How much does age affect value ?

Baggins_451

Baggins_451

Baggins_451

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Joined
20 Jan 2003
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413
Hi all, I have several Canon fit lenses bought new by me that have been, to my shame, practically unused. EG 24-70, 70-200, 100-400 and a few Sigma primes which have the original hoods, caps, cases, boxes and manuals. These lenses are now about seven or eight years old, they have been stored in a wardrobe in the spare room.

I fully understand how a newer lens would be preferred by a prospective buyer but as my kit is in mint condition how much less is it worth ? Does unused kit degrade ?

Tricky questions I know but I would appreciate any advice :)
 
Any lenses are worthless if over 5 years old, and even worse if they haven't ben used in that time. They just rot away and would destroy any new camera you try them on. As I am a kind soul though, I'll take them off your hands for price of postage....







Seriously though :D

If it's in mint condition then you're not looking at much of a loss at all over something only a couple years to be honest. The L lenses you have will have a lens code which you will be able to work out exactly how old the lens is. Have a look on Talk Photography forums to see what the going rate is (search the for sale archive forum to see what things have sold at as well).
 
There has been talk recently because the new 70-200 f/2.8 IS II no longer has a date code on it and it's split quite a few people - some don't care and some really do.
But as a buyer would you want a slightly battered 2 year old lens that's had a hard life, or a mint lens that's 8 years old and has barely seen life outside the box?

Provided there is no fungus / mould on the optics, it should make no difference how old is and I'd really push the mint condition.

With the 24-70 f/2.8L MK II just coming out and being STUPIDLY more expensive than MKI people are still wanting to get hold of the MK I. All models of the 70-200L still sell well - from the f4 non-IS up to the 2.8 IS.

You can also take a look at completed sale on Ebay to get a rough idea of the going prices as well on TP or even to a lesser extent the Members Market.
EDIT: Scrub the Members Market as I've just seen your post count - you wont have access to that yet.
 
Some people get very silly about date codes, it's the condition of the lens that's important.
The optics are of course the most important but poor cosmetics will obviously affect value.

One thing to keep in mind with older lenses is that Canon may no longer service them as spare parts are not available. This obviously isn't the case with your collection.
 
As others have pointed out Baggins, the thing people tend to care about usually are the condition and the date code. Some lenses would have been recalled for servicing or it was made clear that better copies were released from a certain date code. Thus if you list lenses up for auction, people will usually want to know the date code so they can find out the history of whether its guaranteed to be free of whatever issue, or find out if it was returned for servicing. etc.
 
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