Thinking of selling my F3

R

rgolchuk

Member
Finished shooting my last feature in October. Don't plan to shoot the next one for another year and a half. So the camera sits in the corner of my office untouched. It has the S-log upgrade.

I have a few questions concerning selling it. I'm nervous to sell something like the F3 to an unknown person and wonder what is the safest way to collect payment once a deal is reached. Cash could be dangerous. Any form of check may be fake or fraud. Is using an escrow services common? Are there good ones to use? And if so, would you recommend them?

The two places I plan on using are DVXuser and ebay. Are there any other places or decent companies that buy used equipment in the Los Angeles area?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Ryan Golchuk
 
I bought mine used (full kit with lenses) using escrow.com Went flawlessly and I found the seller through this site. (maybe it was creativecow, can't remember) Escrow.com could benefit from having a more professional looking website but do the searches like I did - they're the legit ones. (the only one recommended by ebay) It was a very professional transaction.

Don't forget that escrow.com will have fees and the fees for ebay will be steep on a transaction that size. I would stick with marketing it through places like this.

Mine was a private sale but the seller did direct me to his ebay user page where he had excellent feedback, was able to prove it was him and had also recently sold a varicam through ebay. He was selling the F3 to buy a C300.
 
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I've sold a number of pricey cameras ($14K to $28K). Here's how I do it:

-If Ebay, you don't ship until the funds are IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT AND VERIFIED. If it's a wire, I move the money somewhere else where the bank can't reverse something (I don't believe wires have that problem anyway).

-If Paypal (Wouldn't do that for over $3K or so anyway), same deal. Money out of Paypal and in my hands.

-RESEARCH YOUR BUYER. Google, whatever. Every time, there's evidence on net that this person's name and location are legit, and their business is either production or something related. Legit people have references.

-I recommend a bank wire. It's generally how big dollar cameras are done.

If you're looking for a broker, I have a few names in LA area. One is Barbara Holler in Burbank, who bought my PDW-F350 some years ago (a $14K sale). I'm sure she could move your F3. Another is Jeff Roberts, although he is a film guy, he might be able to find a buyer.
 
Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I spoke with Barbara today and she was extremely nice on the phone. We'll see what she comes up with tomorrow.

As to Oliver's reply, I'm not sure what I'm going to ask for the camera. I have the Sony Lens kit, S-log installed and it has 52 operating hours. Plus a few other essential accessories included.
 
I think between 15K and 16K with lenses is going to be the number, but the brokers sometimes can surprise you with higher numbers than you'd expect, if they have the right buyer.
 
FWIW - In December 2011, I paid 16k for the kit with 3 lenses, 1 8 gig card, 1 battery (sony U-60), no s-log. The camera had like 8 hours on it.
 
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