Selling to Adorama used Department

[ecphoto]

Has anyone had a positive experience selling them used gear?

I sent them a box with 4 lenses and 2 bodies two weeks ago and they have yet to get back to me with a quote.
Its been in their possession for 8 days now that's after accounting for time in transit. I've called once this week for a status
report and all they told me was to wait till at least Monday or Tuesday to call again. That seems a little excessive to wait and not be
given any idea whats going on with my stuff. I also didn't like that they did not give me a dollar amount over the phone when I called initially
before sending it to them.

Has anyone sold to their used department before, how did it go for you?

 

[Overread]

You can send a PM to View Profile: HelenOster - Photography Forum & Digital Photography Forum who is the official Adorama Customer services rep. However if you've already been told to wait till next Monday/Tuesday there is little I suspect she can do save to repeat that message. Adorama is a big retailer and generally pretty trustworthy in most situations so I wouldn't get overly worried.

 

[Derrel]

The folks at Adorama are BUSY dude! They have hundreds and hundreds of clocks to set one hour ahead by the 11th of this month!!! Do you know just how many tiny little buttons they must push to get all those camera clocks set one hour ahead for Daylight Saving Time??? Seriously, you need to show a little bit of sympathy. They'll get back to you in good time. I mean, eight,nine,ten,eleven,twelve days....I mean, shoot, what's a fortnight without equipment between a potential customer and a potential buyer??? I mean, especially when a big, big deal like Daylight Saving Time is due here on March 11!!!

 

[bullitt411]

I sold a lens to them in the past month or so. There was a bit of confusion as to how much they were willing to pay though. I received a call from them after submitting my lens in for a quote, it was a fair price so I shipped it off to them. Once they received it the final quote was a lot less than the initial quote. Again, this was just cunfusion on my part because the salesperson I initially spoke to said they paid up to 70% of the value of the item. In my case the quote was 350.00, what I didnt realize was they meant they would pay up to 70% of the 350.00 quote, not that the 350.00 quote was already at the discounted value they pay. I was ready to request they return the lens but they met me someplace in the middle dollar wise so I sold them the lens.

Lesson: don't be afraid to haggle with them once they have your equiptment. They quote they give you is not set in stone. Once we established an agreeable price, they issued me a check very promptly. Overall I'd kind of recommend Adorama but obviously you must know you'd probably do better selling it privately.

 

[Overread]

Overall I'd kind of recommend Adorama but obviously you must know you'd probably do better selling it privately.

Ahh but this is always the case. If you sell privately you get to keep all the sale monies (minus postage/insurance/money transfer fees (eg ebay/paypalcut)). But you've also got to source your own buyer so it can take longer, plus you've also got to sort postage and shipping all on your own. Whereas if you sell direct to a dealer you get a much faster transaction, though you will get less (since the shop itself has to profit on the sale as well).

 

[ecphoto]

The folks at Adorama are BUSY dude! They have hundreds and hundreds of clocks to set one hour ahead by the 11th of this month!!! Do you know just how many tiny little buttons they must push to get all those camera clocks set one hour ahead for Daylight Saving Time??? Seriously, you need to show a little bit of sympathy. They'll get back to you in good time. I mean, eight,nine,ten,eleven,twelve days....I mean, shoot, what's a fortnight without equipment between a potential customer and a potential buyer??? I mean, especially when a big, big deal like Daylight Saving Time is due here on March 11!!!

I appreciate the internet sarcasm.
I work at a hospital, we have about 3000 clocks and it only takes one of our maintenance guys about 6 hours to do all of them. lol.

Overall I'd kind of recommend Adorama but obviously you must know you'd probably do better selling it privately.

Ahh but this is always the case. If you sell privately you get to keep all the sale monies (minus postage/insurance/money transfer fees (eg ebay/paypalcut)). But you've also got to source your own buyer so it can take longer, plus you've also got to sort postage and shipping all on your own. Whereas if you sell direct to a dealer you get a much faster transaction, though you will get less (since the shop itself has to profit on the sale as well).

I was going to sell on ebay, but with the ending bid minus all the fees I would make less lol. That's what prompted me selling it to them.

 

[ecphoto]

You can send a PM to View Profile: HelenOster - Photography Forum & Digital Photography Forum who is the official Adorama Customer services rep. However if you've already been told to wait till next Monday/Tuesday there is little I suspect she can do save to repeat that message. Adorama is a big retailer and generally pretty trustworthy in most situations so I wouldn't get overly worried.

Okay ill give it till Monday before I call again. I'm starting to get impatient, I've been with out any camera for two friken weeks.

 

[KmH]

Two points:

1. I wouldn't quote a number over the phone either. The value of used gear is so very dependent on it's condition, and though it doesn't happen often, stuff can get damaged during shipping.

2. One maintanence guy resetting 3000 clocks in 6 hours would have to average resetting 500 clocks per hour, which is an average of 8.33 clocks per minute, or 1 clock every 7.8 seconds. :shock:

 

[ecphoto]

Two points:

1. I wouldn't quote a number over the phone either. The value of used gear is so very dependent on it's condition, and though it doesn't happen often, stuff can get damaged during shipping.

2. One maintanence guy resetting 3000 clocks in 6 hours would have to average resetting 500 clocks per hour, which is an average of 8.33 clocks per minute, or 1 clock every 7.8 seconds. :shock:

My money making job is maintainance/security at a hospital. We can do so many because we have master clocks that control time on 10-100 other clocks on the same circuit. That's just the wall mounted mechanical clocks. All of our LCD clocks are set remotely as well. There's only about 200 that need to be set by hand.

 

[HelenOster]

Okay ill give it till Monday before I call again. I'm starting to get impatient, I've been with out any camera for two friken weeks.

I'm really sorry that I didn't see your posting before now.

ALWAYS come to me the minute anything is unclear!! The sooner I get a hold of an issue, the sooner I can get on to it.......

Logistically, we receive several hundred packages of used gear to evaluate every day (there are on average 25,000 used items in the warehouse at any one time!). They go to our warehouse in NJ for sorting and are then sent by road to the evaluation team in NYC. Last Wednesday (7th) we closed early plus all day Thursday 8th, but that's no excuse for you to be left hanging.

If you are still waiting for a resolution, please do email me: [email protected]

 

[ecphoto]

Okay ill give it till Monday before I call again. I'm starting to get impatient, I've been with out any camera for two friken weeks.

I'm really sorry that I didn't see your posting before now.

ALWAYS come to me the minute anything is unclear!! The sooner I get a hold of an issue, the sooner I can get on to it.......

Logistically, we receive several hundred packages of used gear to evaluate every day (there are on average 25,000 used items in the warehouse at any one time!). They go to our warehouse in NJ for sorting and are then sent by road to the evaluation team in NYC. Last Wednesday (7th) we closed early plus all day Thursday 8th, but that's no excuse for you to be left hanging.

If you are still waiting for a resolution, please do email me: [email protected]

Someone finally got back to me on Monday. What I was given was far less than what was quoted by phone. I received 150 and a 20 dollar trade for everything. I was quoted 280 after the 30% reduction for my sony a330 and kit lens alone, and I sent in several other lenses and a 35mm. I accepted the low ball offer because I'm tired of waiting for my money.
Next time ill use someone who is up front like B&H or KEH.

 

[HelenOster]

Someone finally got back to me on Monday. What I was given was far less than what was quoted by phone.

Please email me your original estimate #; let's see if there's anything I can do........ [email protected]

 

[bazooka]

I sold a lens to them in the past month or so. There was a bit of confusion as to how much they were willing to pay though. I received a call from them after submitting my lens in for a quote, it was a fair price so I shipped it off to them. Once they received it the final quote was a lot less than the initial quote. Again, this was just cunfusion on my part because the salesperson I initially spoke to said they paid up to 70% of the value of the item. In my case the quote was 350.00, what I didnt realize was they meant they would pay up to 70% of the 350.00 quote, not that the 350.00 quote was already at the discounted value they pay. I was ready to request they return the lens but they met me someplace in the middle dollar wise so I sold them the lens.

Lesson: don't be afraid to haggle with them once they have your equiptment. They quote they give you is not set in stone. Once we established an agreeable price, they issued me a check very promptly. Overall I'd kind of recommend Adorama but obviously you must know you'd probably do better selling it privately.

This is the exact same thing that happened to me. They gave me an estimate quote over the phone but they made it sound like that's how much they would be willing to pay me. It's actually a percentage of THAT number. I told them I didn't want to do it and then he said he's see what he could do. They ended up giving me the original price that they quoted me.... which still wasn't that great but considering they gotta make a buck on it, not bad.

 

[ecphoto]

I sold a lens to them in the past month or so. There was a bit of confusion as to how much they were willing to pay though. I received a call from them after submitting my lens in for a quote, it was a fair price so I shipped it off to them. Once they received it the final quote was a lot less than the initial quote. Again, this was just cunfusion on my part because the salesperson I initially spoke to said they paid up to 70% of the value of the item. In my case the quote was 350.00, what I didnt realize was they meant they would pay up to 70% of the 350.00 quote, not that the 350.00 quote was already at the discounted value they pay. I was ready to request they return the lens but they met me someplace in the middle dollar wise so I sold them the lens.

Lesson: don't be afraid to haggle with them once they have your equiptment. They quote they give you is not set in stone. Once we established an agreeable price, they issued me a check very promptly. Overall I'd kind of recommend Adorama but obviously you must know you'd probably do better selling it privately.

This is the exact same thing that happened to me. They gave me an estimate quote over the phone but they made it sound like that's how much they would be willing to pay me. It's actually a percentage of THAT number. I told them I didn't want to do it and then he said he's see what he could do. They ended up giving me the original price that they quoted me.... which still wasn't that great but considering they gotta make a buck on it, not bad.

They said my camera and kit lens were worth 400. So 70% of that is 280 okay not bad, I sent a second lens and flash. And another camera with two lenses and he came up eith 150 and that's all he could do apparently. Oh and 20 dollars in used merch after haggling forever on the phone.

 

[HelenOster]

They gave me an estimate quote over the phone but they made it sound like that's how much they would be willing to pay me. It's actually a percentage of THAT number. I told them I didn't want to do it and then he said he's see what he could do. They ended up giving me the original price that they quoted me.... which still wasn't that great but considering they gotta make a buck on it, not bad.

I'm sorry; they are supposed to make it clear that the estimate is the hoped-for re-sale value, and that customers can expect to receive 70% of that (it could be a little more if the customer is trading up).
When we receive units for appraisal and run them through our standard testing procedures they may not be in the condition we expected when the estimate was given, so a reduction needs to be made to cover the cost of refurbishment.

The 30% is to cover the cost of advertising, warehousing and staff time. Also, as you know, we cover the cost of shipping and insurance in to us – plus the cost of sending it back if a customer isn’t happy with the final price.
Finally, every item is sold with a warranty – on most items this is a full 6 months, and it includes a 30-day no-questions-asked returns period.

And, as you so rightly noted, the boss expects a profit!