Adorama Trades Department

[DBrock4316]

Recent trade experience with Jack Gold and Adorama is/was terrible. Likely to never do business with them again. Sent in my Nikon D500, never received a call regarding its value (I had to call), significantly low balled on the price and offered "more bang for my buck" by accepting gear rather than a check, I agreed to consider gear. Gear offered was offered as NEW, Adorama and Jack sent a quote to me to confirm our conversation, gear has arrived at my home and it's USED/OpenBox gear. I'm asking for the new gear I was quoted OR a return of my camera. Bad business if you ask me right now. Anyone else with a similar experience with Jack Gold and Adorama? Needing some help I believe, not getting any calls and no emails from Customer Services.

[Ricochetrider]

HMMM> Cannot comment on Adorama but I had a similarly low quality experience on a trade-in with KEH. I sent them a perfectly good lens, and like you, never heqrd anything back from them. I kept forgetting about it, emailing & calling  periodically until a quote for a ridiculously lowball payout arrived via email. Incensed, I called down there repeatedly until I got someone who knew what they were doing- that person told me they offered a low price b/c the auto-focus on the lens wasn't working properly- which I knew to be BS as the lens was like new. At that point I just had them send the lens back. When it arrived, I found the manual/auto focus ring had been slid back to manual! Attached it to my camera and it worked perfectly as I knew it would.  

This entire process took months. Admitteldy, some of that was my own slacking off on it, but information from KEH was not forthcoming, I had to pry everything out of them. Between phone calls & emails, & their in-house, bumbling half hearted efforts, the entire exercise was a collossal waste of time.   

[PapaTango]

I have pretty much given up on B&H, Adorama, and KEH for new or used stuff.

It's easy to get tired of things shipped with little packing and damaged in transit, sketchy application of grading standards, customer service issues, etcetera.  B&H sent me 13x19 photo paper three times--in all instances the corners were damaged from insufficient packing.

By accident searching for a zoom lens, I ran across Robert's Camera in Indianapolis, IN.  Family owned, responsive, fair pricing, and stuff that really rated above the grade stated.

https://robertscamera.com/

I think that everyone is doing "more bang for the buck" on trades.  It's a lot like trading in on a new car...

[Robin Smith]

I go to the KEH traveling buying events. These I have found to be just fine. although the mail-in option has always been fine for me too. When you have them face to face they are more candid, such as "we have so many of these we don't need more", "we can't sell these", or "I'm going to lowball you on this". It's useful to know. They may be more reticent saying these things in an email. "Ridiculous lowball" quotes are quite common for s/h gear in general, but you have to consider that they have no reason to highball items when they know how well they sell. I buy from them frequently. I suspect their throughput is much greater than Roberts, so they may well know what they are talking about in terms of demand.

I've had bad experiences in the past with Adorama, so I have never gone back. B&H is excellent although their secondhand buying is lowball even by KEH's standards in my experience.

Roberts are good, but I have never sold them anything.

My more usual reaction to private sales of camera gear is that people charge too much and are way too concerned about how much they paid for the item originally.
 

[JDMvW]

" given up on B&H, Adorama, and KEH"

All I can say is "not my experience"

[rws]

I've had problems with paper being poorly packed by Adorama, but maybe only once or twice with B&H -- just minor pings in the corners (which still annoy me).  I use a lot of Epson papers and have found that the best source for those is Epson itself -- pretty fast and very solidly packed.  Given my proximity to NYC, B+H might be faster (often overnight using regular postage) but the excellent condition in which papers from Epson arrive makes them the more common for me, especially for larger papers.  I also buy a lot of Red River paper and it has always arrived in pristine condition.  As to used equipment, I have usually used KEH, but have heard many good things about Roberts in Indianapolis.  Family members who lived in Indianapolis also rated it highly as a local store.

[Ken Katz]

My last sale to KEH was OK.  I sent them a list of items and they e-mailed back a quote.  Upon sending the items, they stuck within 1 or 2% of the quoted amount and I completed the sale.  I will also consider Roberts for used equipment.

[Sandy Vongries]

Over quite a few transactions, Roberts Used Photo Pro has performed flawlessly in every respect.  My first choice for used photo gear.

[SCL]

I've had experience with all of them...mostly purchases. On that side I've only had one item not up to snuff, I received a quick refund, and they told me to keep the item (Roberts). Keh has also been good on the purchase side although I haven't used them since 2021. I planned to sell an expensive lens at a Photorama at which KEH had an appraiser. The offer was too low, but he did share with me the program they use to make bids on high value used gear. Business is business though, and eventually a private sale met my asking price. I've only used Adorama infrequently, but those purchase transactions were satisfactory. Recently, at all three, KEH, Adorama, and Roberts, their asking prices for even "bargain" rated gear has seemed a bit high to me. Roberts used to at least bargain pretty well on offers, and frequently accepted a 20% discount, but not recently, FWIW.

[httpwww.photo.netbarry]

14 hours ago, JDMvW said:

" given up on B&H, Adorama, and KEH"

All I can say is "not my experience"

Nor mine.

[glen_h]

The only one of the above that I have bought used from is Roberts.

I bought a used D1X for $40.

I already had a charger and battery.

It didn't include the little rubber covers or the eyepiece.

But I had a non-working D1, and moved them all over.

 

Sometimes I like to use ancient film cameras, but it is also fun to use ancient digital cameras.

The 6MP of the D1X is plenty for a large variety of everyday shots.  (Though it is

a little heavier than some newer ones.)

 

And only two more years, and I can post it in "Antique and classic cameras".