Advice about selling lenses on ebay please

I have several old primes which I can't really use. Don't get your hopes up - these are Minolta fit. Looking at ebay past listings the price seems to be all over the place. Having sold a couple of other non-photographic items recently where the final price was a lot less than I was expecting I don't want to let them go too cheap, so I was wondering what the best strategy was.

One way is obviously to set a reserve (but what), the other is to set a buy-it-now price (but what) with 'best offers' and see what offers might be made. That has the advantage that the listing can be for a much longer period.

The lenses, incidentally, are all in excellent condition and I've taken some detailed pictures for the listings. They are the MD Rokkor 24mm 2.8, Vivitar Series 1 28mm 1.9, and the MC Rokkor 85mm 1.7 (but with the later MD-style externals). These all work with glassless adapters on Canon, Nikon, Olympus and Sony but sadly can't make infinity on Pentax. Recent ebay prices do seem to support over 100 quid each with some silly prices in the mix.

The 85mmm is a fantastic portrait lens with dreamy bokeh, the Vivitar is a bit of a cult item, and the 24mm is apparently the sharpest of all the Rokkors - it lived a double life as the Leica Elmarit-R under license.

Your thoughts about how to get a fair price for them please!

You say you sold a couple of other items on Ebay and weren't happy with the sale price so why not set a starting price that you would be happy with should they only attract one bid.

Other than that you just take your chances.

That makes sense except I have a feeling that setting the starting price at a 'reasonable' level will tend to deter bidders. And I'm still not really sure what level to set it at... I do understand that it is the market that decides, but sometimes there just doesn't happen to be enough interest in the period that the auction is running. My observation about getting what I thought was a low final price was simply based on noting the final price for very similar items.

I see that setting a reserve incurs a small fee but does protect against a low final bid, so I might go for that approach with the normal auction format.

In my experience...

Lenses with a starting price which is reasonable either don't sell, or sell at that price. I'm quite happy to bid on such items.

I'm not so keen on reserves, as if nobody else is interested they don't sell. Simply list them with a starting bid which is the minimum you're prepared to let them go for and see what happens.

If you do decide to add the "Best Offer" listing then do please be prepared to haggle. It drives me spare when sellers add this, then ignore offers or seem to think they should only knock a few pence off (there are three sellers I will never buy from because of this). If you're not willing to haggle then don't invite offers!

I do seem to see a fair number of BIN listings asking daft prices, however they do go.

My pet hate as well.

If I put an item on Ebay I normally do a buy it now at a price approx 20% above what I really want and then add the best offer option. This gives you your price plus the buyer feels they got a bargain.

If it doesn't sell then just keep listing until it does .. after all it's hardly expensive to list a BIN these days.

if doing best offer you can set a price to auto accept & set another price your not willing to accept, if you put these within a penny of each other then you wont get into any haggling... works for me anyhow!

One thing to bar in mind is the cost of the listing. If you start with £0.99 it is free but if you insert a BIN the price can be quite high for the listing. BO (Best Offer) is cheaper in that way but this will no longer be able if on person is starting the bid. The BO is only of real advantage is you set the starting price to a price you are happy with to let the lens go for.
Also, you will attract more bidders and will get an higher price if you describe the item in a way that will appeal to photographers, list even the slightest detail and offer a money back guarantee.
Always ship recorded (even if it is second class recorded) as it is insured and you will have the seller protection.
I would not offer PayPal when someone wants to pick the lens up to save on postage as you will fall foul of the seller protection and if the buyer claims an item not received etc you are without the lens and without the money.

I use these 'rules of thumb'

- reserves are the worst option for all

- auctions have to start really low to get 'mommentum' but you risk it going for less than you want

- if you are going to start an auction high and expect it to go for around that you might as well go Buy It Now - you can list for longer & the potential buyer will know they have won and will get it sooner so are more likly to buy it.

- Best Offers is fine if you are really willing to drop a reasonable amount.

As you say the difficult bit is what to set it at in the first place if there are no comparable 'Completed Listings' to guide you.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'll do the three lenses one at a time so that I can see how it goes, starting with the one where I have the best evidence of past prices: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINOLTA-MD-W-ROKKOR-24MM-F2-8-PRIME-WIDE-ANGLE-LENS-/25076...

I'm in no particular hurry so I'll do the BIN approach with a 'best offer' button and see what transpires.

Hiya,

Up until three years ago I spent much time selling & buying on fleabay, I sold about 600-800 lenses in that time. I almost always got far higher prices than others selling the same items. This is how...

My own rules for getting the max price possible via ebay:

1. A photo item, particularly a more 'desirable' one MUST have excellent photos on the listing (90% do not...including photo items on ebay) even many serious amateur photographers have little idea how to shoot small studio work.

Here is a link to how I shoot small studio items (for free) scroll down the thread to my posts which explain how to do it, with a later post by me to show a photo of my small free daylight 'studio' set up.

link: http://photo.net/canon-fd-camera-forum/00OVKc

2. When selling lenses, have four shots on the listing: Show a full view from the side of the lens, a shot of the front & rear glass and a fourth shot showing the full package on auction...ie with box, paperwork, caps, hood etc.

3. Always have a low start price, 95% of my auctions had a 99p start with no reserve. The others had low start with reserve.

4. Never have higher start prices, never do BIN's. Avoid reserves IF possible.

5. Always have a full, honest & detailed description. If the listing description clearly shows you know what you are talking about, buyers will trust to buy from you. Do not though, go overboard.

List all the items included in the sale, list caps, hoods, box, manual etc, and say if any items are non branded, OEM or 3rd party items.

6. Always sell worldwide. I always did, I got anywhere from 20-100% more than UK listings.

7. Always have a full, simple and VERY clear list of p+p prices to all destinations. I had a small table with UK, EU & worldwide prices.

8. Have a hard thought about how buyers will search for your item, think of all the potential words and combinations of words they may use...then make sure your title line reflects these possible searches...this is critical and 90% of ebay sellers fail to do this. They simply have a title which describes the item simply and do not think how buyers may search.

For example, you may put 'Minolta 24mm lens' or 'Minolta 24/2.8' or 'Minolta 24mm f2.8 for MD & MC mount' or 'Minolta 24/2.8 MD & MC mount - Near MINT & Scarce'

9. Always highlight a MINT or Nr MINT item. In the title line and the description. Be very honest here though. The proper meaning of 'mint' is 100% as new. Some lens sellers say 'mint lens' if it just is somewhere near, or if just the optics are mint. Be clear of the condition of the barrel, the optics both front & rear, of the inside of the lens (any haze, dust etc) be clear about any oil on the blades etc etc.

10. NEVER, NEVER USE CAPS ON ALL THE TIME...Not for description or title....it makes it far harder to read and says you are lazy. Also use proper paragraphs, use caps where correct. People notice correct grammar and correct layout of text.

11. Use the full characters available in the title box. If a lens is now scarce or boxed etc the say so! I always paid a little extra and used the extra title line ebay allow you, it used to cost 35p...I always used it with scarce/boxed items and it always paid off.

12. Make it clear exactly what mount the lens is and which system it is fully compatible with. Many buyers will just expect any Minolta lens to work on any Minolta camera. Specify it will not work fully with AF mount minolta's etc.

If it is likely/possible to use with adaptors say so and describe any functions lost....ie A/F metering etc. Many buyers are clueless about this. Be clear it does not however come with an adaptor. (many lenses are now used on other cameras & mounts, so your listing should take account of this)

Good luck, cheers Steve.M. (Bongonut on fleabay)