For those who have sold their camera gear on Amazon's marketplace, what, if any, returns policy did you offer? I've just had an enquiry as to what to my returns policy is and, to be honest, I hadn't thought about it. Any advice would be appreciated.
Amazon treats large volume sellers and individuals the same way. Therefore buyers expect full service. It's kind of weird as an individual seller. I once sold a Ricoh GX100 on Amazon, and the woman, who seemed perfectly reasonable, claimed it periodically went dead. The camera had worked fine for me, though I did not use that much, but who knows. So I asked her to return it and as soon as it arrived I refunded her money.
I'd rather be fair and give the benefit of the doubt, and protect my ratings, than haggle. Most sales have been perfect.
I would be clear about your timeframe for returns (like 30 days). And explain that you first must receive the item back before you will offer a refund. Both are typical among any volume seller. You can also state that returns are allowable only if the item is defective, meaning it is an as-is sale and they cannot return it simply because they don't like it.
Amazon is a better than Ebay, but not by a whole lot, since you are still dealing with a large and unknown set of buyers. I prefer to use forums for selling camera gear now.
I also recently sold a Zeiss Ikon to a nice chap who after using it, identifying a possible issue, extensively testing it, claimed the rangefinder was out of alignment. He sent a number of pictures of the OVF and it was clear that the rangefinder patch was indeed our of alignment. He sent it back, I refunded hime, and I'll have it fixed under warranty.