Help! Impossible to find anywhere to sell lights as an individual

[denmarkdavis]

Hi guys

 

My band split up, and I have some lights that I would like to sell, but there seems to be no-where to sell them. They are too expensive to sell on eBay, and this forum doesn't seem to have many viewers - and it'd cost me £15 to post.

 

 

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

Thanks in advance

Tim

[greenalien]

Tim - welcome to the forum.

 

Please explain 'too expensive to sell on Ebay' a bit more - I've bought and sold lights on there, as do many other people.

 

It's pretty likely that it will cost you money to find a buyer for your lights, and Ebay has the biggest reach of any sales outlet.

[denmarkdavis]

Thanks for the reply. For a personal (non-business) account on eBay, there is a cap of £3,500. I wanted to sell as a package which should go for around £8,000. (4x GLP Impressions, Atomic 3000 etc)

[ddproduction]

Have a look at www.usedlighting.co.uk

[Brian]

...and it'd cost me £15 to post.

So you've got in excess of £5,000 of kit to sell.

 

eBay and paypal will take about £260 of that if you sell it as one lot (5.2%) or around £750 (15%) if you break it into lots of smaller lots.

 

The Blue Room asks for just £15 or 0.3%.

[denmarkdavis]

...and it'd cost me £15 to post.

So you've got in excess of £5,000 of kit to sell.

 

eBay and paypal will take about £260 of that if you sell it as one lot (5.2%) or around £750 (15%) if you break it into lots of smaller lots.

 

The Blue Room asks for just £15 or 0.3%.

 

 

 

Thanks for the reply - I'm well aware of the %. But you do have to take in the risk of a non-sale, and the classifieds here are rather quiet from a quick look through. Do you have a different experience of it?

[greenalien]

It would be interesting to know how you've arrived at your valuation of the stuff you have for sale. Used lighting usually only sells for a relatively small proportion of the original new price, obviously a lot depends on its condition and age, and how popular the items are, but if it's over-valued, you'll be very lucky to find a buyer at all, so be realistic in what you ask. The advantage of Ebay is that it will give you a good idea of what the actual value is, because that's what customers will offer; however, Ebay is not so good for 'job lots', much better to list each item separately, preferably finding out first what similar items have sold for in the past so that you can set a realistic reserve or starting price. Provide several photos, and be realistic and accurate in your description of each item.

[paulears]

The classifieds aren't quiet because we don't promote the section as a place to sell - because we're a community and people get to know each other.

 

One thing does pop up though. You will really struggle to sell a total package, here, Ebay or anywhere because the package will contain items people simply have no need for. Somebody with perhaps four XYZ movers could be interested in more, but won't have any interest at all in your other items. Best advice is to split them into cheaper more attractive lots. On top you also have fear factor. Buy expensive kit with no warranty means a big risk, especially like here with a new member. I've seen VERY expensive kit be sold between members on the Blue Room where trust and opinion has been built up. We find new members who join to sell have problems - it's just not really what we do - and the successful classified sales are usually between people who have been around for a while. Dealers like used lighting offer low figures because they have to add margin and a bit of a warranty to shift them ay sensible prices.

 

I'd really suggest ebay as the logical place - so stick up maybe the GLPs as a pair, with a note more are available and see what happens - same with strobes.

 

The big snag is that you are nowadays as a second hand sale competing with the likes of Thomann with cheap chinese kit with 3 years warranty - I know your kit is better, but second hand, unknown, and no warranty equipment just won't sell unless it's a genuine bargain. The only hope are people who want more of specific models - not joe public.

Paul

[denmarkdavis]

It would be interesting to know how you've arrived at your valuation of the stuff you have for sale. Used lighting usually only sells for a relatively small proportion of the original new price, obviously a lot depends on its condition and age, and how popular the items are, but if it's over-valued, you'll be very lucky to find a buyer at all, so be realistic in what you ask. The advantage of Ebay is that it will give you a good idea of what the actual value is, because that's what customers will offer; however, Ebay is not so good for 'job lots', much better to list each item separately, preferably finding out first what similar items have sold for in the past so that you can set a realistic reserve or starting price. Provide several photos, and be realistic and accurate in your description of each item.

 

Well you do have to start with a price that you'd be happy with before dropping into the 'I'm gonna need therapy for this loss' zone. Buying new it would be valued at over 13k, so I thought 8k would be a good place to start. If I saw that deal when I started out I would've bitten their hand off... But I'm not a full-time lighting professional, so let me know if you see it totally differently!:

 

 

4x GLP Impression 90 with tour flight case, stands and truss mounts

1x Atomic 3000

1x Martin Magnum 1200 smoke machine with remote

4x ADJ mega bar led

2x tri-truss

Cables and powerways

 

http://www.timdavis.me/staging/ebay/light1.jpg

 

 

The classifieds aren't quiet because we don't promote the section as a place to sell - because we're a community and people get to know each other.

 

One thing does pop up though. You will really struggle to sell a total package, here, Ebay or anywhere because the package will contain items people simply have no need for. Somebody with perhaps four XYZ movers could be interested in more, but won't have any interest at all in your other items. Best advice is to split them into cheaper more attractive lots. On top you also have fear factor. Buy expensive kit with no warranty means a big risk, especially like here with a new member. I've seen VERY expensive kit be sold between members on the Blue Room where trust and opinion has been built up. We find new members who join to sell have problems - it's just not really what we do - and the successful classified sales are usually between people who have been around for a while. Dealers like used lighting offer low figures because they have to add margin and a bit of a warranty to shift them ay sensible prices.

 

I'd really suggest ebay as the logical place - so stick up maybe the GLPs as a pair, with a note more are available and see what happens - same with strobes.

 

The big snag is that you are nowadays as a second hand sale competing with the likes of Thomann with cheap chinese kit with 3 years warranty - I know your kit is better, but second hand, unknown, and no warranty equipment just won't sell unless it's a genuine bargain. The only hope are people who want more of specific models - not joe public.

Paul

 

 

This is great advice Paul. Thank you. I'm a graphic designer who dabbles in lighting so I'm not really in a place to be around to become a member of this community. I totally understand what you mean though.

[Brian]

Based on kit currently available for sale elsewhere and assuming it sold as individual lots...

 

4x GLP Impression 90 with tour flight case, stands and truss mounts - £3300

1x Atomic 3000 - £250

1x Martin Magnum 1200 smoke machine with remote - £175

4x ADJ mega bar led - £500

2x tri-truss - £100

Cables and powerways - £100

 

So that's £4,425 as individual lots. Or about £4k as a package.

 

 

The big 'Ouch' for you is the Impressions. I've just found some for 990 euro each. If I was buying four of them I'd expect the flightcase to be included FOC. The list price looks like £2600 each. That's a huge write down.

[pscandrett]

...and the classifieds here are rather quiet from a quick look through. Do you have a different experience of it?

 

For what it's worth, I sold my LX desk through the classifieds here before Christmas. I think I had about four enquiries within a few days, and sold it within a fortnight (and it probably would have been quicker if other things hadn't got in the way). I'd like to publicly thank the BR for this feature really - I suspect I'd have got less via ebay (and certainly would have had to pay more fees).

 

It doesn't necessarily help your situation, but just thought I'd say that it's worth people considering, at least for one or two items from time to time.

[musht]

Gearsource another sales channel worth looking at, pay if/when sells, but afraid LED heads hold value like a 6 month old smartphone :-(

 

http://www.gearsourceeurope.com/catalog/stockitem/impression-90-led-wash-light

[Jivemaster]

I used to work for a second hand electronics dealer. His buying price was current value/3 That was 1/3 profit, `1/3 warranty risk, and 1/3 to the supplier. Don't over value the equipment, it will not sell unless you price it keenly.

[Ynot]

The list price looks like £2600 each. That's a huge write down.

And don't forget that many here would NOT expect tpo pay list price anyway for most items. Even in my own position as a predominantly amateur practitioner I can pretty much guarantee that I'll get a minimum of 25% off list on most products.

 

So if you paid list when new, don't expect anyone who'd be looking at that sot of discount scheme to be any way interested in anything more than maybe 50% list (max) on anything second hand.

[TonyMitchell]

Ynot is spot on. Let me show a typical example why, if we were to buy, say just a one month old asset off you for half of the price you you paid for it, we're worse off than buying new.

 

There's a couple of assumptions - those being you / your band are not VAT registered, also that you purchased from a MI store at list price.

 

 

List price of the asset: £4,000 ex vat

 

You paid £4,800 inc vat and couldn't reclaim the £800 purchase tax

 

The Trade Distributors we source from offer 35% off list plus 5% settlement. And we can claim the VAT back.

 

So we pay £2,470 for the same asset, posting £2,600 to the balance sheet and £130 to discounts taken on the P&L

 

The year one depreciation charge is 25% of the book value = a £650.00 charge to the P&L

 

Had we bought from you at £2,400 (half of what you paid a month earlier) the year one depreciation charge to the P&L would be £600, (£80.00 more than buying new as you are offering no settlement), also we have probably got no warranty.

 

For this deal to be attractive, your price would need to be circa one quarter of what you paid.