Suggestions for how to decide what to sell off?

[johnha]

Hi All, over the years I've acquired lots of MF gear, some individual items, some larger systems. Due to a lack of time, I'm not able to use it as often as I'd like, some of it needs to be sold off so someone else can put it to better use. Most of it has been bought over the last few years, but I've had some of it for decades - this older gear has much more sentimental value (i.e. the ability to 're-create' previous projects with the exact same gear) than the more recent stuff.

I'm looking for suggestions for how to decide what to sell off - should I look to sell off whole systems (typically a body, finder, 2 backs and 4 or 5 lenses) or should I pare each system down to a minimum? There are some things I know I want to sell, but selling off only part of an old system would leave me with a much more fragmented outfit.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

John.

 

[Don_ih]

If you want to maximize profit, you generally split things up to sell. Then you end up having some stuff hang around forever.

If you want to be rid of lots of things, though, you should make fuller packages and sell them. It's always satisfying for a buyer to get everything needed by making one purchase, and it allows you to get rid of the more common or less desirable things.

Don't sell anything you think you might someday buy back.

And don't sell your stuff for less than what its current market value is. That, right now, is ebay sold listing price.

That's my advice. And it's advice I myself should follow...

 

[Down Under]

There hasn't much good MF gear listed on Ebay here in Australia of late. Asking prices are high. It may be that many sellers may have got sick of cheapskate or dishonest buyers or the amount of good equipment available to sell may be less. On the other hand, the amount of tat being offered at high prices is, to me, astounding.

A few bits of advice learned from almost ten years of Ebay selling.

The good gear I would break up and sell as separate items. The cheaper bits I would sell as kits or bundles. Or do the opposite. Your choice. Either worked for me in the past. Of course it all depends on what you have as "good" and "cheaper" MF items.

If it's gear you want to be rid of, put a Buy It Now price on it and let it go. Plus 'P&P'. Remember to add 15% on your packing and postage costs to cover Ebay's grab.

If it's valuable gear (= camera/lens/finder/film back), list it for auction, starting with the price you would have asked as Buy It Now. Again, no Make An Offer.

Check prices before you list. Use the advanced facility and select Sold Items. Often the difference between the asking prices and the sale prices can be truly amazing.

Ignore the Make An Offer facility or you will be fighting off an entire legion of $5 cheapskates and time wasters. Every now and then you'll have to go back into your listing anyway and cancel the Make An Offer which the Ebay devils automatically put on, which really annoyed me almost to a point of irrational hatred for them.

List, then forget about it, just let it sit. Resist the impulse to check your listings four times every day. If you get a sale, Ebay will email you.

Eventually someone will buy. Somebody always does.Items not sold quickly can be relisted. Patience is the way to go.

If after say two months some items haven't sold, add $10 or even $20 to the listing. They will then go within a week of your doing this. Don't ask me why, I don't know why. Just trust me on this. It works.

You will get questions and queries. If they are intelligent, always answer politely. Delete the rest. Ignore the idiots. there are many of the latter, but happily as many of the former. After deleting the cheapskates, I always blocked them, for the satisfaction of it. You may or may not want to do this.

Don't overdescribe. List honestly. Don't overpraise the wonderfulness of your items or exaggerate their qualities. Such hyperbole ineviably comes back to haunt you.

I always ended my listings with "Sold as is, no returns." I'm unsure about the legality of this, but it worked for me, excepting one sad saga where someone had buyer's remorse and faked a complaint to get a refund, which Ebay/Paypal grabbed from my bank account.

The disclaimer now. I no longer sell anything on Ebay. They offer NO protection whatsoever to sellers and put all the aces in the buyer's hand, leaving you only the Joker card. After almost a decade of selling, a few dishonest buyers who I saw through and cancelled the sales, and two other major problems (one resolved in my favor, the other which went to the lying buyer, who at least had the decency to return the item and paying for the postage after I emailed Ebay to demand this), there came a time where I no longer wanted to be involved in the whole wearying business of Ebay selling. You will probably reach this point in due course.

We could all write endlessly about experiences, good or bad, with Ebay, but I will stop at this. May I wish you the very best of luck...

 

[johnha]

Thanks for the replies, I should have mentioned I'm not likely to use ebay, concentrating mostly with forums or getting quotes from dealers (depending largely on how I want to bundle items up).

 

[gone]

Make it simple, or this is the sort of thing that will drive you crazy. Just sell the new stuff, the old stuff is surely better.

 

[Rick A]

Speaking for myself, the decision is easy If I haven't used it in a long time, I must not need it. Consider it sold.

 

[BrianShaw]

Thanks for the replies, I should have mentioned I'm not likely to use ebay, concentrating mostly with forums or getting quotes from dealers (depending largely on how I want to bundle items up).

Be careful about the assumption that selling on forums is safer than eBay. It’s not necessarily true.

 

[Patrick Robert James]

My rule is figure out how much something is worth, then ask myself the question, "If I didn't already have it, would I buy it at that price?" The answer to that question tells you what to sell. Yes means you keep it, no means you sell it.

Sentimental value counts for a lot. You don't have to sell things.

I always preferred auctions on ebay. Start at .99 and the item is guaranteed to sell and you know when it will sell. Keeps trips to the post office at a minimum. Every now and then someone gets something for cheap. A lot of the time things sell for way more than they should. I've sold things for more than new. Weird. People tend to get caught up in bidding.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Sell it on this website

 

[k.hendrik]

Be careful about the assumption that selling on forums is safer than eBay. It’s not necessarily true.

AND be careful with Paypal too; YOU have to proof the items you've sent are in the condition as described in the ad. Buyer can complaining forever without proof.
I'm only sell from my doorstep; cash in hand!
If you don't need the money; keep your gear and save the problems for your heirs

 

[4season]

I suppose that if you get a dozen responses, you'll also get a dozen different opinions, but for me, the process of de-cluttering has been about learning about myself. What I discovered was that it was often not the things themselves which drew me into their orbit, but rather, the feelings I associated with those things, or at least the ones I hoped to feel.

Where do you hope to be after you de-clutter? If you got the time and inclination why not read a few books and watch a few videos for inspiration? The biggie would be Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Art of Tidying Up, and it's not a bad place to start, because Kondo considers the emotional attachments we tend to develop with our things, and how to "give ourselves permission" to let them go when their time has come. Whereas more minimalist-minded authors and bloggers might talk about how wonderfully de-stressed they have become since downsizing to just 100 possessions (a pair of socks might count as 2 items), I have to wonder how sustainable more extreme measures can be, and how they fared during lockdown, when many forms of enjoying life's richness were curtailed.

Under the influence of writers like Brad Warner (Hardcore Zen et al), I like to think that I've gravitated towards a life of not-too-much, but also not-too-little. There's a happy in-between where I feel like I can enjoy my stuff but not feel stressed about clutter, money, or possible loss of stuff due to theft, disaster or simple neglect.

 

[4season]

As for more nuts-and-bolts stuff, I care less these days about "classic combinations" such as Hasselblad 500-series with 50-80-150 mm lenses or a Nikon equipped with 28-50-105. But give me a Hassy equipped with just the 50, or a Nikon with 35 PC-Nikkor and I'm interested, because for whatever reason those things seem to agree with me. Not long ago I purchased a Nikon F3 but I have no plans to accessorize with an MD4 motor drive, much less the SB16 flash, because those things no longer excite me.

 

[Don_ih]

concentrating mostly with forums or getting quotes from dealers

I would just go with ebay sold listings as the most accurate appraisal and try to sell it for that price on something like Facebook marketplace or this forum. Dealers will be looking to sell for the ebay sold listing price (that's how they appraise things) and will need to give you a good 40% less than that, or they make nothing.