Short, honest guides for anyone with a camera to sell in Bangkok - including the parts that are not in our favour.
There are three realistic ways to turn a camera into cash in Bangkok. One of them usually pays the most, and it is not the one we run.
Shutter count is the first thing any serious buyer asks for. On some cameras it takes ten seconds; on others it takes a cable.
The model name sets the ceiling. Everything after that is condition, and condition is where two identical cameras stop being worth the same.
Most camera deals in Thailand go fine. The ones that do not usually break at the same three points - and all three are avoidable.
If the camera is not coming home with you, the days before a flight are a bad time to discover what selling it involves. This is the short version, in the order you need it.
Most of the worry about selling a camera is about the meeting itself. Here is exactly what happens at it, including the part where you can say no.
A camera remembers more about you than most people think: your name, your Wi-Fi, your phone. Ten minutes before you sell it is enough to clear all of it.
Warm air, high humidity and a camera bag that stays zipped for months: Bangkok is close to ideal for lens fungus. The good news is that it is mostly preventable.
Action cameras live hard lives - salt water, sand, handlebars. That is exactly why buyers check them differently from a DSLR, and why a little preparation shows in the price.
Nikon makes selling easier than most brands in one important way: the shutter count is usually right there in the photo file. Here is the rest of what to check.
Fujifilm bodies are built around physical dials, and that is exactly where a buyer looks first. Here is what to check before you ask for a price.
Canon is the brand we see most often, from a 1200D bought for a first trip to an R6 that has done weddings. Here is what to check before you sell, whichever one you have.
Sony bodies come to us from vloggers, wedding shooters and people who bought an A6000 years ago and moved to a phone. The checks are the same for all of them.
Three brands that mostly belong to video shooters and Micro Four Thirds fans. The lists are shorter than Canon or Sony, but the models on them are priced the same way, on the site, after a few condition questions.
Camcorders are a different animal from a mirrorless body: no shutter count, more moving parts, and usually a bag of handles, microphones and batteries that belong with them. Here is what to check.
A drone is the one gadget where a step you take in an app before the meeting matters as much as the condition of the thing itself. Start with that.
On this site a camera price is for the body only, and each lens is priced on its own in the next step. That is on purpose: a kit zoom and a fast prime that came in the same bag are not the same thing. Here is what each lens gets checked for.
Compact cameras are back in demand, and the ones people sell us are often ten years old and have been to a lot of beaches. The lens that folds into the body is where most problems hide.
Most cameras that come to us have something wrong with them - a scuff, a missing cap, a screen that has seen better days. Here is where the line actually is, and how to describe a fault so the price you see is the price you get.