Actually it occurs to me that I see surprisingly few used digicams
offered for sale by camera stores here - nothing like the levels of
used 35mm gear that they used to carry, say five years ago. There may
be a number of factors at work, I've surmised.
Trade-in prices offered are miserable, as they have to be. The item
is more fragile, shorter lived and it's value is decending rapidly.
For instance, I bought a 4mp Panasonic LC5, the equivalent of the
Leica Digilux 1, for AU$300 with accessories. Two years before it had
cost the buyer around $1800 for the package. I sold it on to a friend
who wanted a good machine but doesn't have too much money. The store
sold it to me for what they traded it in plus a small handling charge
- they paid about $250, one seventh of original cost and had no hope
of making a profit on it. I suspect that many stores simply refuse to
buy or trade used digital gear - too much trouble.
In those circumstances, I think many people get offended by the small
offer and elect to either keep them instead or sell them privately
and offer them on eBay or in local trading papers at what they think
they're worth, i.e. four times what they really are. I don't think
that people have got used to the idea yet that a digicam is worth
almost nothing at 2-3 year old. They think of the $1000 they paid for
it and assume that it must be worth at least half of that. In a
couple of cases, I've seen one-year-old cams offered for sale at more
than you can now get an identical new one, being run out as old stock.
Is this the experience elsewhere?
AndrewF
On 20/03/2006, at 6:50 PM, Jay Drew wrote:
>
> I too am awaiting for an e-something for a buy it now of $199.
> Until then, I will continue my pre-historic ways and continue with
> that old
> nasty film. Although a long time OM owner, for many years I was
> not active
> in photography and only in the past few years have I gotten back
> into the
> swing of things so to speak. So as many of you switch horses, I am
> still
> trying to figure how to put the saddle on the old nag.
>
> It is interesting though that when I show friends my pictures and
> inform
> them that the source is film based, they are amazed that such a
> technology
> still exists and that there are people still employing it.
>
> Jay Drew, an OM luddite
>
>> Hope so - it's already possible to buy quite nice 4-5mp compacts at a
>> fraction of their new cost so in a year or two we may be able to buy
>> the DSLR we lust after now for peanuts and they should have a lot of
>> life left if we accept their 'limitations.'
>> Andrew Fildes
>> afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> http://www.pbase.com/afildes
>>
>>
>>> On 20/03/2006, at 3:43 PM, AG Schnozz wrote:
>>>
>>> History will repeat itself. The dRebel crowd will have finished
>>> off buying their dSLRs and will migrate back down to the much
>>> handier P&S form factor. eBoy will be riddled with dSLRs for a
>>> dime a dozen. We may very well be reaching the end of the dSLR
>>> bubble.
>
>
>
>
>
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