How to Sell Your Used DJI Drone in the UK in 2023

Have you got a DJI Phantom or Spark that is just collecting dust? Or are you upgrading to a Mavic Mini or an Inspire? You can make back a fair amount of the original investment by selling your old drone. There are many different ways of doing this and we have listed the main options in the UK as well as given you our tips and tricks learned from buying and selling dozens of DJI drones. These tips do of course apply to other drones including Parrot, Yuneec and Autel drones

eBay: The highest sale price (remember the super high fees though!)

eBay is definitely the hardest place to sell your drone on, however it will get you the most money for your drone. We have bought and sold dozens of drones on eBay and have the following suggestions:

• Sell as a buy it now listing at a relatively high price. Buyers will pay a little extra for the convenience of not having to bid on a drone and wait for it to end. This does make it a little harder as you have to price the drone yourself, but it will mean that you end up with a higher price 90% of the time, assuming you get the price right.
• Sell it with a three day auction if you are in a rush to sell. Any quicker than this and you risk missing out on lots of customers, especially with the less popular drones.
• Include all the extras and list each one in the description. Include even the smallest accessories as it may make the difference between someone buying or not.
• Check out the sold listings in eBay to see what the drones actually sell for. People often list drones for ridiculously high buy it now prices, so check to see what people are happy to buy the drones for.
• Always offer a postage option as it massively increases your customer base (see below for details). Even offer postage options for Inspire drones as they will sell for around 10-20% more and shipping will only cost £9 with the right service.

Problems with selling on eBay:

• eBay almost always side with the buyer if they claim that there is a problem with the drone. This means that the buyer could break the drone and then return it and eBay will even charge for their return shipping.
• eBay fees are 10% even on collection only listings and Paypal fees are 2.9%, so on a £300 drone you are losing £38.70 in fees alone. This means that the extra money that you’ll earn by selling on eBay is often immediately lost through the fees.

Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree: Local sales

Facebook Marketplace is a very popular place to sell drones. It works especially well if you live in a large city as there are many potential buyers within just a few minutes of you. You simply take a few photos and then add a description. Selling on Gumtree is very similar to Facebook Marketplace, but doesn’t have nearly so many drones listed on it. They are both completely free to list and there aren’t any fees once it’s sold, which is a great advantage over eBay.

How to get the best price on local marketplaces

• Offer to post the drone and suggest that buyers pay with Paypal. This drastically opens up your market. You can pass the Paypal fees and postage straight onto the buyer.
• “Bump up” the listing every week in Facebook Marketplace. Facebook allows you to bump your listing to the top of the search 6 times per listing.
• Allow local buyers to see the drone before they buy
• Price the drone relatively high and negotiate if needed

Problems with selling on local marketplaces

• If payment is made with Paypal they can hold onto your money for up to a month unless the buyer marks the item as received.
• Expect dozens of messages and often buyers take a look at the drone in person, but don’t actually buy.
• Expect buyers to want to negotiate hard for your item, especially if they are collecting. We have had buyers turn up without all the money despite already agreeing on a higher price.

Trade in Scheme

Some retailers offer a trade in scheme. These are a very easy method to sell your drone as you simply have to post your drone and they’ll give you store credit once they receive your drone. There aren’t any costs associated with this except for the shipping. Most companies only give you credit to spend in their store, rather than cash, so this method is not recommended unless you are planning to buy from their store. DJI offer a trade in scheme in the USA, but it is not currently available in the UK.

Why you should trade in your drone

• It’s by far the easiest option, all you do is package the drone up and the company will deposit the money straight into your account.
• You don’t have to deal with customers claiming the item doesn’t work, or constantly messaging you on advice on how to use the unit.

Problems with trading in your drone

• Companies pay a fraction of the cost of what it would sell for through eBay. CEX is the most popular trade in site for electronics and at the time of writing they give £104 cash for a Phantom 3 Standard, whereas it would sell for £180 on eBay.
• Most companies just give store credit rather than actual cash.
• They won’t pay any extra for all your expensive accessories such as cases, spare chargers, propellers and prop guards.

Sell your drone to Droneoptix

Here at Droneoptix we are always looking to buy drones. We offer the simplest option of all as we even arrange the shipping. All you need to do is package up the drone and it can either be dropped off at a local parcelshop, or collected from your doorstep. We send the money either through Paypal before you send the drone, or by bank transfer once we have received and tested it, so you get actual cash, rather than store credit.

Why you should sell your drone to Droneoptix

• We offer extremely competitive rates. Although you would receive more money by selling your drone on eBay, by the time you have paid for eBay and Paypal fees you’ll find our rates are pretty similar. We usually pay around 30% more than our nearest trade in competitor.
• We are always after second hand drones and we will buy all drones offered to us, whatever the condition.
• We pay real money rather than store credit.
• It literally takes 7 minutes (2 mins filling in the form on our website and 5 mins packaging your drone).
• We will even pay extra for other accessories such as batteries, chargers, prop guards and controllers.

So if you want the most convenience, whilst getting the best price please visit this page here – https://droneoptix.repair/sell-us-your-drone

Bonus – How to post your drone

We suggest that you buy postage through Parcel2Go and use their MyHermes to ship the drone. We have shipped hundreds of orders with them worth up to £1000 and have never had a problem with any getting lost or damaged. They are the cheapest option and the drone can either be collected from your address, or dropped off at a local parcel shop. It will cost £3.23 to ship a Mavic Mini and £6.30 to ship a Phantom 4 Pro. We never buy insurance as parcels are so unlikely to go missing and parcel protection is priced very high. We even have a 20% off voucher for you to use on all orders through Parcel2Go! – https://parcel2go.mention-me.com/m/ol/fp8dq-oliver-perkins

Remember to package it carefully and include the gimbal clamp. If you are shipping it in the DJI box then you should put it inside a larger cardboard box. If you have a foam padded backpack or case then we suggest that you just wrap it up in brown paper or a bin bag and send it as it is as the case offers very good protection.