How to sell?

[fhkryi]

Hi all,

My grandfather left behind him some quite high quality cameras, which we have decided to sell because we need the money. This included two G1s (one for film, one for slides apparently), so we are going to sell one of them. We have the body (green label), a sonnar 90mm and the planar 45mm, a TLA140 flash, the original leather case and two filters. There are also two hoods and lens caps for the lenses and a leather case for the one not in use. All are in very good to excellent condition.

I'm having trouble working out how best to sell these things. I will sell on eBay, but I'm not sure whether I should sell as a set or break it up and sell one of the lenses individually. I also have no idea what could be the worth of these objects. I don't want to undersell, because we genuinely could use the cash right now.

I was wondering if anyone here had any advice for me on this. I appreciate that I am breaking forum etiquette to sign on in order to ask something like this, but I am genuinely unsure about what to do.

My mum would also like to know whether she can use one of the lenses on her DSLR. A cursory search seems to indicate that if you buy an adapter (which presumably would have a focussing wheel?) then it would be possible, but would it be worth it?

 

[biggles3]

Hi - it is generally advisable not to sell as a set on Ebay as you'll usually earn less that way. It is not surprising as very few people will want everything you're selling and so will be disinclined to buy the set when they can get the specific items they want separately at a lower initial cost. I love buying Contax sets because I have fewer competitors and can then sell the items I don't need making the purchase even better value! My suggestion is to list the items individually but in each listing, refer to the other items being available.

The ability to use the 2 lenses you mention on DSLRs or CSCs will be determined by the host mount and which adapters work best. The adapters will have a wheel (either a very small wheel [awkward to use] or a complete focusing ring [excellent but more costly]. I use G-series lenses on an Olympus E-P2 (including the 28mm as I sawed-off the baffles) with an adapter that has the focusing ring and it works very sweetly and produces lovely images, is easy to focus but is of course subject to a 2x crop factor making the wide-angles into standard lenses in effect.

Good luck with your sales.

 

[fhkryi]

Thanks very much for the quick and helpful response biggles3 Probably the best thing then is to sell the camera and case separate from the 90mm. Not sure about the 45mm, whether it's better to sell that with the body or apart... partly because I don't have a spare cap for the end of it.

Thanks for the information on mountings. I'll see what make of camera she has and will scout around. She is required to take good photographs for her work but whilst she is keen on photography she isn't an enthusiast as it were.

 

[biggles3]

Hello again,

I would still recommend selling the 45mm separately from the G1, even without the cap - simply stress that extreme care will be taken when the lens is wrapped for shipment. The 45mm is likely to be the item that will earn the highest price and it has a deserved reputation for sharpness.

I would suggest that you check the prices of identical items sold recently when working out what you can expect to achieve by auction or through fixed price listings. Also check out the forums like APUG or the Manual Focus Forum which carry sales and wanted sections as you may get some guidance on pricing or even offer them for sale...as you could here too.

 

[fhkryi]

Thanks again! I have followed your advice and have listed the lenses separately. We even managed to find all of the caps that go with them, so it is complete.

I've put them on eBay because we want a quick sale. eBay is a very good place if you aren't bothered about underselling by 25% and aren't really sure how much they are worth. I've just listed 6 camera things on eBay and one has been bid on already, so all is going well at the moment!

I will post the Contax stuff in the Buy and Sell part of the forum.

Thanks again for all your advice.