How best to sell AE-1 + off-brand zooms?

[BernardL]

An acquaintance gave me his "old camera" and I decided to sell it on the auction site (I will not put them for sale on APUG), returning the proceeds to him. It's a Canon AE-1 with standard 50/1.8, which I thoroughly checked out. Also two off brand zoom lenses, Sigma 35-135 and Sigma 80-200.

• I several times read the advice is to sell separately. But this advice generally applies to, say, a Leica M3 and a few Summicrons, or equipment in the same league
• But if I put up for sale just the body and standard lens, I'll be left with the zooms and I feel they are worthless nowadays. At least to me despite owning a couple FD/FL mount bodies.
• So, in that case, is it better to bundle the zooms as "goodies" that will help with the sale of the body+50/1.8 ??

 

[aw614]

I would bundle it as "goodies". A younger person interested in getting into film cameras would probably be ok with the extra bundle.

I wonder how AE-1's would fare on FB marketplace vs the auction site...given the cult status and popularity of them.

 

[BernardL]

No FB for me, thank you. And I noted, in maybe the last 6 months, a decline in the prices of AE-1 cameras on the auction site (completed sales).

 

[BernardL]

Hijacking my own thread. I just noticed that the Sigma 1:3.5 80-200 has a slider near the breech ring, with three positions

1. M (manual?)
2. F-1
3. AE-1 servo

I assume in must be in the #3 position for auto operation with the AE-1. I noted that one can move the slider to #3 only when the aperture ring is at minimum aperture (f:22). But even so, the aperture does not close when the shutter is actuated, even when the viewfinder indicates that an aperture of f:11 (for example) will be used. I could not find a user manual for that lens.
User incompetence or lens malfunction?

 

[DownUnder]

Is it really worth the bother?

Camera shops and/or serious buyers won't be interested. The former have to guarantee their gear, and yours is too old to be sold under warranty. That Canon was a department store discount item in its day. Sure, it was good, but its time has long passed. Sigma lenses were sort of okay forty years ago, but they have been superseded by far better lenses. Top range zooms, maybe. Sigmas, meh. Ditto the Vivitars (some of which were quite good) or the Tamrons.

Me, I would donate this kit to a charity shop, and let them do the selling. In Australia the AE1 would go for < $80-$100 (a whopping US$63 at today's bottom-feed $ rate). The lenses, maybe $30 each, if in good condition.

So maybe sell the camera, and gift the lenses to a worthy charity.

Re your #4 post, check online for user manuals for this gear. You will likely find them all.

(Added later) I've returned to this post, and corrected the mistakes. An abject apology to those who read them in the original, one error in particular was AI-inspired and not intended as it ended up being posted.

 

[WoodallP]

over in the UK and Europe camera shops (not ones I would use) will sometimes sell AE-1s with standard lens in the 200-250 pound range (265-320 USD), similar for K1000s. What matters is how well it is known with the younger generation and both of these are.

 

[BernardL]

over in the UK and Europe camera shops (not ones I would use) will sometimes sell AE-1s with standard lens in the 200-250 pound range (265-320 USD), similar for K1000s. What matters is how well it is known with the younger generation and both of these are.

That is true. The AE-1 (especially Program) and K1000 benefit from some kind of fad, possibly created by bloggers. However:

• What I can hope to sell a camera for is nowhere close to the posted prices of shops
• A more relevant reference, completed auctions on ebay, shows, I think, a decline over the last year; the end of a cycle?

 

[BernardL]

@ALL: thank you for your comments. I'll put up for sale the body+prime lens, and somehow donate the zooms.

 

[WoodallP]

I think fad is the word. Two years back UK camera fairs were full of money-heavy overseas students fighting for the well- known SLRs. I remember (just browsing myself, not selling); trying to convince one that the Canon A-1 on one stand was a much higher-end Camera than the AE-1 they were looking for, but they weren’t convinced. I was at a show very recently and it has gone back to overweight men of a certain age (test, do you still say ASA) with tight pockets and well-honed haggling skills.

 

[Prest_400]

It's one of the "go to" introduction cameras with the echo chamber social media effect. I actually haven't tracked its prices but you should still be able to get some dough for it, and it is still being listed around keeping it popular.

I'd think some symbolic price for the zooms sold together in the kit and be open to haggle to the point these are anyways considered as freebie.

I think fad is the word. Two years back UK camera fairs were full of money-heavy overseas students fighting for the well- known SLRs. I remember (just browsing myself, not selling); trying to convince one that the Canon A-1 on one stand was a much higher-end Camera than the AE-1 they were looking for, but they weren’t convinced. I was at a show very recently and it has gone back to overweight men of a certain age (test, do you still say ASA) with tight pockets and well-honed haggling skills.

That'd be exactly the effect. Ditto for the K1000, etc. I find AF SLRs the bargain nowadays, but then those lack the manual and classic character. Likewise and however, I have found that some Brand kit lenses (other systems) can come either as "lens cap" or with a free body depending how you consider the value of them.

Price wise I guess also the inflation and economic situation derived since 2022 have made prices to cool down a bit. Prices that I do know are of some medium format models and oof, quite some increases compared to last decade. Ditto with film, but there is some demand in itself.

 

[DownUnder]

It's a sign of the time when you pay more for a five-pack of film than you did for the camera.

In Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore now you couldn't give away a film camera. Most photo shops have shelves of them on display, at Hope Springs Eternal prices high enough to make would-be buyers laugh or sigh. Nobody is nibbling at the bait.

Most shops still have a few rolls of mostly color negative films, the usual amateur brands, on offer. In KL a few small labs still do processing, I don't know about printing, like everybody else I know we have scanners and we use those.

Also a few labs in Singapore, last year I used one on Bencoolen Street as I had a day's wait to idle away between flights and decided to revisit places I'd been hanging out in a decade before. They still did film processing but the owner told me the business was down considerably. Still film on offer but to those of us with South Pacific Pesos (aka Aussie dollars) to spend, all at eye-watering prices.

From what the shop staff tell me the trend seems that young photographers get interested in film, buy an old camera, put a few rolls through it, lose interest in analog and move on to other enthusiasms - or into digital, if they aren't there already. Hence the backlog of 1970s-1980s film gear on offer as most old cameras get handed in for a small discount on whatever latest digi gear the buyer wants to buy.

It would be truly good if we could return to a more film-based type of photography. But for that to happen the cost of film will have to come down, and this seems unlikely in today's hyper-inflationary global economy.

I have with me now in Indonesia one of my old Nikkormats (an FT2 I bought 40+ years ago) with a kit of 28, 35, 50 and 85 AI-AIS Nikkors. It still works well but nowadays I'm not using it all that much, as paying AUD$20+ for film and the same for it to be posted to Jakarta or even KL for processing, is too rich for my pensioner's budget. On those few occasions I've taken it out for the fun of it, one or two local photographers (mostly Surabaya Chinese grandees with at least US$20K in camera gear in hand) have expressed interest in buying it but backed away when I told them what a sale would be worth to me.

All this to say there seems to be little if any point in selling old cameras now, however good condition those may be and of course excepting the luxury brands, Leicas, Contaxes, most MF and LF, which seem to go on fetching eye-watering prices wherever they are on offer. So I keep my 1950s Leica LTM kit well hidden from the roving buzzards.

 

[OmegaB600]

Nowadays you HAVE to do your own film processings, hence skip color film.

THe camera itself is not worth much, the lenses if in good to great condition are worth double the camera is, if in gret condition.

But the problem is that people "in the know" are not exactly wanting to get cameras of that era with the fancy electronic circuit boards. They dont last..

 

[Phil_F_NM]

It's a personal choice, but I always give away gear which was given to me. I just like sharing good energy of paying forward the hobbies which I love by getting someone else involved who has the desire to do so but just needs the equipment. Kind of like a drug dealer, but I'm not going to be selling them film along with a camera. Nor tires, chains, cables, and brake pads with a bike I give away; nor supplying them with paper if they get a typewriter.
Doesn't matter if I've put a lot of time into overhaul and repair of these machines, I've had my fun and tickled my brain's mechanical tinkering needs, so it can move on to someone else who may learn it, love it, maybe it could help them in innumerable ways.
Phil

 

[WoodallP]

Nowadays you HAVE to do your own film processings, hence skip color film.

THe camera itself is not worth much, the lenses if in good to great condition are worth double the camera is, if in gret condition.

But the problem is that people "in the know" are not exactly wanting to get cameras of that era with the fancy electronic circuit boards. They dont last..

I think maybe it depends on where you are. I develop both colour and BW but I don’t have to as the local lab does BW, C41, ECN2 and E6 (up to 8x10 I think) and they have four branches in the city (Paris), there are other more high-end labs too. Prices aren’t cheap but you are not limited in what you can do. I suspect that the easy availability of films and processing pushes the price of cameras up locally.

 

[OmegaB600]

I think maybe it depends on where you are. I develop both colour and BW but I don’t have to as the local lab does BW, C41, ECN2 and E6 (up to 8x10 I think) and they have four branches in the city (Paris), there are other more high-end labs too. Prices aren’t cheap but you are not limited in what you can do. I suspect that the easy availability of films and processing pushes the price of cameras up locally.

If its convenient and affordable, i can see the local availability of film developing could help sell film gear.

But you europeans are not in the same limitations of commercial film development as in America. I do KNOW there are film labs/stores that have walk in customers drop film off, but 99% of the market is "ship it to the lab, they develop it at astronomical prices, then send it back"

From my OWN experiences, MOST of the labs that charge under 10$ a roll for color film processing without mandatory prints or scanning charges.. are sending it to another "clearing house film lab" that on its own charges $6.49 per roll of color film as of 2019.

I made the mistake and lost ALOT of good film, both color and black and white. I dont really use color film as well shipping both ways, the cost to develop, and the fact that it can take 2 weeks each way on shipping.. its not worth it.