Anyone trade in equip. through Adorama?

Seems like they give top dollar for good canon/nikon gear. they even give you a shipping label and pay for shipping to them and back to you if you decide not to sell.

Let me know. very close to trading in all my stuff for the mk II kit.!!

Could you please give us an example of what you mean by "top dollar?" I've never known any of these retailers to give "top dollar" for used equipment.

Kind of like an auto dealer giving you top dollar on your trade-in.

no one I know will ever take a loss to give anyone top dollar

dimadelux wrote in post #8181366
no one I know will ever take a loss to give anyone top dollar

+1

i traded some of my sony equipment through them when i switched to canon and couldn't sell it elsewhere. you have to be careful with them - what they originally quote you is not what you get. They'll give you a quote and say "we pay 60-70% of market value" so you're lead to think that the price they just told you is the 70% of value and is what they're going to pay you. what they really do is give you 70% of the already discounted price they quoted you. I was quoted $750 on my equipment and then paid $525. At that point I just needed to get rid of the equipment so I took it but definitely try your luck with private sales/selling here first.

kekoa wrote in post #8179831
Seems like they give top dollar for good canon/nikon gear. they even give you a shipping label and pay for shipping to them and back to you if you decide not to sell.

Let me know. very close to trading in all my stuff for the mk II kit.!!

I had a 3 lenses that I wanted to trade in.
Tamron 17-50 F2.8 that I bought from them, which was 4 months old. = 220.00 tops
Canon 50 F2.5 about year old = 120.00
Canon 75-300 F3.5-5.6 about 9 months old = 75.00


Not "top" dollar in my book. You can make more on here or e-bay type of auctions.

Actually, I had a pretty good experience selling a used lens to Adorama about a month ago. I had a Nikon 24-85mm f/2.8-4 AF lens that I had been trying to sell for ages without success. I finally put it on Craigslist for $425. Within a few hours, I had an email from Jack Gold at Adorama asking me to call. To cut to the chase, I brought the lens to the store, Jack looked it over, and agreed to buy it at my full asking price.

The part of the transaction that impressed me was this: When I spoke with Jack over the phone, he said they'd pay my asking price if the lens was in the condition I said it was in but that it would be helpful if I had the original warranty card. I didn't have the warranty card at the time and thought no more about it. At the store, Jack said the lens looked like new but, because I didn't have the warranty card he would have to offer me less for it. I repeated what he had said when we spoke and made it a point to mention that he never said paying the asking price was contingent upon the warranty card being included. He responded that if that's what he said, full price it would be. He was extremely pleasant to deal with.

This was my one and only experience with Adorama. In my case, they paid the going eBay auction price for the item. What they'd pay for other items is anybody's guess.

Dave F.

I'm curious on how much they would give also. I traded my Sony stuff (A300 gripped, 3 Sony lenses and 2 Sigma lenses) to B&H and they gave me about 55% of what I originally paid.

Obviously the market for Sony gear is smaller so maybe the Canon prices would be a little higher, but they quoted me $650 for an a700 and then another $100 for a 36AM flash. These prices were about what I was expecting because used a700s, like 40ds, go for about $750 and that's allowing adorama some room to make a profit. If I hadn't already paid for the Canon gear I would have held out for more than the $525 for everything but I needed the cash.

Get a quote from them and then compare it to ebay and the buy/sell forums here.

gopack471 wrote in post #8181378
i traded some of my sony equipment through them when i switched to canon and couldn't sell it elsewhere. you have to be careful with them - what they originally quote you is not what you get. They'll give you a quote and say "we pay 60-70% of market value" so you're lead to think that the price they just told you is the 70% of value and is what they're going to pay you. what they really do is give you 70% of the already discounted price they quoted you. I was quoted $750 on my equipment and then paid $525. At that point I just needed to get rid of the equipment so I took it but definitely try your luck with private sales/selling here first.

You are absolutely correct; past practice was to give a telephone 'estimate' ('estimate', not 'quote') of the value of the item, without always making it absolutely crystal clear to the customer that this estimate was based upon the hoped-for re-sale value of the item by Adorama, and which might be subject to change once the item was inspected physically.

Staff in the used department have been instructed to make certain that customers are fully aware that the price we offer is 70% of the expected re-sale (market) value.

We cannot possibly compete with the private purchaser who isn't covering the cost of paying for shipping items, fully insured, in order to provide the final price. If a customer is unhappy with this price, we also cover the cost of shipping it back. We also need to pay staff, pay building overheads and advertising costs.
To purchasers, we offer a 90-day warranty. If an item turns out to be irreparable, again, we bear the cost.

On top of all that, the 'boss' expects us to make an operating profit!!

Sincerely

I totally got the run around from Adorama. I talked to them on the phone in depth about the items I had to sell and they were very excited about what I had. Adorama gave me free shipping (UPS insured) and sent me the labels via email which got me pumped up even more. I boxed everything up and sent it to Adorama. It was received two days later by them and I waited over a week to here from them. I called them several times and they kept telling me "it was just received the day before" which I knew was a lie because the UPS tracking number said it was received a week and several days prior.

I kept calling and nothing. Finally someone called me and left a message on my answering machine to call them that it was urgent. I did so and all they did was tell me that they received my package and would get back to me about what they would offer. I was very confused and frustrated at this point. So, I called the person I originally talked to. Gave him my phone number and he said they just received the packaged yesterday. I told him this was total BS and that I have the tracking number saying you have had my stuff for two weeks now.

Ten minutes later another person calls me telling me and said Adorama would offer me $100.00 in store credit for my stuff. I was as red as a fire engine in the face at this point. This was a total insult and waste of my time. I understand that I would get up to 70% of market value but two of my items were Nikon Prime lens and a Nikon tilt swivel lens in excellent condition. There were two camera bodies and several other lenses and attachments in the box. I would have gladly taken $500.00 for all of it but $100.00 was a joke. I told this person “no thanks, send my stuff back to me.” This has been over a week and still no gear. I guess I can chalk this up as I got scammed again. I will not be purchasing anything further from Adorama.

Message from Helen at Adorama Camera

My apologies that you didn't receive the expected level of service from Adorama. If you contact me directly with your customer number I will look into this right away.

panhead56 wrote in post #8205317
Adorama gave me free shipping (UPS insured) and sent me the labels via email which got me pumped up even more .

This is our standard practice.

panhead56 wrote in post #8205317
It was received two days later by them and I waited over a week to here from them. I called them several times and they kept telling me "it was just received the day before"

The tracking will have shown you the date it was received at our warehouse in NJ. I need to find out why it took so long to get it up to NYC.

panhead56 wrote in post #8205317
I kept calling and nothing.

This is clearly unacceptable, and I will be taking this up with the staff concerned.

panhead56 wrote in post #8205317
I told this person “no thanks, send my stuff back to me.” This has been over a week and still no gear. I guess I can chalk this up as I got scammed again. I will not be purchasing anything further from Adorama.

As soon as I get your customer number I will ensure its immediate return.

panhead56 wrote in post #8205317
I will not be purchasing anything further from Adorama.

If I'd had the experience you describe, I don't think I would be very much interested in purchasing from the used department, either. However, you need to be aware that the new and used departments of Adorama are managed separately - and that if staff mess up on a regular basis, they are dealt with appropriately.

Again, my sincere apologies, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

I didn't try adorama, but I got a quote from BHphoto, and all I have to say is they weren't offering SH*T. Sell it on this forum, and keep most if not all of your money.

If I remember correctly I was trading in a 5D and a 24-70, I bought them new from tB&H that year for $2600 [normal price was $3100] and they were only offering like $1000-$1200 for the pair. I ended up selling them on this forum and fremiranda, and I got $2,700 before shiping and paypal fees.

Lately, Adorama has not been offering much on used equipment. A few years ago, I traded in a Canon 10D and got what I thought was a fair credit against a 30D. However, when I wanted to trade in the 30D towards a 50D, their offer was very low and they told me that I would do better selling privately.

I would assume that B&H is pretty much the same these days.

The situation may be different for lenses, which keep their value longer than DSLRs.