Trade up/Trade in strategies?

GenghisHotep

Hello; I have an AF-S Nikkor ED 600mm f/4 D with metal case, etc. It's in excellent condition, takes amazing images and I love it. However, I would really like to trade this lens in for a Nikkor 400mm f/2.8 FL. This will definitely work better for me for birds and sports. I've read that the large photo stores in NYC probably won't allow much for any trade in despite bragging that they do. Since I've come by this information as pure rumor, does anyone here have any experience with trade in policies, anywhere, not necessarily NYC stores? If a trade in is not possible, then I suppose the recommendation would be to sell it outright on Ebay and use the cash toward the other. A hassle. Since I will have to saw off one of my arms and one of my legs to do this trade anyway, I'm hoping someone with more experience with trade ins might have a better suggestion.
Thanks for any help!

Ironheart

Just like a used car, the dealer trade-in will be lower than what you can get in a private sale. B&H etc... will give you a quote, so that price is known. Then you can look on ebay etc... and see what the going rate is for a private sale.

Look here: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/trade-in.jsp/view/item/id/1246
This will allow you to play with sliders etc... somewhere in the $3,000 range for your lens.
If you look at used prices from same: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/801386418-USE/nikon_2133_telephoto_af_s_nikkor_600mm.html
Looks like $5,800

Ebay will likely be in the middle somewhere. The advantages of a dealer trade-in, same as with a car, immediate cash, no hassle, don't have to deal with general public. Advantages of private sale, maximize cash, maximize hassle

I've done both, with cars and cameras. Six-a-one, half-a-dozen the other to me. Really depends on your tolerance for dealing with general public, and your time, vs, one and done, less cash.

BabaGanoush

I don't want the hassle of selling directly to the public, so I've occasionally chosen to sell my used gear through Amazon via a "trade-in" account, most recently a point n' shoot and an APS-C body, not lenses. I don't know whether my experience holds true for lenses, but in general Amazon has given me half the going used sales price for "like-new" condition gear, the main determining factor being the used sales price Amazon can get on resale. I don't know if mine is a universal experience, and perhaps it's just a coincidence, but on two occasions when the used price of my gear suddenly dropped after I'd submitted it, but before it was evaluated and graded/priced by "Amazon," the final quality rating was downgraded by "Amazon" from "like-new" to "good." Personally, I suspect this was done in order to track the lower resales price, not because the gear was actually less pristine than I had claimed. However, I don't know who does the actual grading and pricing for Amazon and I have no actual evidence to prove the process may be a tad shady.

UPDATE December 17: I just checked the Amazon Web site to see if the camera I traded in last week was up for resale. Amazon Warehouse has only one used copy of that camera model for sale, and it is listed as backordered - available next week. Sounds to me as if that is my camera. But they also list it as in "Like New" condition whereas, as I noted above, they graded it as Good when they inspected it so they offered me a lower price. The resale price they list is lower than what I saw for other used cameras of this kind when I originally submitted my trade-in. Sounds to me as if my suspicion was correct that they arbitrarily (and deceptively) downgraded the quality of my trade-in because the resale price they could get had dropped, not because the camera was in less pristine condition than I had claimed. C'est la vie.

Vipmediastar_JZ

I have tried selling on FB groups. I find people there don't want to buy a reasonable prices.

I ended up selling at a camera store event they matched BNH prices. But i was able to sell a lens to person that sold a lens there as well for more.

I want to try amazon but I havent.

GenghisHotep

These comments and observations are all very helpful. Thanks. Never even thought about Amazon. And yeah, just like a used car. Ugh! LOL!

NIKONTN

I have done one trade with NY store and didn't get to bad a deal. My local camera store has a buy and sell event about every six months. I think i got the best deal that way.

BabaGanoush

NIKONTN said:

I have done one trade with NY store and didn't get to bad a deal. My local camera store has a buy and sell event about every six months. I think i got the best deal that way.

The best deal I ever got on a trade-in was with my local Nikon dealer, when I traded in my D7000 to buy a brand new D800 along with a pre-owned 24-120mm lens. I got a fair price for my camera and a like-new lens in return. Unfortunately he was eventually done in by on-line sales (not any of mine since for Nikon I always stayed with him).

Pistnbroke

If you go e bay then you can try a buy it now price at what you think is acceptable or try an auction . don't put a reserve price or that will kill it. Post to finish just after pay day. If it does not go to the price you want then just don't send it and refund any money sent to you . What can they do ? Nothing

PB_PM

Keep in mind that with eBay they will take a big cut on high price items, and once you also add in PayPal fees on the sale, you might as well just trade it in.

spraynpray

It's 10% to eBay and 10% to PayPal isn't it? Then there is the risk that they will use the crap out of it for a few days and return it under eBay's buyer protection scheme which has bitten me on the bum recently. I am now not selling anything that isn't cash on collection or delivery these days. I know it severely limits my selling opportunities, but there are some bad people out there.

Vipmediastar_JZ

I was burned by ebay as well. be wary with ebay and paypal. I use paypal but usually to buy from bnh adorama etc

PB_PM

spraynpray said:

It's 10% to eBay and 10% to PayPal isn't it?

Depends on the value of the item. Higher priced items are 15%.

I've never had issues with actual buyers, thankfully. I have run into a few non-paying bidders which wasted a month of my time because it took eBay forever to let it go for me to try selling again.