today i want to show you how you can safely buy and sell used gear but first i need to tell you
the story of how i bought this lens thinking it was a good lens and it worked just fine
only to get home and realize that it didn't
hey my name is jake and i create content here to help solo critters on the go so
i do lots of drone camera lens other video and photo related equipment reviews and i give you
tips and tutorials on how to use them if that's something interesting consider subscribing today
i want to tell you the tale of two lenses this lens i bought off facebook marketplace here and
at first it seemed to be fine and this lens i bought through gear focus the sponsor of
today's video the problem started when i decided i want to make a video about
kit lenses comparing to a better lens like this g lens here and so i started watching facebook
marketplace for a cheap kit lens because i figured 150 maybe 200 i could get a cheap kit lens in
good shape and be able to show the difference in photo quality the difference in video performance
and lo and behold a few days go by after i was watching facebook marketplace and this lens popped
up for 150 i messaged the person who was selling it said everything works on it the lens is in
good shape you message back yes everything works it's a great lens i'm only selling it because i've
upgraded to another lens great let's meet i want to test the lens and then if everything works i'll
give you the money and we can go our separate ways we met i tested the lens took a few photos looked
at them everything looked good took a little video clip looked at it everything looked good so i gave
the man his money and we went on our separate ways it was only later after i got home that i realized
this lens was actually faulty and the problem was that this lens would focus for a photo and
it would focus for about 30 seconds of video and then the focus system would reset i later found
out it was because of a broken ribbon cable inside of this lens but i messaged the gentleman who sold
this to me i said hey your lens is faulty this is what it's doing i need to meet you i need my
money back and you can you know do whatever you want with the lens well of course he never got
back to me so i was out 150 dollars never heard back from him again and yeah i now have this nice
little paperweight that uh i don't know what i'm gonna do with because to replace the ribbon cable
is more than this lens is worth and that's where we come to the sponsor of today's video gear focus
i've been wanting to try the 20 millimeter g lens and compare it to the 24 millimeter g master just
for fun i wanted to see what this lens was capable of compared to that one and i also wanted a second
lens that i could film in really low light video with this lens seemed to fit all of those builds
so i purchased this lens on gear focus it was shipped to me by the gentleman who sold it to
me we had a great transaction i tested the lens when it arrived everything worked great and so i
messaged him said great everything's good and mark my order complete there are a few reasons that
i started using gear focus a couple of years ago and one of the biggest was protection because both
parties are protected through that transaction and the money that is exchanging hands doesn't
exchange hands completely until both parties are completely happy with the transaction which is
huge obviously as i've been burned before another reason though i have bought and sold a lot of used
gear including building an entire recording studio completely out of about sixty thousand
dollars worth of used recording equipment that i bought off another online marketplace and then
sold on another online marketplace gear focus is really great and the reason i started using them
is because their fees are considerably less than other online marketplaces and the other reason i
started using gear focus is it's a targeted market they specialize in video equipment photo equipment
sound equipment for video and photo work drones everything that has to do with that they don't
sell sweaters they don't sell pieces of toast that look like some famous person i don't know
what else sells on other online marketplaces but gear focus is a platform really focused on
creating a place where creatives like you and i can buy and sell used equipment safely and also
at a much better rate than other platforms on the market now before gear focus reached out to me
and asked about sponsoring a video i had used gear focus a few different times to sell used
gear my philosophy on used gear is basically if i haven't used a piece of gear in about one year
it's time for it to go because it's just taking up space and there's no reason for me to keep it
around so if you're like me and you have a little bit of extra gear sitting around and you might
want to sell that gear so that you can reinvest that money into other gear or new gear that you
might actually be using then here's five steps on how to sell your used gear on gear focus step one
find all of your used gear that you haven't used in a year test it make sure it works make sure
you give an accurate description and then find out what that used gear will sell for by doing a
little bit of research online step two take really good high quality photos of that used gear to make
sure that people can accurately see the entire piece of gear make sure they know if there's
any specific areas that have extra wear and tear or maybe a little bit of damage on them and take
special photos of those areas so that the buyer or whoever might be interested in that piece of gear
can make a good informed decision about whether or not they want to purchase yours step 3 sign up for
an accounting gear focus and start listing all of the used gear you want to sell now here's where it
gets important that you take very good photos and put those photos on your listing as well as making
sure you include a good accurate description describe anything special about the equipment
make sure you list any extras that come with that equipment if there's any damage or anything that's
not functional you want to make sure and include that in the description so that the buyer is not
going to be caught unaware if there's something to do with i did sell a piece of gear that had
a pretty good little scratch on one part of it i made sure to take a photo of that piece of gear
and that scratch and then also list it in the description and this is where you include the
price that hopefully you were able to research earlier find out what the average selling price
of many of these things are and then list it for whatever the prices you want if you want to sell
something fast you obviously need to list it at a good price and this is where gear focus recently
added a nice feature that allows you to add a possibility for a buyer to make an offer so you
want to sell a lens for 500 but you're willing to maybe negotiate on that you can add the make
an offer option and if you want to you can add a minimum to that make an offer function so let's
say somebody's not going to come along and offer you 150 for your 500 lens once it's listed you
publish that listing and then you sit back drink a lot of coffee and wait for a buyer to come along
and say yes i want to buy that piece of equipment step four your item sells an offer comes in you
accepted it or maybe it sells for full price you want to package that up very well and very
carefully and ship it out to the proud happy new owner make sure that you ship it with a
signature confirmation or a signature required for delivery so that you have proof and gear focus has
proof that the item was delivered to the intended recipient shipping signature required is important
so the gear can't disappear off somebody's front porch because it requires the shipper to obtain
a signature from the actual recipient or the person in the house so you know that piece of
gear didn't get dropped off on a front porch or at a mailbox and then magically disappear into
the ether once you've packaged it up and dropped it off with the shipper it's important to go into
your focus and add the tracking information there so the gear focus the buyer and you can all see
when and how exactly the package was delivered step five once the package has been delivered
the buyer can then test a piece of equipment out make sure it matches the description that you
entered into the listing and mark complete on the item that they purchased that will release
the funds because gear focus knows that hey the buyer is happy with the transaction so we can
release the funds to the seller and once in a while a buyer will forget to mark complete on
the transaction that they're happy with it and so i will send people a message and just say hey i
saw that it arrived i hope everything's good let me know if you have any questions and if you're
happy with the product go ahead and mark the sale complete and occasionally that won't work either
but gear focus waits a set number of days so that there's an opportunity for the buyer to test the
equipment make sure it's good and then if they don't ask for a return at that point then gear
focus will close that sale mark it as complete and release the funds to you once the funds have
been released you can enter some bank account information and be able to transfer that money
directly to your bank account and then you can use that money to shop for other gear because a lot of
us have gear acquisition syndrome like i did with this 20 millimeter lens that i purchased off gear
focus a few weeks ago and i'm extremely happy with unlike this kit lens which basically cost me 150
for a glorified paperweight if you want to know what gear i think is fantastic for solo creators
like me and like maybe like you click or tap right there i'll see in one of those videos
as always if you have questions ask me in the comments below or join my live stream
wednesday nights at 4 pm alaska time 8 pm eastern i'll see you again soon in the next video cheers