What ever happened to the resale value of camera gear?

5 years 5 months ago #614622 by J Hemingway
For those of you that were involved in photography back in the film days.  You remember selling something?  You could fetch roughly 75-90% resale value out of what you were selling.  

Man now a days, I see stuff listed on ebay and craigslist for 40-60% of FMV.  Just seems camera gear on the used market now is not standing on the same legs that the film gear did back in the day.

Technically it's not just photography gear, I've noticed this phenomenon across many industries. 

Care to voice your thoughts? 


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5 years 5 months ago - 5 years 5 months ago #614627 by effron
"You could fetch roughly 75-90% resale value out of what you were selling. "

I was around back then and don't remember that. It is less now mostly because the market is more flooded with used gear, and the tech upgrades were rendering gear less desired pretty fast. Its settling a bit now...IMO.

Why so serious?
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5 years 5 months ago #614631 by fmw
In the film days cameras didn't go obsolete.  They all held film and lenses.  Now advances in sensors make older sensors obsolete - or at least photographers think they do.


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5 years 5 months ago - 5 years 5 months ago #614656 by effron
Not. I own a Nikkormat ftn, and my last film camera was a F100. Auto exposure, auto focus, auto wind, etc on the latter, ALL manual on the former. The Nikkormat was "obsolete" a year after it was introduced. Film cameras were progressing too....

Why so serious?
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5 years 5 months ago #614789 by Roman Omell
The market got flooded with more people jumping on digital than film.  Film was film. Surpassed digital meant something was released that was better than the previous.  That's what fulled the lesser FMV on digital vs film. 


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5 years 5 months ago #614911 by Gabriel Photos
The used market for digital just grew a lot quicker than the film had. 


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5 years 3 months ago #625396 by serenavsworld
It's interesting, because analogue cameras still appear to be retaining their value on the second-hand market. I have also seen it in the music industry, where vinyl has had a resurgence (some records which I've seen for 60 cents at flea markets in the 1990s are now worth hundreds or more), yet CDs and cassettes are regularly thrown in the bargain bin. Is it quality that people are after, or simply nostalgia? Is there a view that digital is not as valuable as analogue because it can be readily replaced, like how there is a new iPhone every year (or every 6 months)? I think the rapid introduction of technology very quickly reduces the value of equipment in this digital age but I think that at some point, historical purpose can influence value as well.


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5 years 3 months ago #625519 by Stanly

serenavsworld wrote: It's interesting, because analogue cameras still appear to be retaining their value on the second-hand market. I have also seen it in the music industry, where vinyl has had a resurgence (some records which I've seen for 60 cents at flea markets in the 1990s are now worth hundreds or more), yet CDs and cassettes are regularly thrown in the bargain bin. Is it quality that people are after, or simply nostalgia? Is there a view that digital is not as valuable as analogue because it can be readily replaced, like how there is a new iPhone every year (or every 6 months)? I think the rapid introduction of technology very quickly reduces the value of equipment in this digital age but I think that at some point, historical purpose can influence value as well.



:agree:  well said!  

Nikon Z6 | Nikon FM10 | Nikon D80 | Nikon 50mm f/1.8D | Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR | 35-105mm f/3.5 Macro | 80-200mm f/4.5 | SB600 | Pocket Wizard II
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5 years 3 months ago #625526 by Nikon Shooter

fmw wrote: In the film days cameras didn't go obsolete.  They all held film and lenses.  Now advances in sensors make older sensors obsolete - or at least photographers think they do.


Right!
In this fast changing everything, obsolete means
"not up to date" and nothing else. Remember that
some gear was, a few years, back the pro choices.

Light is free… capturing it is not!
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