why do people sell this cheap?

the lady allowed local pickup as well as provided a phone number and talked to many of the buyers over the phone. i don't think that it was a scam or stolen goods (she had receipts as well as boxes). to me, this was just one of those truly great deals and the reason she prices things like that is because she needed everything sold as quickly as possible. my only regret is not getting there in time so i can pick up everything.

1. She either doesn't know the value of it
2. She need to sells it fast
3. She doesn't need it so what the heck with price.

For example, i bought my 3X wide angle lens for XL2 over $1200 and i sold it for $300. Simply i just don't use it and instead of let it collects dust, why not get the extra $300?

Simply looks like an quick liquidation....it appears that they had already made the changeover to Nikon, so I'm guessing the money wasn't absolutely essential. If they got a quick turn around and a reasonable return on the old stuff, it may have been worth their while to skip the traditional tire kicking and low ball negotiating, particularly with that amount of gear.

AirBrontosaurus wrote in post #5024876
Then it's probably stolen.

Tough audience.

AirBrontosaurus wrote in post #5023126
Logic dictates that a smart person won't sell something for less than they know they can get for it.

For instance: Canon 24-105mm f/4 for $700. That would have sold in the same amount of time for $800. So, that person willingly took a $100 pay cut for no conceivable reason.

Canon 100mm macro with hood for $200? What? AT LEAST another $100 out the window for no reason. At $300 I would have bought 10 of them. Why $200?

Truly, honestly, for me there's only one reason to sell all this stuff so cheaply: So you can get the maximum amount of money paypaled/wired/sent to you before someone notices it's a scam. Everything sold in 20 minutes. That means that the 'seller' has about a week to collect the cash from all of it, because it will take about a week for people to get nervous. Assuming most of the people pay within 48 hours, we now have a situation where someone is receiving thousands of dollars in a short period of time, and no one will know anything is wrong until it is far too late.

Again, I'm not saying I know this is a scam. But, if I wanted to scam people, this is exactly how I'd do it.

The guy has 3 posts, and he's selling a ton of super expensive goods for far less than they are worth. If I were you, I wouldn't feel too bad about "missing out" on this deal.

I noticed some others seem to have multiple posts, but they're liars.

They'll say "this is mine" when, clearly, it is being flipped.

Best guess, at least some of the gear, when real, is hot.

Many scams there.

Cashier's check for $5K lens? Yeah. Sure.

If the deal seems too good to be true, it is.

*Bubble, I'm not singling you out. You just summarized most of the points made thus far, and I'm lazy *

Bubble wrote in post #5026979
1. She either doesn't know the value of it

Well, she has the receipts, so unless she has a very odd form of dyslexia or is absolutely terrible at math, that doesn't seem likely.

Bubble wrote in post #5026979
2. She need to sells it fast

And that she did... at a personal cost of well over $1000 to herself for no reason. The stuff would have sold just as quickly if she spent even 5 minutes researching reasonable prices for the items. And if she's completely loaded and doesn't need the money... then why go through the effort of selling it in the first place?

Bubble wrote in post #5026979
3. She doesn't need it so what the heck with price.

Again, seems horribly weird to me, seeing as how she's selling this stuff to fund the purchase of more camera equipment. That's like selling your Porsche for $10,000 because you're buying an Audi, when it would sell just as well at $30,000.

And it appears that at least some people have gotten their items, which leads me to believe that it's stolen stuff. There's a difference between someone who would like to get rid of stuff quickly (pricing things lower than the average going rate) and someone who needs to get rid of it quickly (pricing it so far below the going rate that a large amount of profit is to be had simply buying and reselling it on the same forum on the same day).

If you guys haven't guessed yet, I'm pretty dang pessimistic about online stuff. I like to look at things logically, and I just can't figure this one out.

1. If she wanted money, then she'd price it at something even remotely resembling the going rates. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to ballpark a good figure to price something at. If they usually sell for $400, charge $350, not $200.

2. If she doesn't care about money, then why go through the effort?

3. She bought the stuff, and has the receipt in her hands. How could you look at a receipt for something you bought not long ago, and that says $2,200 and say "Hm... $1400 sounds good!"

4. She has to know what she has; she bought it, and she used it. So, why the apparent lack of awareness of what it's worth?

I'm really not trying to be a jerk about this (although upon re-reading what I wrote I think I may have come across like it); I just simply cannot believe these deals came about with no strings attached. There's always a catch. Always.

I''ll say that typically people sign up and the immediately run a scam.
This does not seem to be the case since they've been with FM since Dec 2004.
So the low number of posts maybe means that they spend more time making money than posting on forums

Now this seems to be a once in a lifetime deal but you better believe I'll be using some of these prices as reference when I go shopping for a 70-200 2.8IS. I know that I won't be able to get them this low but I expect I can knock them down a bit by referencing the FM thread. The 70-200 2.8IS is already fluctuating severely from $1400-1575 for the same condition units on the used market. I've never seen a lens (under the $2000 rang) that has such a big fluctuating price.

She also said local pickup is OK (as mentioned).

Two reasons to sell this cheap:
1. Moron
2. Scammer

If the goods are stolen, they probably wouldn't unload everything all at once and would be smart enough to price it right.

A 70-200 2.8 IS sold in here for $1575 today in about 8 hours.

MKII N's go for $2500-2700.

That is ~$1500 lost on just 2 of the items, so they could sell them a couple hours quicker? That can get you a decent Nionk lens from what I hear. AirB is right. Don't feel bad missing out on this. At least you'll be able to sleep next Saturday night when you still don't have your lens or camera. If its not a scam, oh well.

IMO though not a scam

Alexajlex wrote in post #5030335
I''ll say that typically people sign up and the immediately run a scam.
This does not seem to be the case since they've been with FM since Dec 2004.
So the low number of posts maybe means that they spend more time making money than posting on forums

Now this seems to be a once in a lifetime deal but you better believe I'll be using some of these prices as reference when I go shopping for a 70-200 2.8IS. I know that I won't be able to get them this low but I expect I can knock them down a bit by referencing the FM thread. The 70-200 2.8IS is already fluctuating severely from $1400-1575 for the same condition units on the used market. I've never seen a lens (under the $2000 rang) that has such a big fluctuating price.

She also said local pickup is OK (as mentioned).

I doubt you'll be able to find any one else dumb enough to sell one for anywhere near that. You may as well use this place for a price reference for ordering from B&H:
http://soniccameras.co​m …9104009b3eeda9b​37116e185a

$1279, free shipping and you get a free cap keeper!

Alexajlex wrote in post #5030335
Now this seems to be a once in a lifetime deal but you better believe I'll be using some of these prices as reference when I go shopping for a 70-200 2.8IS. I know that I won't be able to get them this low but I expect I can knock them down a bit by referencing the FM thread.

good luck with that. most people wont budge.

AirBrontosaurus wrote in post #5030178
*Bubble, I'm not singling you out. You just summarized most of the points made thus far, and I'm lazy *


Well, she has the receipts, so unless she has a very odd form of dyslexia or is absolutely terrible at math, that doesn't seem likely.


And that she did... at a personal cost of well over $1000 to herself for no reason. The stuff would have sold just as quickly if she spent even 5 minutes researching reasonable prices for the items. And if she's completely loaded and doesn't need the money... then why go through the effort of selling it in the first place?


Again, seems horribly weird to me, seeing as how she's selling this stuff to fund the purchase of more camera equipment. That's like selling your Porsche for $10,000 because you're buying an Audi, when it would sell just as well at $30,000.


And it appears that at least some people have gotten their items, which leads me to believe that it's stolen stuff. There's a difference between someone who would like to get rid of stuff quickly (pricing things lower than the average going rate) and someone who needs to get rid of it quickly (pricing it so far below the going rate that a large amount of profit is to be had simply buying and reselling it on the same forum on the same day).

If you guys haven't guessed yet, I'm pretty dang pessimistic about online stuff. I like to look at things logically, and I just can't figure this one out.

1. If she wanted money, then she'd price it at something even remotely resembling the going rates. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how to ballpark a good figure to price something at. If they usually sell for $400, charge $350, not $200.

2. If she doesn't care about money, then why go through the effort?

3. She bought the stuff, and has the receipt in her hands. How could you look at a receipt for something you bought not long ago, and that says $2,200 and say "Hm... $1400 sounds good!"

4. She has to know what she has; she bought it, and she used it. So, why the apparent lack of awareness of what it's worth?

I'm really not trying to be a jerk about this (although upon re-reading what I wrote I think I may have come across like it); I just simply cannot believe these deals came about with no strings attached. There's always a catch. Always.

hehe..i sold my XL2 (brand new) with 3x wide lens for $2400 shipped at FM last week. I paid WAY more than that last year and i even included the original receipt to the buyer. (XL2 paid $3500, 3x wide angle paid $1200 = total $4700). Do i have any string attached? any catch? none.

I paid a video tripod/head from BH for $925 (brand new and not even use for one day) and again, i sold it for $540. Again, no string attached.

So can you figure it out what is wrong in my case here?

Maybe it was her soon to be exhusbands pride collection of photo exquipment and she they are going though a nasty divorce and she just wants to stick it to him.

DDCSD wrote in post #5030503
I doubt you'll be able to find any one else dumb enough to sell one for anywhere near that. You may as well use this place for a price reference for ordering from B&H:
http://soniccameras.co​m …9104009b3eeda9b​37116e185a

$1279, free shipping and you get a free cap keeper!

As you mentioned in your previous post the 70-200 2.8IS went for $1575.
I also saw one go for $1400.
That is $175 of fluctuation for the same quality lens.
Some people say that people won't budge in the price.
I think $175 price difference is definitely more than a budge.

As I mentioned in my post I know I won't be able to come to the levels of the prices on that FM thread but as I buyer I'd have to be stupid not to try
something that can potentially get me a slightly better deal.

We should all be about negotiating.
You have to remember that it is all about supply and demand.

I'm within 30 minutes of www.cameralensrentals.​com
and they do local pickup (order online, local pickup)
Barry is a great guy and even offered to drive the lenses to me

If I'm going lens shopping for a 70-200 2.8IS and can't get a nice price (read not as low as the FM thread but still a nice price) I just ring up Barry and rent one for that paying gig.

Bubble wrote in post #5031173
hehe..i sold my XL2 (brand new) with 3x wide lens for $2400 shipped at FM last week. I paid WAY more than that last year and i even included the original receipt to the buyer. (XL2 paid $3500, 3x wide angle paid $1200 = total $4700). Do i have any string attached? any catch? none.

I paid a video tripod/head from BH for $925 (brand new and not even use for one day) and again, i sold it for $540. Again, no string attached.

So can you figure it out what is wrong in my case here?

An XL2 on ebay went for ~$2500 and the 3x goes for ~$500. Take off the almost 10% that ebay gets from your sale from various fees and the value of your gear was ~$2700. That isn't exactly giving it away.