Ivan Makarov Blog

I’ve been upgrading my gear here and there in the past few months. I prefer buying things new, because I’m a strong believer in warranties and reselling goods later. However, as I was shopping for a couple of new lenses, I learned a few things about the used photo gear market. I thought I might as well share them. Here are few tips you should keep in mind.

First, there are quite a few sources you can turn to. It used to be that used equipment was sold mostly through eBay, but these days we have a lot of options. The largest of them is Keh.com. While I’ve never bought any equipment through them, I’ve sold a lens and a camera through them, and they gave me both a fair purchase price, and a great customer service. You can also use B&H and Adorama used equipment departments. From all I’ve read, there are also great to deal with, whether to buy or sell gear. An advantage of dealing with these places is that they tend to have 90-days warranties on the gear they sell.

Second, eBay and Craigslist still remain viable options. Just last week I bought Nikon SB-800 speedlight on eBay. It turned out to be in great shape. It doesn’t have a warranty, but it’s still a Nikon flash, and from what I can tell, I bought it from a photographer rather than a reseller. That guy had a bunch of other photo gear listed on eBay and in his description, he used language that is typically used by photographers. Always check for these things. I also know that eBay guarantees their purchases, so if anything was wrong with the flash, I could get a refund if the seller failed to refund me.

As for Craigslist, I was looking for a 85mm f/1.4 lens there and almost went as far as meeting with the seller. I’m more concerned about buying via Craigslist because there is no guarantee there, or ability to get a refund, in case I buy a lemon. Before meeting the seller, I emailed him and asked for lens serial number. The seller refused to provide it to me, which raised a red flag for me. Why would he be afraid of sharing the serial number? All I was going to do is put it through Nikon charts to ensure the serial number is legit, and then run it through search engines. In today’s world, most of stolen lenses and camera bodies are listed as stolen somewhere on the internet. By the way, if you get your gear stolen, post an entry on a blog somewhere where search engines will pick it up. You just might get lucky and your gear will be found, as it was found for my buddy Shims few months ago. Check out that amazing story here.

The refusal to share the serial number led me to believe that the seller was trying to unload what’s most likely a stolen lens. Why else would he not share a serial number? It’s not like I can run a background check on that lens, or steal his identity. Another red flag was that this guy was communicating with me via email that had eseller4life in it, and no real name.

If I am going to drop $1,100 on something, I want to make sure I’m buying it from a legit seller and I am doing it legally.

Upon my insistance to get a valid serial number, the seller started calling me names. In my mind, that’s not the best way to do business online. In the end, I end up buying that lens new. Always keep the risks in mind when you’re trying to save money.

Sometimes buying used may not be worth it.

If you bought used gear before, and have any other tips or stories to share, please share them by leaving a comment.