Proposed Guide for Pricing of Secondary Market Lens

[pokiemon]

Hi all,

This is an attemp to propose a guideline for the pricing of lens in the secondary market.

The objective is to give buyers and sellers a rough benchmark of how much to sell or to buy.

It is not perfect but I hope it can serve as a generic guide. Comments and fine-tuning are most welcome.

The guide is based on a $1,250 price range.

1) Formulae
Suggested price = Current Market Price of a New Non-grey Set x Discount Applicable

2) Determination of Current Market Price
Current market price should be based on a non-grey set and using an average of CP and AP as a benchmark. The formulae is applicable to a non-grey set and grey set.

3) Discount Applicable
Less than 6 mths = -15%
Between 7mths to 12mths = -20%
Between 13mths to 24mths = -25%
Between 25mths to 36mths = -30%
Local Canon Warranty = +7% (Approx price difference btw grey and non-grey)
Scratches on elements = -5% to -20%
Scratches on exterior = -1% to -10%

Example 1:
Selling Canon a 17-40mm with 4 mths local warranty remaining. Condition: 10. No scratches.
Current non-grey market price is $1,250 based on CP and AP.
Suggest selling price = $1,250 x (100% - 20% + 7%) = $1,087.

Example 2:
Selling a 1.5 year old grey set Canon 17-40mm. Condition: 10. No scratches.
Current non-grey market price is $1,250 based on CP and AP.
Suggest selling price = $1,250 x (100% - 25%) = $938.

 

[RossChang]

pointless... the market shall decide...

 

[jnet6]

pointless... the market shall decide...

agreed......
u can't control how ppl to sell wat price, but u can feel how much u pay for the item is worth it.

 

[Witness]

eh i remember learning in econs this something called free market and demand and supply....

cheers..

 

[Splutter]

Agree that its rather pointless because different lenses have different drops in value.

 

[jnet6]

Agree that its rather pointless because different lenses have different drops in value.

dun say lens,
wat about PCs, laptops,PnS cam,Cars....
the more model they have the more "devalue" they become after a short time.

 

[pokiemon]

guys - let the market decide? that is my point...which is how does the market decide?

so what pricing mechanism should an individual use as a start?

how do you determine the expectation to sell or to buy?

this is just to serve as a generic guide and not how much it will actually sell for.

 

[theITguy]

guys - let the market decide? that is my point...which is how does the market decide?

so what pricing mechanism should an individual use as a start?

how do you determine the expectation to sell or to buy?

this is just to serve as a generic guide and not how much it will actually sell for.

Very simple, that is the seller decides how much to sell and the buyer decides how much to bid. If the buyer bids $N - $M ($N is the RP of seller) and seller is ok with the price and do not want to wait further, then $(N-M) is the selling price.

2nd factor you did not put in (which makes it more confusing), is the number of that piece of equipment currently in the market (still selling). When you have none, the price can go higher depending on whether there is real demand for it. If there is no real demand (serious buyer who needs it not want it), the selling price may not go higher than intented.


If you have a chart or way of getting a guided price, is it not price fixing? You are trying to fixed a price by using a guide, which can be misleading to its actual value. And to create different guides for different lens is a problem, not to say updating it as different lens have different demand and supply for it. You cannot and will never have a guide that fits all.


If you are free enough, go ahead and create a price guide, but host it on your own website. ClubSnap is not a place to help determine price or give a guideline. Thats why all transactions in Buy and Sell are not associated with ClubSnap.

 

[pokiemon]

there will be a point in time when you have to determine n and m prices.

agree with your point on the 2nd factor...a suggestion on how to value will be good.

the guide is not trying to fix the price. it is using current market price as a guide which is correlated to the secondary market prices.

 

[roygoh]

The main problem of this approach is that a big part of pricing of second hand items is subjective.

Besides the absolute condition of the item being sold, there are also many other factors such as availability, reputation of seller, desire or lack of to make profit or find a good deal, etc etc.... tht affects the perceived value of an item.

If you want your guideline to be widely accepted then you need a good portion of the people playing in the market to agree with the proposed discount factor calculation. This is precisely the factor that will make this guide unsuccessful becaue you will not be able to get a consensus on the discount amounts.

If you really want to prove out your idea then you should do a survey of items sold on the 2nd hand market. Collect enough data to see if there is actually such predictability of the sales price based on your pricing model.

Otherwise the pricing model is simply baseless and will be dismissed by many without any consideration.

 

[RossChang]

Just to add for fun...
Besides the number of item in the market floating, you might also wanna consider the overall market demand for the particular product (lens) and to complicate the matters more, each and every individual's demand(and lust) for the lens. Say the market determinant says it's worth 1k bla bla bla... but Mr A had a sudden Lust spludge... or Mr B needs it badly for a assignment... the list goes on and on and on and on...

Which brings up an interesting tot... wandering how are the prices of Stock in the Stock Exchange are determined?... :think:

 

[2hwang]

..don't we learn from the supply & demand? Good try but IMHO this is a waste of time.
The recent EF35mm 1.4 in ebay US sold more than the new's price because there was no more stock for this very best prime len. JM2cent.

 

[pokiemon]

I agree that pricing is subjective. I also agree that there are many categories of lens.

Bearing in mind, this is a generic model applicable to mainstream lens and what it does is to give an individual a benchmark of the selling price. For example, I am selling a grey 4 mths old EFS17-85 now. Cathay is selling a non-grey set for $1,050. Base on my formulae, I should expect the price to be around 0.85 * 1,050 or $892. I am asking for $870. From a buyer's perspective, you can look at it as a good buy. Of course the final price is subject to inspection of the lens i.e. whether there are any scratches which can be subjective; and how badly u want the lens. But that shouldn't deviate too much from the expected price. Stocks work almost on the same basis but more complex. After you determine a fair price of the stock base on your model, you compare it against the market price to determine whether it is a good buy or not.

The model can be fine tuned for different categories and should serve as a generic guide. The above discount is based on prices transacted on 2 lens sold - 17-40mm and 24-70mm.

 

[katana]

I think this could work as a guide to let others know how to guage the price of a lens, much like the way Canon or Nikon has a recommended retail price. We all know that the street price is going to be lower but it serves as a good indication anyway. Ultimately the shops determine the price they want to sell at.

Like some of you mentioned, this will not work with every single piece of equipment in the market. The prices of items that are rare or out of production will be very much market driven and could deviate from projected norms. However, for more common items like kit lenses, 17-40, 70-200, 24-120 and the like, this estimation could give the median price at which these items are commonly sold. In the end, it will be up to the buyer and seller to negotiate and agree to their own terms.

 

[katana]

The details such as what % drop should be incurred given the age or warranty status of a lens can be refined, but this is process will take some time and research to iron out.

Also, different % drops in price could apply to different items of the same age/warranty status, depending on the perviced value of the item.