D70 and Sigma 70-300APO trade in or not?
 

I have decided to bite the bullet and buy the Nikon D200.

Thing is do I trade in my D70 and Sigma 70-300 or not.

The prices I have been quoted for trade in are £260.00 for the two. I feel this is a bit low for a camera and lens I have only had for 12 months.

What would other people do. Sell privately or trade in? The only advantage I can see with the Trade in is they are off my hands immediately and no work on my part to sell them.

Suggestions and opinions welcome.

Nogbad

Have quick look on Ebay, I think you'll find just the D70 alone is worth more than that.

If you trade-in equipment then the trader will want to make a margin. The only way this margin can be made is by offering you a low price, as demonstrated and sell at a high price.

For instance I am watching the used market to a certain wide angle lens and today I found one in mint- condition but only £90 lower than the same dealers new price. £90 equates to 13% discount on new, I bet the person trading the item would have been offered far, far less than price.

If you sell privately then you have that margin by cutting out the trader/dealer.

Try with a For Sale advert here in our For Sale forum, it costs nothing!

After several scams and bad experiences I would not trust e-bay with anything more than £30.

After several scams and bad experiences I would not trust e-bay with anything more than £30
I didn't mean to sell or buy on Ebay, It was to look on Ebay just to give an you an idea of what people are selling D70's for.

Sorry, I must have mis-understood. E-bay is a good place to look for pricing on used goods but I would also try camera shops such as Aperture Photographic, Ffords and Grays of Westminster (intentionally alphabetic order) who all stock used cameras and lenses. Aim about 10% less than the shops who offer warranties whereas a private sale should be offered on a sold as seen basis.

Thanks guys I will post a for sale here in the next few weeks when I have the D200.

Thanks for all the advice and info.

Nogbad

If you can afford to, keep them. Just think of the many times that you could have gotten that great shot, but missed it, because it was all over by the time you changed lenses.

I have had good experiences buying gear on Ebay. I bought my D2HS on there from AJ Purdy. It was a Nikon refurb with 6 months warranty and was in mint condition with only 500 actuations. I got it for £1000 less than the new price and £600 less than they were advertising the same refurbs on their websites. Only thing missimg was the LCD cover and they sent me two without out quibble and apologised even though the cameras are factory sealed by Nikon.

I bought a Sigma 70-300 that didn't work, the focus was too stiff for the camera to shift. I contacted the seller and he said that he was very sorry but hadn't been able to test it as he'd bought in good faith but it in error for his Pentax *ist and was just a beginner so wasn't clued up with the different mounts. I was happy to return it but he said not to bother and refunded me straight away for the whole transaction. I felt a bit sorry for him and offered some advice on what to buy for his camera.

I suppose it's just your luck. I've come across a few obvious scams but if you are careful you can spot them and report them. One was a Canon 5D that a bid on before I realised that all was not right. I was outbid early in the bidding and requested the contact details so I could check it out further before any further bidding. As the seller was stated as being in the Huntly area and I was in Harris at the time, I decided that I would investigate personal collection with cash. However, the phone number was for a Northern Ireleand code that no longer exists. I decided to steer clear and received a number of second chance offers after the auction had closed. None of the offers were for the price I had bid but were much higher. Each came from a different email address. I reported them to Ebay who confirmed it was a scam. You need to be careful but Ebay is not all bad.

re trade in price

The retailer also has to add VAT to the final price as well as a margin.

There's a lot to be said for having two camera bodies, so I would keep the D70 if you can afford to, maybe sell the 70-300 privately if it's surplus.

Ebay is a funny place, you need to be fairly streetwise to spot the scams... though many are so obvious that it's not a problem. Thing is, you need to 'buy' the person who is bidding or selling, research them as much as possible. In truth the % of bad sales is miniscule compared to the good tranactions.

Hi guys thanks for all the info. I am seriously considering keeping the D70 as a stand by and just selling the Lens.

I dont use e-bay and never will I hear so many bad stories about it I wont bother. Besides knowing my Luck I would probably be caught out!!

Nogbad