best place to sell equipment in NY

[gustavo peña]

ill be in touring in new york for a whole moth, and i would like to sell some lenses and my m4-p fast and get me some other new stuff, mostly zeiss lenses.

wich store will pay the most for my equipment?

item for sell are

leica m4-p
canon 135 f
canon 50 f1.2
leica 28 f2.8 made in canada

[CNNY]

Private sale is always a better deal. You could put an ad on Craigs list, or even better here.

[Brian Legge]

If you aren't interested in selling here, you may have more luck with local cash buyers.

I was at a camera store yesterday when a guy came in with a Hassie, a Leica IIIc and several lenses for each. They were all in user condition but the store took them off his hands for $400. Hard biting me tongue, knowing he could probably have done nearly $1500 by selling it all himself. I almost made an offer one one of the lenses but... I want to make purchases from the store in the future and that seemed like a bad idea.

All anecdotal of course, but with only 4 items, you could probably do 2x as well by selling them yourself either to RFF members in person while in NY or via craigslist (local and cash only, etc).

[Damaso]

I agree with what's been said above. I've sold equipment at Adorama and they are pretty fair, once you've spent twenty minutes haggling over the price...

[sc_rufctr]

Selling to a shop is not the best idea because they have to make a profit on the second hand stuff they sell.
This is only fair considering their over heads and costs of running any business.
I'm stating the obvious but things are especially tough right now for any business.

I know a local shop owner personally and he told me some gear in his shop has been there for over 10 years!
Odd ball stuff mostly but it's still his money tied up in gear he may never sell.

Have you thought about asking a shop in NY city to sell your stuff on consignment?
The problem is you may have to wait for a long while for your gear to sell.

[jsrockit]

I never understood why someone would sell to a store when there are so many outlets these days to get top dollar for your used equipment.

Get a cheap cell phone, put the equipment on craigslist, and meet in a public place for the sale... easiest and quickest.