Used kit......just a comment.......

[Sunshine]

I think we all find/have found ourselves selling many things over the years, its just the nature of this and, many other hobbies. When i purchase something new i consider that i may be selling it down the road. Knowing that, i prepare myself for taking a hit on the original price, many items in our hobby hold their value well (quality eyepieces) are one example. When i buy used, i consider the value of said object and, adjust my expectation on price accordingly. If i am buying a used TeleVue eyepiece, i pretty much am prepared to pay close to what it is worth new because frankly it is justified. By the same note, selling an accessory tray for 80 percent what it is worth would be a difficult sell. My point being, we all pretty much know what we will pay for a particular thing, it varies greatly from object to object. It all comes down to how much the seller needs to get rid of it and, how much the buyer wants it.

Edited January 2, 2020 by Sunshine

[NGC 1502]

11 minutes ago, Piero said:

Sometimes, selling can be frustrating though. I find a bit irritating when I advertise something at a honest price and buyers still want to make offers (e.g. large discounts or £5/£10 discounts to cover the shipping costs). Thankfully, most of people just accept a "no", but some can be rather persistent. I remember a member who repeatedly sent me PMs saying that I would never have sold my items at that price, that they would have stayed there forever, etc. I almost had to blocked that person..

 

Interesting point here....although I’ve never blocked or had occasion to want to block persistent PMs, I think it’s a reasonable thing to do under those circumstances.   A clubmate of mine had a TV 55mm Plossl for sale on here a long time ago.....he had repeated PMs from someone asking why he was trying to sell a premium eyepiece with “only a 50 degree apparent field in the age of 80 & 100 degree eyepieces”   😬😬  how ridiculous was that !!   

[ollypenrice]

My used price baseline is 60% of new, not 70%. I don't ask more than that, or pay more than that, without very good reason. Most of my kit has been bought that way as well, despite its being used professionally. I have an advantage and disadvantage as a seller in that, as an astronomy provider, I would be mad to sell bad kit to anybody since it would hit my reputation where it hurts. Like anyone else I have, on rare occasions, ended up with bad kit (not because it was second hand but because it was just bad, or way over-priced. Tak EM200 mount bought new. Ouch. Never again.) In these circumstances I either give it away or sell it, fully declared, at very low prices so that nobody will accuse me of dishonesty. That's the down side of my situation. The plus side is that people know this, so when I offer kit for sale they know they can rely on me and I generally sell - quite seriously - within half an hour. I'm not joking.

The father of my childhood best friend was a nationally famous antique dealer. He had a rule that he never made offers, he either accepted the asking price or rejected it. He never gave valuations and bought at the same time. (How can you make an honest profit if you do that?) I think these are good principles to follow within our community, for that's what it is, a community.

I've never had a bad experience buying second hand. The few bad experiences I've had have been when buying new, truth to tell.

Olly

[tooth_dr]

Bargaining is part and parcel of life over in sunny NI. Be it buying shoes or a sofa, local shops tend to give a few quid off, if you ask.  Same for buying (non-astro) stuff from the classifies over here

If I like an astro item on here and I think it’s close to the ‘right’ price I’ll politely ask if it’s for sale and would an offer of £x be any good - the price I’m prepared to pay which is reasonable. I never low-ball. The seller can come back and meet somewhere in the middle or just say no.

If I see an advert saying absolutely or strictly no offers, it kind of puts me off if I’m honest. 

[Alfian]

36 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Bargaining is part and parcel of life over in sunny NI. Be it buying shoes or a sofa, local shops tend to give a few quid off, if you ask.  Same for buying (non-astro) stuff from the classifies over here

If I like an astro item on here and I think it’s close to the ‘right’ price I’ll politely ask if it’s for sale and would an offer of £x be any good - the price I’m prepared to pay which is reasonable. I never low-ball. The seller can come back and meet somewhere in the middle or just say no.

If I see an advert saying absolutely or strictly no offers, it kind of puts me off if I’m honest. 

Perhaps this is where I have, on odd occasion, gone wrong. I've forgotten to add "no offers". 😉

[Alien 13]

I have grown up kids so all my unwanted stuff like scopes or DSLRs goes for free to good homes, my view is that any kit that is not used regularly is costing you money in storage space/upkeep (lean 5S, 7 Sigma etc) so you should realy pay someone to take it away whatever its perceived value.

Alan

[tooth_dr]

22 minutes ago, Alfian said:

Perhaps this is where I have, on odd occasion, gone wrong. I've forgotten to add "no offers". 😉

For the record and benefit of others, you aren’t referring to me with regards to your previous post about insulting offers. 

[Alfian]

9 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

For the record and benefit of others, you aren’t referring to me with regards to your previous post about insulting offers. 

No No not at all, no connection at all, just that I don't go in for haggling much. I offer stuff at a reasonable price and likewise I don't quibble with others who sell equipment at reasonable prices.

[tooth_dr]

11 minutes ago, Alfian said:

No No not at all, no connection at all, just that I don't go in for haggling much. I offer stuff at a reasonable price and likewise I don't quibble with others who sell equipment at reasonable prices.

I totally agree. If it’s reasonable (again subjective) I’ll buy it. If it’s overpriced (also subjective) and it’s an item I’m after i will make a reasonable offer.

I see buying and selling as a 2 way process, there is trust at both ends, and some negotiation is inevitable!

There is one user on here that constantly makes low offers via posts on threads and it is a bit tiresome. 

 

Edited January 2, 2020 by tooth_dr

[JOC]

When I started to buy 2nd hand gear on SGL for a long time I just paid the asking price - if the price was more than I wanted to pay I didn't buy the item.  It was only after a PM'd comment that I'd made to someone and they had suggested to me that maybe I should have made an offer by PM that I even considered that it might be an acceptable thing to do.  Since then I have made the occasional request to a seller (on the basis of what I have paid for other similar items) and on some occasions I have been sold an item at lower cost than that advertised and on one occasion someone said that there was no budging and that was fine with me and I didn't buy the item. 

Mind you somehow it still doesn't feel quite right to request a sale at a lower price - it's almost as though you are not being fair to the other readers of the advertisement who might still be thinking like my initial sorties that a requested price is non-negotiable and therefore you almost gazzump the other readers, by suggesting a lower price and I am not sure that is entirely fair.   However, that might just be my sense of fair play at work.

[tooth_dr]

1 hour ago, JOC said:

Mind you somehow it still doesn't feel quite right to request a sale at a lower price - it's almost as though you are not being fair to the other readers of the advertisement who might still be thinking like my initial sorties that a requested price is non-negotiable and therefore you almost gazzump the other readers, by suggesting a lower price and I am not sure that is entirely fair.   However, that might just be my sense of fair play at work.

Lol honestly JOC? 

(Also Gazumping is where you offer more to outbid another buyer)

[JOC]

9 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Lol honestly JOC? 

Yes, absolutely completely honestly - I have a somewhat overdeveloped sense of fair play - even if it doesn't always work in my favour!!  OK true gazumping is offering more, but the outcome is the same - you make an offer to buy something 'off the main grid' for want of a better term and your private negotiation ends up trumping people that are only responding to the inital advertised price.  It's fine if a lower price is advertised to all, then it should always be first enquiry gets priority and then it's down to keeping an eye on the 'for sale' board and everyone knows how the game is played, but it seems somewhat unfair to be able to buy an item by underbidding esp. where the item is still being offered for sale at a higher price in full view.  OK, since it was suggested that I was missing out on a legitimate route to buying something at the price I want to pay I've put in offers offline and have had them accepted so I have taken advantage, but it still feels like cheating.  Maybe if someone will take offers it would be better to say reasonable offers accepted until a certain date when the highest will be taken, but then that starts a bidding war and there are all sorts of things that involves which is why it's probably not a good route to take.  However, despite benefitting myself I still feel strongly that items should only be sold for the price advertised on the public boards when everyone can compete on the basis of first come first served.

[Stu]

The sensible option seems to me to put 'open to offers' or 'ono' after the price if you are willing to consider them, and just list the price alone if not. That's how I try to operate.

[carastro]

I would never consider making an offer on an item unless I felt it was genuinely overpriced.  

I have had some insulting offers in the past for items and felt it was a real cheek and politely declined.  One such person told me the item was overpriced (which it wasn't as I apply the 2/3 new price as do most others).  He then approached me several weeks later to see if I had sold the item, I bet he was hoping I'd got desperate and would sell him at his cheeky price.  I was then happy to inform him I had sold at the asking price. 

Carole 

Edited January 3, 2020 by carastro

[R26 oldtimer]

You mean something like that? 🤣

 

[Xilman]

On 02/01/2020 at 14:41, Carbon Brush said:

On the plus side. Software does not wear out. So your 15 years old mount software is going to be good. Provided you can make a Win10 computer talk to a box intended for XP!

That is why VirtualBox or VMWare are so very useful things to have installed on your machine. You can still run MSDOG or OS/2 if you so wish.

[geordie85]

I believe its very dependant on supply and demand. Just recently I've had a few itens for sale (which I decided to keep, so withdrew the ad) at a reasonable price. After withdrawal, there has been other, very similar items, at a higher price than I offered that sold rather quickly. 

I've also requested cheaper prices / deals on multiple items that sometimes are accepted and sometimes declined. Most of the time if it's an item I really want and I've asked for a price reduction but been declined, I'll still pay the asking price. 

[Nigella Bryant]

I've found the second hand equipment that I've bought has always had little issues which the seller had not disclosed. Fortunately I've been able to correct these by either upgrading items like focuser, etc, if the scopes are cheap enough second hand, also a dew sheild on another scope was sliding when pointed upwards but took this apart to repair. I've had a solar scope with discoloured blue filter but this was replaced cheaply. With this in mind it's a hit and miss and I'd only pay 50% in future.