User ID

Regardless how pointless or boring the troll, firestorms are based on knee jerk reactions to keywords with little regard for the actual position (if any) taken by the OP.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

I have been selling to MPB and KEH for many years. These prices don't seem that unusual. On average I got about 45% of the original sell price.

Considering the cost of mid and top end new cameras I would expect the used gear market to be booming.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I've been lucky, none of my lenses or cameras have needed repair in over 45 years.
I don't buy them as an investment (expecting any return) nor worry about repairs.
I just buy them to use, expecting nothing in return when I'm done with them (which is rare).
None of my equipment is still under any warranty.

jbk224 Loc: Long Island, NY

You know...I just don't get it. Why is it that many look at these companies as 'greedy' because they don't offer us a 'fair' price for our equipment?
For those of you who believe this....Do you have a place of business to service and sell this equipment? Do you pay rent, employ others, and pay all other sorts of overhead to maintain the business? Did you need to keep this major investment in 'brick and mortar' and people in some sort of life support during downturns and unusual times? Do you have inventory of new and used equipment that you must have in order to service a clientele that demands this type of service? And then what about the warranty that these greedy businesses offer? Are you willing to provide the same warranty on a private sale?
What's fair? Fair to the seller that cherishes their equipment and thinks that it is worth more than someone is willing to pay? Fair to the brick and mortar buyer that needs to make a profit in order to remain in business? Or fair to a private 'online' buyer that sees value in your pricing?
The internet has long ago changed the pricing strategy to which many businesses must adapt. I can't tell you how many threads there are in all of these 'sites' that bemoan the loss of our local camera store..let alone other types of businesses. You can't have it both ways!!!
Look at 'main street' in your home town. And tell me how many storefronts are boarded up--even before the pandemic. And then tell me how many times have you purchased online or went into the 'big city' to buy what you could have purchased from a local merchant? And then tell me why the real estate values are dropping in your home town?
Don't misunderstand me...I am not suggesting that all businesses that go 'under' are 'our' fault. Clearly good business adapts to the economic environment and finds ways to properly service their clientele. And we do not look to hold others to unreasonable standards.

Chadp Loc: Virginia Beach

I own a retail business. I don’t touch a product that I can’t get close to 100% mark up on. By the time I pay expenses I am lucky if that 100% mark up is providing 5% profit. Business owners expenses are skyrocketing and it will get much worse with an anti small business mentality of our current administration. I just couldn’t resist getting a political dig in. 😂

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Failure is when you talk yourself out of buying a better camera.

tcthome Loc: NJ

With all the new gear coming out , a lot of people are selling or trading their gear & creating a large stock piles of it sitting on the shelf. = If it's not moving, less demand for them to offer a higher price.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

The "re-seller" marketplace (regardless of who or what platform) reminds me very much of used car sales - they take a car in trade (hint from someone who sold cars for a while - never ever trade in a car, it's lose, lose, lose....let me say that again, lose, lose, lose), give the buyer basically nothing for it (oh but it looks good on paper, LOL) and then sell it for 2 or 3 times what they claim to pay (if they actually paid nothing for your trade - all the better, if they actually paid anything, it was "not much").

The camera "re-sellers" (like auto re-sellers) are trying to make a living on used sales, if they can't at least double the money, tripple is better (after expenses) then why bother. This is a nutshell description, but is basically how it all works. A lot of detailed training goes into that with the better used dealers, it's an art.

If you actually "want to make out well", you have to sell it yourself..................

HRBIEL Loc: Rapid City, SD

Hey, Leroy Jethro Gibbs still uses a flip phone... just sayin!

Thomas902 Loc: Washington DC

Tomcat5133 like so many other UHH's your focus is totally off the mark.
Photographic kit is merely a tool to assist the photographer to express (capture) their visual statement.
For commercial photographers this tool is a debit which must be balanced against income revenue.

Sadly Tomcat5133 you are more concerned about your kit's market liquidity than capturing breathtaking imagery which speaks of one's visual statement. However you are not alone here... The Main Forum is overrun with "investors" trying to justify their numerous questionable acquisitions...

Bottom Line: "Market liquidity is a market's feature whereby an individual can quickly purchase or sell an asset without causing a drastic change in the asset's price. Liquidity involves the trade-off between the price at which an asset can be sold, and how quickly it can be sold."

My significant other is an accountant with decades of experience in her profession and holds a Master's Degree from the U of MD. She has nerves of steel and a heart of ice in her financial dealings... Such is life in the world of business finance.

Tomcat5133 you are decidedly NOT a photographer in my humble estimation... you are merely a Troll offering nothing constructive on the craft... The number of topics you've created on UHH is 34... NONE are showcasing your artistry.... ALL have been to the Main Forum. As such you are at best a Troll.... I would suggest you find another site to spread your toxic venom of doom and gloom attitude that things are only getting worse. This attitude is a cancer which would benefit from being surgically removed from this site.

I challenge you to post joyful uplifting imagery which we all need and would cherish during the challenges of this pandemic... Below is an example I captured over a decade ago of the gift of HOPE which springs eternal...
.

Donwen the Welsh patron Saint of love and hope

(Download)

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I understand completely.
Everyone likes to believe that their stuff is worth 90% of what they paid for it.

Trade in a ten+ year old car, you'll get $4,000 off the new car,
$3,500 for cash discount and $500 for your car.....

kinmor1000 Loc: South-East Wisconsin, USA

Amen to that!

leftj Loc: Texas

Amen to what?

JBRIII

Another reason for used pricing can be expected time to sell, Ebay isn't holding/storing the item until it sells. A drop in retail prices or a big increase in supply and your stuck losing money.

An astronomy store recently told me they don't stock astro-cameras, because newer ones are coming out so rapidly and the margins are too low to risk got stuck with them. F.Y.I. many of these costs $2000 and up, but I suspect made one by one and so can rapidly be changed.

For anyone interested, many if not most, astro-cameras come in color or mono versions, but require a computers to operate and certainly for processing images.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

I love it