Manual lenses my collection buy or sell?

[maldaye]

Hi all,

I am building up a pretty well sized collection of manual lenses for my nikkon d7000 and d800. There is much overlap in range. Some of those lenses are obscure or rarely pop up for sale on ebay and some are old favorites from Nikkor and well known brands like Tamron. I don't regret buying a single one of them and they are all sitting cozy in my drybox.

Yet, when I did my recent shoot, I pulled 5 of them, but only did use 2-3. I think I can trim my collection from 35-40 lenses to just 10 or less, if I just pick up the BEST of the BEST for a given range prime and zoom. The question I am now asking myself why keep them?

Most of these lenses will not keep their value well in 10-15 years (even nikkor lenses value go down) and I might die from a sudden disease or accident and they may end up just sitting there on the shelf getting sporadic use before getting liquidated by my relatives. Of course, I might also decide to take them for spin just to have 'fun' with some of the oldies. I am loath to sell them, because I love having them, and I also can't justify keeping them and wonder if I should sell them and buy more expensive glass. All in all if you owned a collection of 40 lenses from Nikkon, Tamron, Vivitar, Tokina, Voigtander, and some obscure vendors with overlap in range what would YOU do with them?

[guardian]

If it were me I'd keep every last lens. I don't think they are going down in value. I think they are going up in value.

This assumes you are storing and safeguarding your lenses properly, as it seems you are.

[maldaye]

[wuxiekeji]

IMHO I think lenses are for taking out and shooting with, not to keep as museum pieces for appreciation in price. I wouldn't worry about value. If I were in your situation I'd go out on morning or evening walks for the next 40 days carrying a different lens each day to see how it feels and what the results are like. The ones that I think I never see myself wanting to actually take out, sell away immediately at fair market value. Then use that money NOW to buy yourself something more useful to your photography, such as a plane ticket to somewhere interesting. Don't wait, life is short.

[philslizzy]

[Dogtag]

I would only sell the expensive (unused) ones and keep the fun and cheap ones. Use the money to buy other lenses and repeat the process. I'm not buying my lenses because I consider it an investment, I just love the 'old' lenses and take them for a ride once in a while. I have many 50's but most are different in character. So I keep them all

[cooltouch]

I have been in a similar situation a few times. Most recently I have been in a buy-back phase, wishing I never would have sold my lenses to begin with. I've done the same thing -- rationalizing that various lenses I own are never used, therefore I should sell them while they still have some value. Because of this attitude, I got rid of some lenses that I really wish now I hadn't. I have made a personal vow that any lens I buy now -- unless it's a complete turkey or it was part of an outfit that I bought and wasn't the reason why I bought it -- will remain in my collection forever -- or at least for the rest of my life. I'll leave instructions in my will to my daughter as to how she can maximize her profits when she sells off my collection.

[LucisPictor]

I have bought and sold a lot during the last years. More than 200 lenses went through my hands that way.
Recently I have rather sold than bought and reduced my collection considerable. But I often feel that I should sell some more.

At the moment I arranged the remainig lenses in "sets" or "combos" with different cams.
Most of those cams I'd like to keep and that's why I keep those lenses as well.

But after a while, I realize that there are other lenses that I do not need any more and that I do not have a special relationship to or a feeling for. Then those lenses will have to go as well - although it's nice to have them.

The only lens I really regret to have sold is the Nikkor-O 2/35. But I have never re-bought a lens (unless I found one for a very low price.)

I really feel like reducing my stuff to a sensible level. That isn't easy, though.

Have you got some lenses that...

... you have not used in the last year and...
... it's not a special item (that e.g. was a present by a friend or brings back certain memories)?

Yes? Sell it.

If you have some rare lenses, you also should perhaps think about selling them. Lenses mostly are not a good investment. Only some are. And it's just with shares at the stock market, you can't tell which ones.
Nobody would have imagined six years ago that a simple Trioplan 100 would go for that ridiculous amount of money one day!

Leica lenses truned out to be a good investment but not if you buy them now. They are already expensive, some over-priced.

Again, I really would like to reduce my collection to 10 or 12 lenses, because that feels really refreshing. But as long as I keep so many camera systems that won't be possible.

[DerKerusker]

[Oldhand]

[Mark]

I tried about 20 M42 lenses during the last year. It was fun of course, but I personally found that there is no real need to have several lenses in the same focal length. I know that every lens is different, so I can understand that many of us like to experiment with different camera/lens set-ups. This is a good thing! However I only used a portion of my collection; some of those lenses were only once on my camera. So why should they collect dust in the cabinet? Life is short and there is no time to use all the different lenses as much as we should. LucisPictor's advice is a good start to sell the really underused lenses.

[Lightshow]

I'm the wrong guy to ask, as I have 100+ lenses and I don't really want to sell any of them, though I would like to swap a few out for different copies to see if the copy I have is a dud.
I'm focusing my money on the better lenses now, the ones that I'll be buried with.
But that doesn't mean I don't want my other lenses, coming from a 1DIII to a NEX-7 I've not used some of my previous faves anywhere near as much, if that happens again when I move away from my 7, I'd hate to have to buy lenses I already had, I've seen a good number of shooters do that.

[visualopsins]

Examine the original impetus for collecting...or second guess it, as is happening here, because the goal has changed.

[maldaye]

[wuxiekeji]