I wouldn't dismiss Ebay so easily. I tried selling an item (ef-s 17-55) for the first time last month, and it took me about an hour to set up the page. Assuming you buy it used/refurbished and sell it for the same price, you'd lose about 12% due to Ebay/Paypal fees, which would be covered by a 2-3 week rental. You could do better on other sites, but at least there is some protection with Ebay.
I would not take this advice. Reason being is that if you are new to eBay and have no feedback (or very little feedback) you will not get the same selling price as more established and trusted sellers. My auctions go for good prices because I time the close of the auction well, have excellent feedback (100% and 90 star rating), and have very well lit and detailed photos in the auction. If it weren't for my good feedback, my auctions would probably close at prices 20-30% lower.
The buyer protection program has changed the risk calculation and has made Ebay a lot more attractive for selling high value items. Sure, you might lose on shipping cost, but it limits financial loss. I joined Ebay when it came out in the 90s, bought low value stuff and only recently used it to buy camera equipment. There is no way that I would buy high value items without the buyer protection plan in place. I've bought dozens of items over the years and sold my first item last month. My "feedback" rating was a 9. I rarely leave feedback and generally people don't leave for my transactions either. In fact, I more likely believe listing stories of those that have moderate ratings numbers. High numbers indicate people that buy/sell as a business. Would you believe someone that says they are the sole owner of a lens when he has multiple lenses for sale, and has ratings in the hundreds?
High feedback ratings means less now that Ebay has limited the financial loss. You just have to make sure that you ship insured with signature confirmation, but that is spelled out in their seller guidelines.
I also did not say that you should not have good pictures of the product. That goes without saying, but it is not inaccurate to say that it takes about an hour to set up a seller transaction for the first time because I did it. I got a competitive price for my listing. Ebay has created a "safe" marketplace for people. You can get more value by selling/buying on Ebay rather than buying/selling to places like Adorama. I tried selling it Adorama first, but they offered a price that is hundreds of dollars less that my net (auction price less Ebay/Palpay fees). You might be able to better on Craigslist or some other site, but neither of those methods have any transaction protections.
