Over the last few years I’ve sold many cameras from my collection. It’s been a surprising adventure. Here are some lessons I’ve learned.
I can list a camera so much faster on my blog’s For Sale page than I can on eBay. Really, listing on eBay is kind of a hassle.
I’ve had several bad buyers on eBay, but I’ve had zero problems with people who’ve bought gear through my blog. I’m sure that day will come, but so far everyone has been personable and cheerful about buying from me via my For Sale page.
Sometimes buyers send me very nice emails sharing about their own collections and why they are so excited to receive the camera they bought from me. I enjoy getting those emails and responding to them. It makes the whole experience much more personal, I think for both me and buyers, than is possible on eBay.
Shipping supplies cost money, but I’ve found ways to manage the cost. Amazon A3 boxes are just right for nearly every camera-shipping situation at 10″ x 7″ x 5.25″. More than half of the stuff we buy from Amazon comes in A3 boxes.
I do run out of A3 boxes from time to time. The CVS around the corner keeps 8″ x 8″ x 8″ boxes stocked at about a buck and half each and they’re almost as good as those A3s. I’ve even resorted to buying boxes on Amazon. You can buy any size you can imagine, in bulk. They usually put them into a box to ship them — a shipping box shipping shipping boxes.
Bubble wrap is expensive, but I’ve found no alternative for wrapping cameras. It’s cheapest at Walmart. To fill in the rest of the box I use packing peanuts or sealed-air packs. I get plenty of that stuff in the shipments my family gets all the time.
Always buy the 3M packaging tape. Everything else is junk — the dispensers don’t work well, the tape is thin and hard to work with, or both.
I always want to pay for shipping via PayPal, since that’s where I keep my funds from these sales (and from blog ad revenue and book sales). You can pay for shipping and print USPS labels directly from PayPal here. And now the USPS offers PayPal payment online, too, at Click-N-Ship here.
My wife owns a good kitchen scale that goes up to six pounds. It’s been a godsend. Before marrying her I used to weigh packages by stepping on my bathroom scale with and without the box in my hands, and subtracting. A couple times a buyer contacted me to say my bathroom-scale method resulted in postage due. D’oh! I cheerfully sent them the postage cost with my apology.
