Best practices for selling a super telephoto

Folks, I’ve been out of the loop for awhile and I’ve come back to see that the buy/sell forum is no longer available to members to sell their gear. I sold a supertele on the buy/sell forum before and had a good experience, so I was hoping to do it again but I guess I’m out of luck. 

Since it’s not available, what are the best outlets for selling a supertele these days? I’ve used eBay before to sell gear, but never anything this expensive. Are there other outlets that I should consider? Thanks.

It’s still available here:

viewforum.php?f=13

Joe

SantaFeJoe wrote:It’s still available here:

viewforum.php?f=13

Joe

Except when I go there, there’s nothing listed. Is no one using it anymore? What happened to the old posts? 

Listings expire after 45 days. Currently, there are no listings. Here’s more info:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=21333

Joe

Facebook Marketplace probably works just as well as anything.

A good place to move higher-end camera gear is FM buy-sell forum. It does need to be "priced right" though.

When I made the switch to Nikon last year and bought all my stuff used from the FM forum buy/sell, and I sold all my Canon stuff there. I sold my 500 f/4 in less than 2 days.

Gary Irwin wrote:A good place to move higher-end camera gear is FM buy-sell forum. It does need to be "priced right" though.

Agree with FredMiranda.com as a good place to sell. You can move stuff really fast if you price it competitively. The downside is there's a lot of tools that will lowball and offer crazy trades that are just nonsensical, even when the offer clearly says "no trades." Frustrating but I'll continue to sell there because it is FAST to sell. 

I've got a few comments on selling that you may already know, but if not, it might be helpful. I have had some trouble with sales on Fred Miranda and on our local sales site called Kijiji. In most cases, it was because I wasn't explicit on the terms and conditions of the sale. For example, I sold a lens on FM to a person in another country. Everything went fine; the lens was as advertised, except for one thing. I didn't explicitly say that any customs charges would be the responsibility of the buyer.
To make matters worse, when the courier delivered the lens, the buyer refused to pay the duty, which would have been fine if the courier had returned to the sender, but they didn't and gave the package to the buyer. The courier then harassed me for months about paying the customs! Eventually, it was resolved with the buyer paying the fees. Lesson learned, if selling across the border, I make sure the buyer realizes custom fees are the buyers' responsibility.
I try to send high-resolution images of every mark, no matter how slight to the potential buyer. If it's an in-person sale, I make up a receipt that has the make, model, description, agreed-upon fee and the serial number of the item. At the bottom of the form, I have the buyer sign after a clause that states, "The used item is as advertised, and I have been given the opportunity to test the item to my satisfaction using a camera/lens or computer to my satisfaction."

I had the customs deal happen to me a number of years ago. Buyer refused to pay and I got the camera back after about a year of being held. Sold it again to someone in the US. After that I ship to CON US only.

Arthur Morris, at Birds as Art, will list your item and advise you on pricing, however, you must read and accept the payment structure. There is a minimum cost to you and once he lists on his blog if you have a private sale you must still pay his fee. Depending on what you are selling it must be priced right to sell. The super telephotos have dropped some in retail value lately. Good luck.

calvin1calvin wrote:The super telephotos have dropped some in retail value lately.  Good luck.

Thanks all for the advice. I'm going to look into FM and possibly BAA. Do we know why the super-teles have dropped in value recently?

Greg Forcey wrote:

calvin1calvin wrote:The super telephotos have dropped some in retail value lately.  Good luck.

Thanks all for the advice. I'm going to look into FM and possibly BAA. Do we know why the super-teles have dropped in value recently?

My guess would be because there are so many lenses on the resale market.  Camera manufacturers keep making newer lighter, sharper versions of the super teles and so many people upgrade to get the latest and greatest the makert gets flooded with previous versions of the lens.  In the days of film and very early digital the time between lens versions was around 10 years and in recent years they come out with new versions every 2-3 years (I'm making rough guesses about new version timing to illustrate my point).