I’ve not been in the gear market for a while, but while discussing some technical stuff with colleagues over in the NAPP forums, had some time to check pricing in various outlets for used gear, and there are some deals going on these days! In my previous experience, used gear would go for roughly 10-15% less than the new retail equivalents. That percentage is apparently a bit low now as some gear is selling for up to 25% off new pricing! So, if you’re in the market for gear, check out the used market for some serious savings! Here’s a few items I saw in just a mere matter of minutes:
- Nikon D7000: New = $1200, Used = $1000 (16%)
- Sony A580 kit: New=$899, Used = $699 (23%)
- Sigma 50mm f1.4: New=499, Used = $420 (15%)
- Canon 500mm f4: New=$7000, Used=$5600 (18%)
- Canon 5D Mark II: New=$2500, Used=$2135 (15%)
There’s more out there, but that’s just a sampling of what you can expect to see. The nice thing is many of these items include useful accessories like bags, straps, cases, and media cards as incentive pieces…savings add up even more (about a 20% average in my estimation). For what it’s worth, I used the forums from Fred Miranda to look up used gear pricing and B&H for retail equivalents. Your mileage may vary.
What sort of discount would you expect to pay for used gear over it’s new counterparts? Is 15% the new minimum? 20%? 30% What’s considered a “good deal” anymore? Since I’ve not been in the market to buy anything lately, am totally not sure where things are except what I’ve seen above. Those sound good to me but I have not scoured all of the internet to be sure…so, let me know if you’ve had similar or different experiences. Likewise, if you’ve got any of your own deals you’ve noticed recently? Sound off in the comments!
Used gear, well here are my personal thoughts and as always, YMMV. I live in Vienna, Austria and although the used gear market is not what it is in the US, things are available. By subscribing to a certain website for used gear, I do get very frequent offers for the items I’d be interested in – Canon EF 200-400 L IS (older version), Canon 100mm Macro 2.8 L, Canon 8-15 L, Sony 6500 and a few more BUT whenever I get and see these offers, I ask myself, do I want to risk getting perhaps a bad or faulty lens to save 10-15%, with often no warranty left, and most of th time no possibility to return the item due to private sales. or do I rather spend that bit of extra money to get a new lens with all its securities … I simply want to avoid any problems I might run into and regret my decision later having “saved” 10, 15 or 20% initially but end up with a product I am unhappy with … difficult call … but as I said, just my opinion and hopefully it all works flawlessly for others …
Thanks for making me think this over once again!
Cheers
I never would go used. There is just too much that could go wrong! Also with Amazon having so many package DSLR’s available there really isn’t any reason to anymore. This kit for most starters has everything you could need to get started and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.