An Easy Way to Afford New Gear This Peak Season

With Black Friday approaching day by day, we are all excited about the massive rebates on photo gear this 2022 peak season. Indeed, there were exciting new releases by a lot of camera brands that make this season like no other. If you want to learn how you can afford all the cool purchases, this article is for you.

Despite the discounts, photo gear costs a lot. As someone who buys used, I still spend quite a pretty penny on equipment. Just the camera alone costs over a thousand dollars. Sure, you can buy a 5D Mark II for $300, but let’s be realistic, a lot of people are looking forward to the autumn/winter season of peak discounts and rebates on new equipment. No matter what your money habits are, freeing up funds for peak season deals has to be up there on the priority list if you want to buy new gear in 2022. To that end, I have a simple tip for you – sell your old gear for a pretty penny now. And do so with MPB.

Selling Old Gear by Yourself Can Be a Problem, Here Is How It Nearly Turned Bad For Me

Before you click away, let me tell you how selling old gear nearly turned bad for me. As someone who never bought a new camera, or frankly very little gear new, I thought I knew one or two things about selling used cameras and other equipment. In short, it can be a pain if you need to do all the work yourself. So much so, I was once threatened, and this other time nearly scammed. Both were near-misses that I might’ve fallen for. All that could've been avoided had I been smarter about selling my gear, and sold through MPB. 

The story of when I got threatened goes as follows: I was selling a semi-working lens. In the advert for the aforementioned lens, I put it clearly, in black on white, that the lens has problems. Sure, that meant I was selling it for way less, as well as having difficulties finding a buyer. It took me a few months before someone who was interested was found. Having sold the lens, I received a message saying that the lens didn’t work. Quite so, answered I, it doesn’t, as stated in the advert(attaching a screenshot). What followed was a series of threats to find me and get the money back.

The Fast and Easy Way to Sell Used Gear: MPB

As you can see, selling used gear could’ve turned bad for me, which is why I should’ve used a service such as MPB. MPB makes it super simple to sell, but also buy used gear.

Even if you are not like me and don’t take the small risk of buying used gear, you should absolutely let go of your old equipment. It is not easy, and I know exactly how it feels to sell your first DSLR, lens, and so on, but it does go towards a bigger goal: better equipment. Let me describe to you the easy step-by-step process which will let you make money before the season deals of 2022.  

The first step towards making money is logging onto MPB.com, and picking the “start trading/selling option”. First, you need to tell the website what you will be selling. Most of the time, MPB will already have the item you’re selling in their catalog, and it will show up in the search drop-down window. If you are selling something rare, you can always pick the “I can’t find the model” option, and specify the exact detail of what is it that you have. Next, you have to pick the condition of the item you are selling. The gear that I own is all in a “ well-used” condition, so I won’t bother telling anybody that it has no scratches, because it does. For the sake of the example, we will set the condition to be "good", as that is what most photographers will have. If you’re unsure, check out the description ­­­­­which will help you pick the right condition. If you don’t however, no worries. MPB will check out your gear and if they think it is in a better condition than you said, they will increase their quote. This also works the other way. 

Another feature that I found particularly useful is the ability to add multiple items. For someone who has been wanting to upgrade from one system to another, or perhaps swap out kit from one brand for another, this is incredibly useful. In a way, it is almost like swapping with a friend, except that your friend is MPB, who will give you a 6-month warranty, and not just “an honest word”.

After you added your item, you can even pick something you will be buying in exchange. This can be anything from the catalog on the website. In my example, I will be upgrading my Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 from the version I to version II.

Step two is getting your quote. As of the time of writing, I would get $480 for my Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 and would need to pay only $779 to upgrade to version two of the lens. While the amount MPB is paying may be a little below what you can get from selling the gear privately, you need to count on the amount of work they are putting in to sell your gear, as well as the upfront payment. The cherry on top is that shipping to and from MPB is free. The last step is to ship your item to MPB, or arrange doorstep pickup, which is especially comfortable. 

My Takeaways and Why I Would Use MPB in 2022

MPB offers incredibly good deals, and it takes the guesswork and time investment out of the hassle I would’ve gone through if I would’ve tried to do the same otherwise.

Just imagine, I need to create an advert for my lens, find a buyer, ship, pay for shipping, and on and on. I will not get my money until there is a buyer, and I could not buy a new lens until I sell my old one, as well as find someone who is selling a new one. Overall, this can take weeks, if not months. It all depends on how the market is in your area. MPB makes it much easier, faster, and more comfortable to sell, buy, and exchange gear.  

As you can see MPB is probably one of the easiest and best ways to sell your gear to afford to buy new items in this 2022 high season. All you need to do to get paid is: create a quote, and let them pick up your gear. It is that easy.