SF Bay Area -- Selling Equipment to Prof Store?

I have been a very occasional amateur photographer for some time.

 

I have a large amount of high-quality / good condition semi-pro equipment: Mainly Nikon & Hasselblad, though now out-of-date.

 

I have many good quality Nikon lenses (zoom and prime), low- mileage Nikon bodies (D700, D3s).

Also a Phase 1 P21+ back and Has 16 MP digital backs, with 503 bodies, and many good Hasselblad lenses (including the highly-sought-after Super-Achrommat 250mm CFI)

 

My problem: Though I would get lot more money by selling individually on eBay, or here, I don't want the time or hassle of doing this, fussing about exact descriptions, etc.

 

I would like to sell in lot to one or two stores (preferably in SF Bay Area) that sell used equipment of this sort.

I prefer the SF Bay Area, where I live, because I could bring the equipment to the commercial buyer myself, and not have risk / troubles of shipping cross-country to KEH or someplace.

 

I realize the marketplace for professional camera stores of the kind I am talking about has drastically contracted.

 

If any reader have suggestions, I'd be very grateful.

 

Thank for your time in readying this.

Despite the problem of packing up and sending, I've had such good luck buying from KEH that I would personally try them.

Kaufman's in San Bruno will take in a lot and do consignment sales of the individual items. But I don't think they do entire inventory purchase, you can ask.

I have no idea if San Jose Camera, or Mike's in Menlo Park have a used section.

 

That's about it for my knowledge of Bay Area camera stores.

I've never sold equipment, but I've bought used equipment and had stuff repaired at Camera Heaven on Larkin Street in SF. Guy who owns it is great, but I know nothing about his buying policies.

It depends how quickly you want to sell. You can waste inordinate amounts of time trying to sell on ebay, Facebook etc. or you can haggle with your local store and then wait for a sale (could be a long time), or you can ship it to KEH (they pay shipping), and get paid immediately, You may not like the price much, but selling individually and privately may not ultimately get you much more and you have the hassle. If the SF area has a good catchment of keen photographers and good stores servicing them, then selling there might work: but will they want to buy them" If they sell on consignment, you may have a long wait, or they may not be interested. You could try and sell here on the buy and sell forum, or try Fred Miranda's site (which often seems to work).

KEH often buys at the monthly (no date chosen for March yet) Hayward camera show, but I do not know if you still need to ship the items to them. Might try calling or emailing KEH and get in touch with their representative who will be at the show.

KEH often buys at the monthly (no date chosen for March yet) Hayward camera show, but I do not know if you still need to ship the items to them. Might try calling or emailing KEH and get in touch with their representative who will be at the show.

 

I think they evaluate it and buy it on the spot.

No, you don't ship on a bring and buy sale. KEH take them there and then and give you a check. I went to one about 5 years ago. It's very useful for smaller items that you can't be bothered to ship to them (ballheads, quick release plates, some types of filters etc etc). There were many people with ancient cameras who were disappointed to find that KEH would not buy them at all, so they do not take everything by any means. One must have realistic expectations for pricing though.

Best place to sell equipment IMHO is.... B&H in NYC.

 

Done it twice. Absolutely no complaints.

 

+2 on Robin’s comment about expectations, wherever you wind up sending it. You have to think of yourself as a wholesaler of used equipment when selling to a dealer. They’re not buying your used stuff to use it, but sell to someone else and hopefully, at a profit.

 

Nikon is in the process of moving on from the F mount, which does affect any buyer’s view of the value of F- mount “stuff”. High-end DSLR’s are CHEAP after not all that long at all. Have you priced used D3’s recently? They’re obnoxiously inexpensive.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Greg M

Despite the problem of packing up and sending, I've had such good luck buying from KEH that I would personally try them.

KEH often buys at the monthly (no date chosen for March yet) Hayward camera show, but I do not know if you still need to ship the items to them. Might try calling or emailing KEH and get in touch with their representative who will be at the show.

 

 

I am not such a huge fan of KEH; I did buy my Hasselblad kit from them initially BUT sent them an absolutely perfect lens, with a separate lens hood and carry bag- a nice kit, for trade-in and they evaluated it at a LOW price. It took me a while to get a straight answer out of them- like over a month. Finally, when I got a competent person on the phone who was caring & diligent enough to track down the information, they came back and told me the lens' auto focus function was not working. I knew this was complete nonsense as the lens was literally like new!

 

This was roughly 2 months or more after I sent it in! A; it takes a while for them to receive and evaluate the equipment B: they send an email, then if you haven questions at all, GOOD LUCK.

 

In exasperation, I just said SEND IT BACK. When the lens, hood, and soft carry bag arrived back at my home, I found the auto focus ring on the lens slid back into manual focus position!

 

I could not believe how badly they screwed that simple thing up. I wondered exactly what variety of circus monkey they employ to evaluate camera gear?

 

Now perhaps this is out of the ordinary, but that's my story, as it. happened. A couple months wasted with them basically screwing me around for nothing.

 

Never again will I trust them for anything relating to selling them or having them evaluate camera equipment. I MIGHT buy from KEH again- BUT they use Fed-Ex, which is not a consumer friendly delivery service AND you have to be home to sign for any package they may send! There is no work-around, other than to have Fed-Ex leave a note then go to their facility to pick up the delivery. (unless you can stay home waiting)

Edited March 16, 2020 by Ricochetrider

Well they could use UPS, who will just leave it outside in the rain. I think the message I get from KEH is that there are quite a lot of items they are not particularly interested in, because they are slow sellers, and they have their margins to protect. Many of those items are things that owners think are truly worthwhile, but they do not agree, hence the low price. Not sure why they gave you a run around. Perhaps your mistake was not just rejecting their offer and asking for it to be returned at the outset, not disputing their price, which I find never works. It really does come down to whether you actually want to sell something soon, or sell it privately and deal with the other hassles involved with that.

 

I have never tried to sell to B&H, but doubt they are a pushover. Their s/h stuff strikes me a rather too pricey, but I suppose they are paying NYC rent.

KEH buys a lot ofstuff, what they offer seems way too low to me but I look at it from a different point of view as a seller. I once asked what they would pay for a full frame DSLR but it stopped there. As for fedex, I never have to sign for delivery from KEH or elsewhere as recently as two weeks ago.

 

Rick H.