise.

 

[willie_901]

I've been trying to sell some Fuji stuff over a couple of forums these past few weeks and no bites. Makes me question the resalability of Fuji X cameras and lenses.

Have any of you had trouble selling your fuji x equipment?

I spent 5 minutes doing an eBay search for completed X series used camera listings.

Anybody can sell these cameras quickly on eBay. You may be adverse to using eBay, and the selling price may be unacceptable. But lots of used X cameras are are sold every week.

 

[tbarker13]

Have to agree with those suggesting breaking up the kit.
When you package everything as a kit, you've just eliminated every potential buyer who already owns one of the pieces in your kit.
In this instance, you've basically limited yourself only to those buyers not currently using a Fuji kit.

I've never understood this approach - unless it's just a major difficulty for the seller to get to a post office for shipping.

 

[miatab]

I haven't been able to sell an excellent X-100 on Craigs List or Kijiji at $675, and I think I'll simply keep it rather than give it away at any more loss.

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I have my items priced at $600 less than new and still no bites.
Last week, there was a kit at getdpi that was more than $1000 less than the new price and the seller still had trouble selling it.

I might end up having to go to ebay to sell.

In my experience, eBay is a much better place to sell high-cost equipment. I find that the eBay's world-wide marketplace generates much fairer prices than fixed-price markets like RFF. Unless I'm trying to sell something that's rare and desirable by a lot of RFFers, I don't try to sell it here (or its something I don't mind heavily discounting). And I can say, after conducting nearly 500 transactions on eBay, eBay is relatively trouble-free.

Another curious thing I notice about online auction type selling: when Ive listed items like the Fuji gear at a fixed fair-market value, they never sell. But when I list them as an auction, they ALWAYS sell for more than my original fixed price offer. People get into the bidding thing and, once in, don't want to give up on the item. So their offers blow right on by my original asking price. 😛

 

[rhl-oregon]

Jamie, you should run an eBay for RFF Dummies course here. Not that RFF is full of dummies--I'd be happy to say I'm the only one I know--but perhaps some the RFFers who offer good gear at fair prices to their preferred brethren and sistren here might feel less frustrated at the lack of interest/support/enthusiasm once they try your model, and could then keep RFF as a place to talk and share rather than a skewed buyers's market (for what they want when they want it) and an equally skewed seller's market ( when they want to get most of or more than what they paid for what they now wish to "pass along.")

Would it be disloyal to RFF to support an eBay seller-advice thread? Not when someone has 2800 posts and 6 years in the forum. As an eBay buyer/never yet a seller, I'd appreciate any wit/wisdom you could offer or moderate.

 

[Dana B.]

"Grading is kind of like soap box sizes (large, super, and giant), and only refers to the finish not the function, and Ex is really the worst.

Like new -- all paperwork boxes and wrapping, no sign of any use whatsoever, only the camera has been sold retail, a demo that was returned without opening the box would be an example.

Mint, no marks whatsoever, NONE.

Mint-, no scratches, but some evidence of handling. Minor Botton burnishing.

EX+, what most people think of as Mint. The lowest collectible grade, unless the item is extremely rare.

EX, marks and scratches and paint loss, edge brassing, but nothing serious no major dents.

Ex-, lot of marks but no damage - iincludes major dents and major paint loss

Good, damage such as dents in a prism, but OK, what KEH calls "Bargain"

Poor - garbage still on the market, but should be retired."

Talk about grade inflation: when words no longer have meaning.

 

[semilog]

The mirrorless market in general is undergoing rapid technical development and new significantly improved cameras are being released on a pretty short product cycle. Thus the Sony, Panasonic, Olympus, and Fuji cameras are all depreciating pretty fast. Compare to a mature product like the Canon 5DII which is almost as good as the 5DIII. Those cameras depreciate more slowly simply because they are more mature. But they still depreciate a lot faster than good lenses.

Note that Leica digitals appear to depreciate more slowly but that's only in fractional terms. In terms of absolute dollars lost to depreciation per camera, you're going to lose as much with a Leica as with anything else.

That's the hard financial reality of digital camera bodies. The lesson: if you're considering a new system, do NOT buy new. Borrow, rent, or buy used to see if you like it. And resist the urge to update with every product cycle. Plenty of D90s and even D40s are out there, still making spectacular photographs.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Talk about grade inflation: when words no longer have meaning.

And it omitted the lowest grade, "crap" = standard eB grade.

Cheers,

R.

 

[ShinX414]

In general I think several things are working against u right now..
- economy, everyone is looking for a better bargain, and thus maybe more willing to wait it out for the right price
- the rumor to the economy model xm-1 that is suppose to be out by end of this year, w/ some rumor sites saying by q3
- people waiting to c what next gen xp2/xe2 brings to the table and thus more willing to wait
- other more interesting toys tha!n your camera

Let me add two more reasons, which is in my opinion the most important:

- Ppl expected the X-Trans to be better than a Fullframe or any High-End-Professional gear. I have seen some "professionals" selling of the XP1 with the reasoning that it does not hold a candle to their 5D MIII or D800, etc.

- Way to dumb/lazy to understand the mechanism of this camera. Most ppl have never touched a RFF or sth similiar before so they don't get the parallax effect. The guy in the camera store praised the XP1 wanted to show me how it works (i mentioned once before that they didn't let me touch it since thought i was too young for that type of camera) and was wondering why the picture he took did not match with picture in his screen.

 

[aeturnum]

I had an X-Pro stolen, and waited on replacement. A version of the camera with the new X100s manual focus features would be much more worthwhile for me (I would love to get more use out of my M glass). I don't need a new digital camera in the meanwhile, so I'm happy to wait for fuji to release the next iteration.

 

[Captain]

I've had trouble selling most things recently, I think the fact is that forums such as this represent a keen, but tiny market compared to eBay. I can sell things fairly easily on eBay, rarely get bites here.

Not sure if this applies to you, but also I see people asking near the new price for some gear, which is probably just not worth the risk for most people.

The bay does seem like the place to squeeze that extra dollar if this auction is accurate! Over 500 bucks for a aftermarket chinese M rear lens cap? And almost 30 of them sold! Oh wait, maybe legacy lens stuff fetches that little bit more LOL

http://www.ebay.com/itm/33085038246.../sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=330850382466&_rdc=1

 

[FranZ]

I agree it is a tough sell for a reasonable price.
What i see nowadays is that for "new" or <100 actuation's used X100's the asking price is ± €500. (new value 2 years ago €1200) With such knockdown prices the market is completely gone.

 

[ZeissFan]

With eBay, there are so many fees. Listing fee. Fee for this and that. Fee for completed sales. Then there is the PayPal fee.

And if your Chinese buyers (recent experience) decide not to pay, then you have to go through the process of filing a report and recovering your listing and auction fees.

PayPal works much better as a buyer than a seller.