Have you ever had to sell all your gear...

Have you ever had to sell all your gear to get through a financial hardship?

I'm facing that possibility. In a sense I don't want to (obviously), but in a sense I felt a peace of mind when I made the decision and accepted the reality.

Besides, I can always get more gear, just not immediately.

I am sure it is very common. I don't grow attached to material things, only with tools that I find them useful. As long as I feel that I don't use them anymore, I sell them. Of course, I am not rich and getting some money from items I don't use anymore is always nice. I sold my 500L F4 IS mark 1 few years ago, for just under $6k. I sold it because I got a bit tired of bird photography in NYC. Is NYC....only so much exotic birds one can capture. I used to have tons of gear. Now, I am shooting with a $500 Nikon D7000 with 3 consumer lenses worth no more than $200 each. 2 of them came out more than 10 years ago, AF D lenses.

In your case, you can downgrade your body for something older and cheaper and only keeping 1 or 2 lenses. Sell the rest.

TooManyShots wrote in post #17040862
In your case, you can downgrade your body for something older and cheaper and only keeping 1 or 2 lenses. Sell the rest.

I keep up pretty good with lenses, but my body is still a 40D. Not sure how much older and cheaper I could go, though I do have a 10D sitting in the closet. lol

In an ideal world I want to upgrade to a 6D, but that's not happening right now.

photoguy6405 wrote in post #17040888
I keep up pretty good with lenses, but my body is still a 40D. Not sure how much older and cheaper I could go, though I do have a 10D sitting in the closet. lol

In an ideal world I want to upgrade to a 6D, but that's not happening right now.

Go Nikon. You can pick up a D7000 for around $500. Outstanding body with 1d AF speed and accuracy. I used to shoot with a 1dmarkIII. I got mine over at the FM message board. Then, your lens option as well as the quality of them are limitless since the D7000 can use tons of older AF D Nikon lenses. They can be had for under $200.

Some of my more recent work and shot with a $140 lens, http://www.kenrockwell​.com/nikon/28105af.htm

http://www.oneimagingp​hotography.com …K#!i=3324105378​&k=RSQqRjx

I sold or gave away all my Canon stuff, last of it (40d and 7d) went in the past two weeks. Wasn't because of any financial hardship, I got tired of storing them.
Don't worry about getting rid of your stuff, when your situation turns around there will be better stuff to get.

Well, I did have to sell my best Canon body as well as several of my best Canon lenses due to financial hardship. My choices were "simple" due to the fact that I'm not a professional and so didn't "need" professional equipment. But I am a hobbyist, so the choices weren't easy, but still, Oh Well...

photoguy6405 wrote in post #17040797
Have you ever had to sell all your gear to get through a financial hardship?

I'm facing that possibility. In a sense I don't want to (obviously), but in a sense I felt a peace of mind when I made the decision and accepted the reality.

Besides, I can always get more gear, just not immediately.

Not through financial hardship, but because I was building a house as an owner-builder. I sold my beloved Nikon F2AS Photomic/MD-2 motordrive. I was working for the photographic unit of an industrial plant at the time and we had a couple of F2s there also. That was 1981 or 82 if my memory serves me.

I thought I'd buy another Nikon F2 after things settled down, but never did. I bought a Bronica ETRs instead.

poeple sell things they love all the time to get through hard times.

Sometimes I do so to get over analysis paralysis that I tend to get when I shoot trying to figure out what to shoot, what FL, etc. At that point just keep a fixed lens compact if you can (such as the Ricoh GR) and just enjoy taking a drive and taking pictures.

I had to part with a number of my larger ticket items some time back after getting laid off.
It sucked, I miss some of it (the 200mm f/1.8L! )

I was not yet so desperate that I had to sell it all. I couldn't see the point of nickle and dimeing myself either by selling items that would get me a few bucks, but I had several very pricey lenses I could do without, and did.

Wait...
I was able to get some gear only after I was forty. Before, it was just one camera for decades.
Why would I want to sell it if it took me some time, before I was able to afford more than two lenses?

But, I do sell gear now, which I have tried and don't need very often.

I would do whatever I had to do in order to survive. I would probably get rid of my least used items first, but eventually I would need to get rid of everything.

In the past I have had to sell off manythings which took me years to find and purchase. I don't miss a single one of them now, and I also realize that I can buy them again someday. I'm even looking at getting rid of one of my most prized posessions, a 60+ year old item that I carefully restored to like new condition. I haven't touched it or used it in years and I am sure someone could get more use from it than I am. (as long as the price is right)

There is much lost money by being forced to sell stuff just to survive.

My main goal if getting into troubles would be to try to drop as much ticking costs as possible, allowing me to get by on a minimum. This would obviously not work if there was constantly new bills - like for some expensive medical treatment. But I'm lucky enough to live in a country where there is a max cost/year for medical costs, with the exception of purely estetic medical procedures. And I live in a not so litiguous country where huge legal fees are seldom an issue.

But in the end - if things has to be sold then there are really no option. It's still better to sell items that aren't used too often than to have to try to pick up new loans that will result in many years of payments to get back to zero.

the way used camera gear is, you can usually buy back your gear sometime later for within a couple hundred dollars of what you sold it for whenever get back on your feet. If photography is just a hobby for you, then selling gear could be a good windfall. If you make money off of of using your gear, that would be like a baker selling their oven to keep their business open.

I haven't had to do it with photography gear but I'm not a pro. In a previous life I did have to do it with some music gear. I am one of those people for whom stuff is just stuff. I'm also frugal by nature so I will sell off stuff to fund other stuff...including stuff like food and bills.