With all the rules surrounding the use of drones in the United States, you may be wondering if there’s anything you need to do before you sell your drone. While none of this is set in stone, this is how I’d go about selling one of my drones. In fact, this is how I’m currently going about selling one of my drones.
De-register Your Drone with the FAA Before You Sell Your Drone
First thing is first. This part of the process really only applies to Part 107 pilots because under Part 107, you are required to register each drone individually. If you are a recreational drone pilot, your registration isn’t really a drone registration so much as it registers you as a drone pilot. You then place your personal registration number on each of your drones.
If you want more information on registering your drone (or yourself), check out my article that walks you through this whole process, including how to use the FAA’s Drone Zone.
Right now, if you are a Part 107 pilot, your drone is registered to you on your FAA Drone Zone account. De-registering your drone is even more simple than registering it. Just as it is pictured below, you will have the option of choosing whether your drone is damaged, lost, sold, stolen or provide some other unspecified reason.
This is really all it takes but I would highly recommend doing this. In the event that your drone is used in some way that you don’t want to be held responsible for, this is evidence that you no longer own the drone in question.
Remove Personal Information
This one is probably less important because there is not a lot of personal information on your drone. That said, be sure to remove your registration number from the drone. Additionally, if you are selling the drone with an SD card, make sure you format it before selling.
I’ve seen a lot of people concerned with removing a drone from their DJI account but I don’t think this matters. Your DJI app requires you to login and once your phone or tablet is connected to the controller and the drone is on, then you are able to fly. But there is really no other way that your drone is tied to your DJI account. So if you sell your drone, you don’t have to worry about it being tied in to your DJI account any longer because whoever flies it next will need to login to the DJI app using their own account.
Create a Receipt or Bill of Sale
If you are selling your drone on an online platform (which I’ll discuss below), you will probably have some record of the sale. On eBay this would probably be e-mails showing the sale of the drone. Just make sure it includes the serial number so that it is clear this specific drone was sold.
If you’re selling it in person (through Craigslist or something similar), I’d probably have a bill of sale put together. Something simple that includes the make, model, serial number and purchase/sale price. I’d also include spaces for the name and address of the purchaser and the seller. Then both parties should sign it. You could have it notarized but this seems like overkill. Although drones are treated like aircraft, they do not carry a title with them or anything like that (at least not yet). While a bill of sale may not be entirely necessary, it is a good idea to have something to show that the sale was completed.
Update the Firmware
This one is totally optional but it seems to me that if I purchased a new drone, I wouldn’t want to have to spend the first few hours downloading and installing an updated firmware. It shouldn’t be that hard for you to spend a little bit of time letting your drone update before you sell it. It could even make the difference between someone buying your drone or someone else’s. If you’re up to date, its one less thing they’d have to worry about once they get the drone.
Marketplaces to Sell Your Drone
Obviously you can just list your drone on eBay, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace but I’m including another site below that specialize in drone sales. There were also a few that I left out like Buy Back World and Sell Broke because it looks like these sites just provide quotes on used equipment and the quotes that I got for drones in great condition were total low ball offers. I think you can do better listing your drone online elsewhere.
Dronetrader.com
Dronetrader is a great place to start because it looks like it has some traction with buyers and sellers. At the time I’m writing this article, there are nearly 600 drones and 50 accessories listed. Another benefit of listing your drone on a site like Dronetrader is that their site is indexable and your listing could potentially show up on Google. They also have a private Facebook group with several thousand members where you can post your drone. This is a great place to start, but I’d list your drone with several sites to see where you can get the most money.
