Quote Originally Posted by Dougjgreen
Those lenses didn't cost me all that much. The only lens that set me back more than $250 was the 14mm f2.8 Sigma, which cost me $400 plus shipping brand new. A lot of the other lenses were bought used.

The 24mm-120mm VR zoom cost me $250, and the others all cost me $100 or less. I have never been a big fan of getting the newest stuff. By buying all that stuff used, I could pretty much sell anything I was unhappy with for around what I paid for it. In fact, when I bought the 24-120mm VR zoom, I actually sold 2 lenses that it replaced for $450 (my 28-200mm Nikkor and my 24mm f2.8 prime, which I was surprised to find after some careful testing that it wasn't any better than my 24-120mm zoom and my 19-35mm zoom at 24mm. I had actually tested several inexpensive Sigma lenses in the 18-80mm range (an 18-50, a 28-70 f2.8~4, and a 28-80, and I didn't like any of them enough to keep them - they all went on ebay. The 19-35mm Tamron (which cost me less than $60) and the 24-120mm Nikkor VR were much better.
That is an exellent way to build a lens collection. I have been buying used as well. The only new item I purchased was the 70-300VR and I got that for $400 [poorly listed ebay win]

The places I go and the method I get there can be hard on equipment. I never want to say to myself...I better not take the dslr because it might get damaged. You can't get the shot if you are always worried about the cost of the loss.