I’ve bought a bunch of used photography equipment, including an expensive camera body and even Leica M lenses. I don’t think I’ll ever buy new equipment again. The used market in the US is just too good — wide selection, great conditions, and substantial savings. I’ve been buying largely from MPB and eBay.
The environmental cost of producing so many new consumer goods is too high. Used stuff is totally acceptable. There isn’t really anything else to say. I haven’t even noticed that my Sony a7RV was used, which was 15% cheaper. Ditto for all of my Leica M lenses.
Scenic Routes started from this ethos. There was a shortage of new bikes during the Covid-19 lockdown. But there were and are plenty of incredible bikes sitting in garages. Scenic Routes still doesn’t sell new bikes, only new-to-you. And people love them!
My laptop is running out of storage and I’m building up a desktop-attached storage.1 I have a used QNAP TR-004 coming and I’m even getting used harddrives! I bet it will be totally fine. It was my first eBay auction purchase.
Sure, you may not get free shipping or returns — but these offerings are raising consumer prices and hurting the environment. Most returned goods aren’t going back on the shelf.
Was this photo of Gus taken with a used camera and lens?
I was gonna do a network-attached storage but the decision paralysis made me realize it was overkill. ↩︎