Used Polaroid cameras in New York typically sell for $34 to $150. Instant cameras are bought to be used, so the whole sale rests on one thing: proving it fires and that film is still made for it.
Selling a Polaroid camera in New York
New York apartments are small and most people do not own a car, and those two facts decide the whole second-hand market here. Furniture that fits a narrow room and can be carried up a staircase moves; anything oversized sits unsold however good it is.
Leases turn over constantly and moving day here means whole apartments emptied at once. The supply of used furniture is effectively continuous rather than seasonal, which is why prices stay reasonable even for good pieces.
Almost everything changes hands on the subway or on foot, so agree a station and a time rather than an address. For furniture, the question that decides the sale is which floor and whether there is an elevator — ask it before you agree a price, not when you arrive.
Confirm the floor and the elevator before anything else. A fifth-floor walk-up is the single commonest reason a furniture sale falls apart here, and it is nobody’s fault if it was never asked.
Handing it over in New York
Peer-to-peer payment apps dominate private sales, and buyers will usually offer one before they offer cash. Sales tax does not apply to a private sale between individuals.
What Polaroid cameras are worth
What lifts the price
- Models that take film still in production
- Original strap, case and manual
What pulls it down
- Cameras taking discontinued film formats
- Dirty rollers causing streaked images
Working out what yours is worth
- Confirm which film format it takes and whether that film is still sold
- Shine a torch inside the bellows in a dark room to find leaks
Getting it ready
- Check which film format it takes and confirm that format is still in production, since several are not.
- Clean the rollers inside the film door, which is what causes streaked and blotchy pictures.
Photograph
- The camera closed and opened, whole, from the front
- An actual photograph it has taken, held next to the camera
Put in the description
- Model, and the exact film format it takes
- Whether that film is still manufactured
Model and film type: “Polaroid 600 Instant Camera, Tested and Working” or “Instax Mini 9, Boxed”. The film format is the critical detail because it determines whether the camera is usable at all. The word tested belongs in the title when true — most listings cannot say it.
Listing is free and there is no selling fee, so the whole amount the buyer pays stays with you. You and the buyer agree the handover between yourselves.
Same region (New York)
Common questions
Where can I sell a Polaroid camera in New York?
List it free on WishThrift and deal with the buyer direct. Almost everything changes hands on the subway or on foot, so agree a station and a time rather than an address. For furniture, the question that decides the sale is which floor and whether there is an elevator — ask it before you agree a price, not when you arrive.
What film does it take?
Name the exact format. Buyers have been caught out buying cameras for discontinued film, so they check carefully.
How much is a Polaroid camera worth in New York?
Most used Polaroid cameras change hands for $34 to $150. Condition and completeness move that figure more than anything else.
More: selling a Polaroid camera across the United States, what Polaroid cameras are worth, everything second hand in New York, or Cameras & Photography in New York.
Guide range converted from sterling at the 2 August 2026 rate, not a quote — sellers set their own price.