Buying Used

I thought I’d kick off this gear blog with a little note on how I normally buy my own gear. Which is used! Most of the camera gear I use was bought used and I think it is a great way to save a few pounds and has a small benfit too the environment as a bonus.

So how do I buy used? It normally starts with eBay. I set up a saved search for the product I’m interesed in buying. I use this to get notifications of when new items are listed. I normally just watch the first 2 or 3 items to see how much they go for. From this I can figure out the average used price.

Once I’ve got this used price in my head I’ll check out the used sections of a few camera wesbite such as Wex and MPB. There are loads more which all do a similar range so do a search around. If these sites have the item I want close to the eBay price I’ll usually buy it from them. I like the peace of mind you get buying from a camera store. They will usually test the used gear and offer a detailed description of the condiiton. Other benenfits are that they offer returns and most shops even offer a 6-12 month warranty on the items! These are all pluses above eBay.

Do not discount eBay though! If the price on eBay is signifcantly lower than the camera shops the saving could be worth it. It is just a trade off against the benefits of buying from a shop. You usually don’t get returns on eBay, there’s no warranty, and sometimes the descriptions can be dubious. I’ll leave you to make that call on whether the saving is worth it! Where eBay shines though is with accessories, stuff that isn’t lenses and bodies. I’ve got a few bags, filters, straps, and other items from eBay with great success. The risks with these going wrong is smaller though.

So far all the used gear I’ve bought has been in great condition easily matching or beating the descriptions! I’ve called out Wex and MPB above as these are the sites I’ve gotten the best used gear from. I got my Leica 8-18(affiliate link) lens from Wex and it was indistinguishable from new, with the lens hood and pouch unopened.

I think that’s it for this opening blog! I thought it’d be a nice way to start. Basically: buy used, the quality is great and the savings are even better.