Zeiss Lenses are hard to sell

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18542455
nope.

words were FM forum member's, not 2cruise.

Oh . . . after re-reading it and re-reading it again, and again, I finally understand.

I think there is a good reason why proper sentence structure requires that every sentence have both a subject and a verb. . If the OP had simply added the word "He" to the beginning of his 'sentence', then I don't think it ever would have been misunderstood by myself or Hogloff.


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No worries guys some of us old Marines are not the sharpest knife in the draw. Looks like I should try Ebay and not having sold anything thing there any tips would be nice.

I think it depends on the lens.

A no longer made Zeiss 85 f/2 Sonar ZM you might actually make a buck or two on depending on when you bought.

Milvus line came out, so you're going to take a beating.

2cruise wrote in post #18542566
Looks like I should try Ebay and not having sold anything thing there any tips would be nice.

What I would do if selling on eBay:

List auction-style, not BIN style.

Start the item at ten cents or a buck or whatever.

Time the auction to end at around 9pm on Sunday evening, Eastern Time.

Make it a 7 day or 10 day auction - not shorter.

Make sure that you accept PayPal as the preferred payment method.

Return Policy - that's up to you, and whatever you use won't have any impact on the final selling price. . Conventional wisdom may say that a liberal return policy will generate more bids, or higher bids, but it just doesn't work that way, even though it seems like it would.

List the lens in two categories.

Pay a little extra for a sub-title.

Use a feature image that is vertically oriented, not horizontally oriented. . Orientation of your other images doesn't matter.

Use keyword redundancy in your title, such as:
Zeiss lens lense 35mm 35 mm f2 f1:2 for Canon Cannon EF mount

Be willing to sell to all European countries, as well as North America. . Maybe Japan, too.

Man, I can't believe I'm giving away all of my eBay selling secrets!


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^^^
Thanks Tom, I'll keep it a secrete.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18542307
have you tried KEH?

buddy sold some stuff there for the sheer convienience, got low balled, but I suspect you can barter a bit with them.

You always get lowballed selling to a dealer.

mike_d wrote in post #18542684
You always get lowballed selling to a dealer.

Obviously. But time is money. At least that's the way I look at dealing with things like EBAY. Plus, I have little patience for that crap. LOL.

Be aware that selling items on eBay with no feedback in your profile means you are likely going to take a hit on the sales price. I would try Fred Miranda's site as well and also list it on Craigslist. My secrets for selling on Craigslist are to write an extremely informative ad. Proactively answer every single question you can think of. Also, write a little blurb about who would benefit from purchasing the item, the lens in your case. I have sold several items on Craigslist to people who told me when we met in person that they had never considered buying that particular item but because of the description that I wrote they decided to give it a chance. Obviously taking clear and detailed pictures of the item are of paramount importance and the benefit of them cannot be overstated. With an ad like this you will get a lot fewer inquiries than you would with a generic one line ad and a picture or two but the inquiries you do get are extremely serious about purchasing and I've found they don't usually try and negotiate as much.

2cruise wrote in post #18542121
After having 4 of them and just sold the 85mm I need to sell the 35mm to take care of some medical issues. I sold the 85 because I didn't use it that much and the 35 is getting no interest at all. I guess folks just don't like the manual focus but it is so easy and the results from this lens simply awesome. I really don't want to go to Ebay because the fees are so high. Any interest or advice to sell this lens would be most helpful.

Sorry for your trouble. Is it ZM MF only lenses? Yes, they hard to use and sell as well. If it doesn't sell here then the only two available options is to sell it locally for cash to avoid eBay fees or still sell it on eBay. Sometimes I have to use all three available options. Surprisingly, local sale sometimes works the best.
Good luck and get well soon!

mike_d wrote in post #18542684
You always get lowballed selling to a dealer.

I wouldn't call it lowballed, you and the eventual buyer are paying KEH for reduced hassle and risk.

If I want to sell a lens and not use an auction site, the first thing I do is figure out both what KEH will probably offer me for the lens, and what they would sell the exact same used lens for. Typically, for something like a Canon EOS 50L this would be KEH will buy the lens from me for $600 and then they would list it for sale for $1100. They intend the $500 difference for profit / overhead.

So I price my lenses to split the difference - $850 in the case above. The buyer and I each pocket half of what KEH would make by being middleman. In return, I might be a shady seller, the buyer might be a shady purchaser, we have to find each other somehow. If I sell you a lens and you claim it was misrepresented, we are going to have an argument. KEH would just take it back, no worries.

In the end, if I list a lens for a while at my halfway point and get no takers, I can either auction it and get probably even more, or I can send it to KEH and get bottom dollar (but no hassle or risk).

mike_d wrote in post #18542684
You always get lowballed selling to a dealer.

Not always... I sold my last few Zeiss ZE lenses to B&H, and I got a lot more from them than what I was being offered on eBay or on Fred Miranda.

It doesn't cost you anything to get a quote from them...

After trying unsuccessfully to sell my 21 ZE on my own, I ended up selling it back to B&H and using the funds to pick up the 35 F/2 IS.

The salesman also mentioned they were not selling well. Luckily I got an online price quote and printed it out, when I got to the store they tried to lower the price, but since I had a printed copy of the original quote they honored it.

Cassie wrote in post #18559413
After trying unsuccessfully to sell my 21 ZE on my own, I ended up selling it back to B&H and using the funds to pick up the 35 F/2 IS.

The salesman also mentioned they were not selling well. Luckily I got an online price quote and printed it out, when I got to the store they tried to lower the price, but since I had a printed copy of the original quote they honored it.

I am curious about something. . When you tried to sell it on your own, did you ask the same price that B&H eventually paid you for it, or were you asking more for it?

I've always had this idea that if someone can't sell something, then they set their price too high. . I just want to see if my theory works itself out in your situation, or if my theory is wrong.


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sorry just saw this....I was asking more than BH would pay.