No, don’t go taking your camera with you to the CAR dealership to trade in on that new vehicle you need to buy, I don’t think that will work…

What I mean is, what if selling off your old camera and upgrading to a new one could be just a single convenient, safe, secure transaction? What, not possible you say? Gotta deal with Ebay or Craigslist? (or Fred Miranda or Nikonians, for the super-savvy I guess…)

Bleah, in my opinion there are few things more annoying than trying to sell your used gear to some other private party, and having to deal with them wanting to haggle, then the Paypal fee or whatever, and then the UPS shipping, and worrying the whole time about whether or not they’ll try and rip you off somehow…

Well, no more! Behold, I give you the camera dealership you’ve always wanted, http://www.keh.com…

A couple bucks more expensive than Ebay, you say? A bit less than top dollar for your used gear, you complain?

Duh. Here’s why:

Purchasing security- Imagine the security of buying a brand new camera from a world-wide, trustworthy dealer like Amazon or Adorama. That’s what KEH has, pretty much. If they say a camera is in EX condition or better, you can be sure that it’ll look practically brand new, and DEFINITELY won’t have any hidden flaws that only manifest themself after a month of shooting. And no paypal fee, no dealing with cashier’s checks, no worrying if the camera will even get to you period, and no jacked-up shipping fee.

Selling security- You won’t have to worry about waiting for a check to clear before you ship, you won’t have to worry about an angry buyer coming back to you a month later because of an issue you never even knew the camera had…

Lastly, and the reason for this post: trade-in simplicity, plus a 10% discount- Yep, that’s right, you can get rid of the camera you’ve got and own the camera you want with as LITTLE complication as possible, and if simplicity and security weren’t enough to win you over, you get 10% off your purchase! Which if you ask me is a great deal, plain and simple. I dunno about you, but I have enough things to worry about in life, enough stuff to keep track of and stress out about. I’d rather let a dealer like KEH handle everything for me, and skip all the fees and nonsense that goes with trying to sell and buy used gear.

In fact, I’m definitely considering calling them up and getting rid of my old D70 in favor of a D300, that’s for sure! Wait a minute, I still want my D70 for IR modification, drat. Selling a perfectly good USA D70 only to buy another one in half a year doesn’t make too much sense… Hmm wait a minute, if I’m gonna crack open a D70 and tweak around with the sensor, I might as well do it with a grey market one, since any mistakes would probably put it “beyond economical repair” lol… And grey market D70′s are hitting $399 in EX condition! oooOOOOoooohhh, the plot thickens…

Now the final question involves a little math- I paid $485 for my 2nd D70, I’d probably get about $250-350 for it, I’d get $180 off a $1800 D300, and someday spend maybe $375 on a grey D70 to modify as an IR camera. Worth it in the short run? In the long run? Forgive me, I’m bad at math right now, too busy processing play photos like a madman while writing this post piecemeal…

=Matt=