p.2 #2 · Leaving the hobby. Need opinions on offloading all my gear
I’m sad to say, one body and 6 lenses is a pretty light load to sell on FM. If I sold one body and 6 lenses I’d still have too much…
Seriously, I think it’s totally doable. Start by getting everything separated and take pictures of the gear, proper iphone photos will work great. original boxes a big plus if available.
Look at how others advertise their gear, including the pictures they take.
Next search out your gear on FM buy and sell to figure out pricing. Figure out your net sale by subtracting out the Paypal 3%, shipping and insurance. Shipping Insurance can be a big part of the cost of sale.
Run your gear through a KEH/MPB estimate process for outright sale to figure out how much you will bring in “wholesale”, KEH and MPB make it real easy to sell your gear. Once you figure out the difference between wholesale and a realistic net price of selling it on FM you will then be able to decide whether the trouble of selling on FM is worth the spread versus just shipping at all off to a wholesaler.
To sell on FM Buy and Sell and do it right you must be attentive and prompt to inquiries to include packing it up and getting it shipped, you will have numerous separate transactions to fulfill. Oh, and some people will lowball you for barely above what KEH/MPB will pay, don’t take it. Anybody that plays that game is a poor buyer, steer away from them. Sometimes stuff will sell quickly, other times it will take weeks. Be patient.
banky wrote:
I'm a long time photography hobbyist and I think it might be time to say goodbye (for now).
I started with Canon in my early days and then completely bought into the Leica system. I love everything about it. However, life happens and I'm looking to fund a project. My camera mostly sits in my office unused until I travel, which is about once or twice a year.
For people who have offloaded a lot of gear - I have 1 body and 6 lenses - what did you do? Did you part each out individually here on the forums or did you sell it all in one time somewhere else?
From my POV:
- I can take everything to a local camera shop and get rid of everything at once but get lowballed (by how much, im not sure) - fastest but lowest return
- take a long time to sell everything piece by piece here on the forums to get maximum used value - longest time but highest return
- by some miracle, someone buys everything on the forum so i don't have to piece it out - risky due to insurance and shipping concerns
p.2 #3 · Leaving the hobby. Need opinions on offloading all my gear
I have done that once. Many years ago I lost my interest to photography, (or so I thought), and sold ALL my gear. I was really unsatisfied with the setup I had and figured that it was months ago I last time even picked up the camera or took any picture.
I started selling the stuff ranging from accessories like memory card readers and such to camera bags and bodies and lenses themselves on national photography forums. I lowered the prices every week with moderate amounts to ensure I will get rid of the gear quickly. After a while I got fed up with the hassle to track the payments and pack the stuff and carry them to post office. Rest of the gear I offered to a few local camera shops and sold to one that had highest offer.
I surely did not get the most money out of them but at that time it was psychologically important to me to get them out of my sight.
As many of you might guess, I did not lose my interest to photography back then. I was just having some sort of crisis or turning point in my life. I've had hobbies that I genuinely lost interest to and never got back to them, but photography was something I still had that spark to it.
This is just my thought from my background. I didn't completely think it through back then and ended up selling everything just to buy my first camera only a year after the "reset". Now I have even more gear and passion than I had back then.
p.2 #4 · Leaving the hobby. Need opinions on offloading all my gear
Assuming that money is not the main driver here to sell the gear, my experience is simply to keep gear especially if it lasts in value like Leica gear. I made this experience with Canon FD lenses which I had sitting for decades on my shelf after Canon switched to the EF mount. The FD lenses all came back to life when FF MLC came along > 10 years ago, and with adapter these lenses were easy to mount on new MLCs with great success. After Canon changed the mount to EF at the time, FD lens prices dropped like a rock - now several of these go again for a fortune since their rendering and built quality is unique and not uncommonly superior compared to the newer EF - or even RF - glass. Similar story occurred when Canon deserted the EF mount to move to MLCs fully - the EF lenses dropped significantly in value, but some are starting to come back due to high price for new RF glass.
My advise is: keep what you are having if you have still time in your life to potentially revamp them on newer future cameras. I can see that this is especially important for Leica M glass since Leica slowly but surely also goes into the EVF-based FF camera direction. It might open up for you a new way to photograph - and as long as you have all or at least some of your existing M glass, you will have an easy start again.
p.2 #5 · Leaving the hobby. Need opinions on offloading all my gear
OP
Good comments from retrofocus.
I lost one eye some years ago and thought I must sell all my Leica gear especially since the docs were saying I might lose my other eye and become blind. I did not want to leave my wife having to sell it all. So I parted with 65 M lenses and 25 R lenses and 5-6 M bodies. To this day I regret that move. Sure I could have easily parred it down to a handful of lenses, but I parted with it all.
Then my second eye survived and I found myself missing Leica gear and repurchased many of the same lenses I sold, but not the same ones. So most were not as good as the ones I originally owned.
