advice on selling gear

[Dean Lines]

I have a Sony Pmw-ex1 with 6 month warranty left on it. A couple of batteries and a couple of 8gig cards. I also have a padded petrol case and a libec L538 trip. It was my first "proper" camera and I love it... But in the 18 months of owning it I haven't used it nearly as much as I'd hoped (about 60 hours on the clock) and well times are hard and that money might be better off in my bank account at the moment.

But I'll be honest. I'm clueless where to start. I live in the UK and I wouldn't now what this stuff is worth second hand or where to sell it.

I guess I'm just after some advice from you guys on what kind of price I should expect to get for the stuff and the best way of selling it. I've never sold anything like this before and I've never really used ebay. I'm scared to death of being ripped off.. Do I ask for cash or check? Do I keep the camera until I have the money in my hands or does it work the other way around?

Hope you guys can help.

Dean.

[Andy Wilkinson]

My advice would be to offer it for sale here on DVinfo and see what offers you get (from UK members). You can then see if they have a good track record on here (no Pro who uses this site is going to want to get a bad reputation). Once you've agreed a price and who you want to sell it to, you should be able to judge from phone conversations, e-mails and their "presence" / profile on here as to if you think they are trustworthy and go from there. Yes, their cheque should clear before goods dispatched - always (at least for something this valuable!)

Note that ONLY signed up members of DVinfo can see the Private Classifieds section (if I'm not mistaken - and Chris knows who they *should" be assuming they gave accurate info when they first signed up). I know, indirectly, that Chris has mediated in the past if problems do occur - but obviously he's got other things he'd rather be doing I'm sure.

I'm sure you'll have several takers for such a good cam with that kind of history from buddying DVinfo signed up videographers who are trustworthy and wanting to trade up etc.

I suppose the usual legal disclaimer should now follow (!) and I should state that I've only bought relatively small items on here (mostly with delight - but not entirely without any issues with one small item... which I did get resolved OK with no problem) and that I've never sold anything of that value in my life - other than a few cars - heck my EX3 is worth more than one of my cars now (but not my brand new one!). I've bought items off eBay, again mostly OK but would never sell something that valuable on it - personally.

Personally I might be interested in the LS38. I'd like to buy your EX1 as a B Cam but this new Mac Pro has to pay for itself first so will pass on that this time.

Hope this helps and good luck - hope you come back to it when times get better.

[Dean Lines]

cheers for the info mate. Very helpful.

Just need to get my head together and decide one way or another what I want to do.

Despin out.

[Shaun Roemich]

Just remember that if you have been writing off the purchase of your camera as a business expense, you must claim at least part of the sale price back as income. Not sure what your specific tax implications are but it might be worth your while to make a QUICK call to your accountant (assuming again that this is a "true" business and not "just" your making-a-feature-for-a-film-festival enterprise.)