ralphinbath

Greetings everyone, I Live in Bath Maine and I am 89 years old. From 1953, I spent 28 years as a Navy Photographer, 10 years enlisted, made Chief then received a commission and spent another 18 as a photographic officer. I have photographed all over the world including Antarctica. After retirement, I spent several years collecting Photographic equipment then got then involved with Computers. I have been servicing and repairing Macintosh computers since they came out in 1984. Problem, I still have several hundred Cameras and accessories in my basement. How can I get them apprised and get rid of them? I'm getting a bit long in the tooth and I hate to leave things for my daughter to solve. I cannot post individual cameras on eBay or other listings due to inability to maintain the paperwork and shipping. Are there any auction sites or outlets anyone knows of who might be interested in the collection? I'm also available for local sales or suggestions.I have enjoyed reading the posts on the site. Keep up the good work.

DAN Phillips Loc: Graysville, GA

This site has a "For Sale" location. You may want to try it.

niteman3d Loc: South Central Pennsylvania, USA

KEH, Adorama, B&H as well as others will buy used equipment, but I'm sure you won't get rich off any sales since they have to sell at a profit. Don't know what limits there are on the number of units per transaction, so that would probably be selling only a few items at a time?? Good luck!

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Welcome to UHH Ralph. My interest in photography started when I was in the Navy in the late 1960s. I only did one hitch and only made Third Class Petty Officer though.
I can’t help you with your problem but, as Dan said, there is a Members Buy/Sell/Trade section https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-6-1.html and there are members interested in old cameras and lenses.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Ralph, if you can just get an electronic list put together, you can probably get some (to a lot) of the equipment sold with minimal effort. A spreadsheet would be the best tool, with columns for each item on the rows covering:

Status, Camera / Lens / Other, brand, model, Serial-Num, rating, For-Sale price, Sold-Price, Customer name, Customer address, Customer Phone, Customer email, Payment Form, Sold from

Examples:

Sold, Camera, Canon, T90, 12-1234, Like-New, $120, $100, John Smith, 100 Main, Someplace, XX 12345, 123-456-7890, JS@yahoo.com, PayPal, UHH

Sold, Lens, Nikon, 24-70mm f/2.8G AF-S ED, 09111111, Heavily Used, $800, $800, Jane Buyer, 200 East Ave, Someplace, YY 54321, 980-555-1212, JaneB@gmail.com, Check, UHH

It will help to be able to take pictures of all the items. Let's assume your camera and computer background has this covered, if / as needed. Image(s) should show model number on external side of equipment, any damage / wear, front / rear glass of lenses, and serial number.

Once you have the models (the exact and full names), getting the prices isn't that hard as you can just find what they're selling for online. Places like KEH.com and MPB.com are large resellers of used equipment. They offer shipping and return periods, something you won't likely offer. Therefore, if you set your price at 10% to maybe 25% less, you have a reasonable price for your 'private sale'. Shipping can be accomplished at your local USPS using their prepaid 2-day shipping boxes that range from $15 to $30, depending on size. Your UPS store can sell you a large quantity of peanuts and / or a roll of bubble wrap for packing inside the boxes. You'll be up and running your small online camera sales shop in no time.

You'll have to use UPS or FedEx for equipment that doesn't fit into the largest of the USPS prepaid boxes, increasing your shipping expenses. Assess whether each item can ship in USPS boxes or something custom. Account for the shipping cost (and insurance) in setting your for-sale price. A single shipping-included price is more useful to the buyer. Allow for the near 3% payment fee for electronic payments. So, if you want $100 for an item, you need to price it at $125 to net $100 after the USPS shipping and the PayPal fee. Assuming, the $125 is still competitive against other possible sellers / sources.

That same 1st-step 'electronic list' also puts you in a position to find a bulk buyer and / or someone to act as your agent in selling the equipment. Personally, I'm always looking for Canon FD lenses from the 1970s - 1980s, if you should have any in the basement, please let me know.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Ralph - of this list above, KEH can be thought of as the 'buyer of last resort'. You can generate an online quote from their website, or even set-up a web video call and have one of their buyers review and give a quote for every item discussed. If you've ever sold a used car to a dealer, you'll be familiar with a 'blue book' price. That low-ball price is the highest-price that KEH will offer. But, they'll pay immediately upon receipt of the equipment and they'll take the item(s) off your hands with really a minimum of effort.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Contact an estate sale company in your area to see if they will handle selling just the photographic equipment in their estate sales process as either item by item or as a lot. Also, there are probably auction companies in your area that could handle the sale of the equipment. Unless you're selling it to the photography community, as you would be if you sold it on UHH, rangefinderforum.com, photrio.com, or fredmiranda.com (there may be other sites), you will probably not get full market value for the equipment.

Stan

PhotogHobbyist Loc: Bradford, PA

Ralph, welcome to the Hog. I too got a good start in photography while in the Navy. I wasn't an official photographer but did take several photos of two Russian ships high-lining in the Mediterranean. My Captain told me they had never seen Russian ships doing it before and they wanted some close photos of it. I had a 400mm prime lens and took maybe 30 shots of the process. Never saw the photos so don't know how they turned out.

Jazztrader

I've had great luck with usedphotopro.com.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

He may if the US Government (Navy) bought all that equipment.

ELNikkor

Love to hear stories like yours and imagine all you've covered/ seen in your many years of distinguished service. Would love to see a list of what you've got in your basement, (as my basement itself has all kinds of similar treasures!). In a few years, I may also be looking into liquidating a lot of it, but still have in mind to use what I've got a bit longer. Good luck, our fellow hoggers are full of good advice.

mikegreenwald Loc: Illinois

I’ve gotten quotes from B&F, Adorama, and Keh. Keh was always the highest, and they made it easy to ship in that they sent prepaid shipping labels. You still have to pack and call FedEx after inventory is done.

St.Mary's

Ralphinbath: Box it all up, give it to your daughter now. Box it all up and find a local camera club to get rid of it. Box it all up and give it to a buddy. Box it all up and give it to a decent charity. Box it all up and give it to a school/college/university. I doubt that you need the money and the concept of selling isn't worth the effort, but by donating/giving it away will give you some satisfaction. One word of caution is that there will always be someone(s) who will play nice, get a hold of the stuff and try to personally profit from it. That's my story and I am stickin' to it.

Bill Waxman Loc: Friday Harbor, San Juan Island, Washington

I can attest to the effectiveness of honesty and bargain pricing on this site's "For Sale" section. Most purchasers will happily include shipping costs in the purchase price if they really want the item.

Bill Waxman

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I had two hard cases for two Nikons and eight lenses from about 1972. I got them in various Navy Exchanges around the Pacific. In 1996 Nikon wanted $100 for each lens to upgrade them for newer cameras. Camera stores were overstocked on used film cameras in Seattle. My wonderful darkroom was left behind in a house we sold for a job move.

I gave them to a college student who was enrolled in a photography program. Other than family snapshots with an Kodak Instamatic, I was done with photography.

(About 10 years ago I "discovered" Lightroom 4 and got a Sony RX100 (version 1) to shoot RAW. Then my granddaughters wanted to learn video! Now I'm shooting with a Chinese camera that flies and am an addicted Adobe customer.)

Good riddance to all the Nikon gear!

Ralphinbath, you will have more fun than you can imagine giving film cameras to students than you will ever have trying to sell them.