I try to keep my personal photographic spending around $12K per year, but it is difficult. I bought a 1Ds MK III in the spring, so I'm holding off on the 800/5.6 untuil next year. However, In the last month or so I've added a spare 24-70/2.8, 50D, Sigma 150/2.8, MT-24EX, fast CF cards, 3x500GB PSDs, etc.
I own more gear than almost any other photographer I know, especially for my age (low-mid 20's). This is only due to a couple shrewd purchases where I bought out entire studios, kept the pieces I needed, and sold the rest on the B&S. About 8 months ago, just before the Bear Stearns collapse, I did my last major sale. I managed to sell everything listed in a matter of hours, literally. Even esoteric, specialized studio equipment was snatched up overnight.
This week, it took nearly 6 days to sell an absolutely mint 16-35L Mark II, and I have several L-brackets that have been sitting for nearly 2 weeks. I don't need the money desperately and so I'm not really interested in dropping the price (they're already 35% off retail for piece of unbreakable steel) but the activity on the B&S has seriously slowed down.
A lot of people are nervous and keeping their wallets safely tucked away....Show more →
Yours is an interesting observation that I suspect will parallel the housing market. Initially folks will respond to decreasing demand by letting their equipment (or homes) sit on the market for an increasing length of time rather than give up on the prices they knew they could (in better times) get. The less fortunate with more immediate needs will break down first, but the well heeled may well hold out for a good long while before dropping prices. And just as in the housing market, these folks will likely sit on their deflating assets for a long long time.
runamuck wrote:
We have gone from being a manufacturing nation to a paper pushing nation. The only way we make money is selling stuff to each other. Now, to keep growth going, you have to lower your standards about who you sell on credit to. More and more credit cards going to high-risk people. More and more mortgages going to people who simply should not be getting a mortgage because they make minimum wage. Now the final bubble has burst, and the piper wants his due.
i like how you put that; i've said something similar about canada- the province of ontario in particular (where i live). lately, many of our manufacturing jobs have disappeared and it's quite scary, to be honest. the last statistic i saw, had more people working retail than in manufacturing.
to improve the trade balance, we should export more, relative to the imports. but who would buy our stuff, when emerging nations can make anything for so much cheaper? our standard of living is too high- we get paid too much relative to, say, india, china, etc.
selling crap to each other is where it's at. but crap not made in the good US of A, or canada, but in some other country. buckle down, as the truths slowly emerge.
roberto1979 wrote:
That's the stupidest thing you could have done. You don't have the money now, and there's a good chance you won't have it then either.
Not really. I can quite happily save a few hundred a month. All it's really done is let me buy them a few months earlier instead of saving up. Plus it's not going to cost me anything to do so.
Same thing I did with my new Mac Pro 5 months ago firewirechap, I could have paid cash for it but I wanted to open a new ISA and to do that I had to open a bank account and then they offered me a credit card with 0% for 12 months. Thus the cash is sitting there earning (less) interest (than a month ago) and when the 12 months is up I will just pay the card off and close the account.
As long as you (a general you) can afford to do this and are not hocked up elsewhere it is a great idea!
Anyway, at the moment I am actually selling a couple of lenses that I don't use very regularly in preparation for a pair of new 1D bodies next year.
I work for the government in a secured position so says Goguchi
I didn't know there was such a thing! Point me to it!
Seriously, nothing is secure in this system of things we live in. And I am downsizing for a variety of reasons. I want to retire from my day-job soon, and that's my main thing. Also, I have a good line of equipment and really don't need to expand. (Wish someone hadn't stolen my 10-20 lens, though. )
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