Are used telescope like used cars?

[Quetzalcoatl72]

Trying to sell my used a dozen times Nexstar se mount and tripod. It came with the 5" sct but i'm keeping that(for now). The retail price was £850. If i was to sell the whole thing I'd want £600, because it's used. £250 off for a few surface scratches is a fair deal in my honest opinion. So the mount and tripod together I'm after is £200, scope worth £400, because the optics are more valuable (if I sell that), surely? I see the handset replacement is £100 by its own. So I'd say it's a fair price right? But no, I get offers like 75 and 100, why? 850 was a lot of money

[Cosmic Geoff]

Where are you trying to sell it? Your problem is that the 4/5 SE mount is not a mount that many people aspire to own. Its usage will be restricted to small SCTs and Maksutovs.

I suggest that you drop the 'or nearest offer' and consider keeping it should you not achieve the price you want, in case you want to sell your 5SE as a package at a later date.

[Quetzalcoatl72]

6 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Where are you trying to sell it? Your problem is that the 4/5 SE mount is not a mount that many people aspire to own. Its usage will be restricted to small SCTs and Maksutovs.

I suggest that you drop the 'or nearest offer' and consider keeping it should you not achieve the price you want, in case you want to sell your 5SE as a package at a later date.

ebay and on here, even dropped it to 150 recently. Reason i'm keeping the sct is still figuring out if i still need it after now owning a 8" rct, 2 different types of scope. Never had the time to compare fully because of the constant cloudy weather

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Money's tight for a lot of people atm and there are unfortunately plenty of chancers. Another thing to consider, up until recently many were reluctant to travel. It took me months to sell an unused 200P dob for a giveaway price.

As Geoff said, the mount alone is not particularly aspirational. You would probably get a fair price you want if you sold the whole package.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

If it were much sought after, reasonably expensive when new or difficult to obtain then you may get people from most of the UK making offers as it is worth the extra £50+ or so in petrol to pick it up, whereas for something worth under £200 people are not so likely to travel more than a few miles for pick up, otherwise it is actually costing them £250+. So you probably have not so many prospective buyers.

Also if you are still thinking you may sell the scope in the near future it may be financially better to hold onto it in case you do as you may get more for both of them together than selling seperately.

Steve 

Edited August 27, 2021 by teoria_del_big_bang

[Quetzalcoatl72]

2 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

If it were much sought after, reasonably expensive when new or difficult to obtain then you may get people from most of the UK making offers as it is worth the extra £50 or so in petrol to pick it up, whereas for something worth under £200 people are not so likely to travel more than a few miles for pick up. So you probably have not so many prospective buyers.

Also if you are still thinking you may sell the scope in the near future it may be financially better to hold onto it in case you do as you may get more for both of them together than selling seperately.

Steve 

Guess i need to figure out if it's worth keeping or not when I already own a 8" rct, 80ed evostar and an askar 180

[fozzybear]

My UK buying has stopped as per the regulations as subject to import taxation etc etc even on second hand equipment a real bummer.

[Quetzalcoatl72]

i remembered i spent 100 on a replacement glass on the scope so thats 950 in total, i will not make much off of that to be honest i'll just sell the mount

[Chaz2b]

Anything sold second hand/used/ new to you, will only be worth what someone is willing to pay. Your value will be higher simply because that’s what you want. If some one agrees to your value then it will sell, but if nobody agrees it’s yours for a lot longer.
eBay is primarily an auction site, items sell to the highest bidder and that’s its value on eBay, wether you agree to the final bid is neither here nor there, it’s an auction.

If you are selling at a set price it will only sell when someone buys it, but when will that be? You can bide your time, but if you’re desperate for it to go then you need to attract the buyers with them having a chance to haggle.

Getting the punters in depends on how well you advertise it, how new, any dents or dings, anything else that goes with it, counter weights, slow slewing Controls etc, then as many pictures as you can, especially with the scope on it so they know what will fit and can judge the actual size. Postage, free or a small fee, in the box it came in. I haven’t seen your eBay item so I’m just generalising.

chaz

Edited August 31, 2021 by Chaz2b

[Tiny Clanger]

8 minutes ago, Chaz2b said:

Anything sold second hand/used/ new to you, will only be worth what someone is willing to pay. Your value will be higher simply because that’s what you want. If some one agrees to your value then it will sell, but if nobody agrees it’s yours for a lot longer.

 

^^^ What Chaz said.

I see plenty of kit offered at rather optimistic prices on here and simply not selling for ages. What an item seems worth to the (one careful) owner may not be what any  buyer thinks the item is worth second hand. Popular first upgrades like decent alt az heads, RACI finders,  dielectric diagonals, and BST starguider eyepieces get snapped up fast, well priced wide appeal 'beginner' 'scopes like heritage dobs and st80 refractors ditto. But if the item is less in wide demand , or not an obvious upgrade path, or expensive to post, or collection only from somewhere away from major population centres, the pool of interested people is far smaller.

This is also maybe the worst time of year  to sell astro kit : no xmas gift shoppers, no new folk looking up on a dark winter evening getting inspired to buy a 'scope, people spending on holidays and back to school things for the family, furlough ending and a lot of unfortunate job losses  ...

If you want to shift  the item, you can always reduce the price by increments until someone bites, but if you are willing to wait patiently in the hope that someone will eventually come along  who is happy to pay what you think it is worth , do so.

Heather

[alacant]

On 27/08/2021 at 20:57, Quetzalcoatl72 said:

I get offers like 75 and 100, why?

Hi

Maybe have a think about this...

Say, instead that you wanted to shift your eq6, at the same margin. How do you think that would go?

Cheers

 

[ollypenrice]

The rule of thumb for perfect kit is 60% of the new price in astro circles. Certain highly sought-after items go for more but it's a good starting point.

Olly

[JTEC]

I think it depends so much on the item that percentages are hard to give.  I thought recently about selling my hardly used Vixen HR 3.4 eyepiece  - letting it go for 60% of the purchase price, that’s to say £130 seems a bit too generous to me, given that there is also postage and insurance to be deducted from that.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t feel justified in asking as much as 60% of the original value for a rickety 15 year old Dobsonian with resident spiders.  I’ve heard 75% now 60% … personally, when I sell things, I start by removing the VAT (there is an argument for not doing so, of course), then make what I think is a fair deduction for condition. I never deliberately over price things in the hope of getting more than they’re worth; equally, I do ask what I honestly think they’re worth. I don’t do this to be saintly - it just has the advantage of putting things on a rational, arguable basis.  In the end though, the bottom line is always whether anyone actually wants to buy what you’re selling! 

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

The rule of thumb for perfect kit is 60% of the new price in astro circles. Certain highly sought-after items go for more but it's a good starting point.

Olly

For my used Celestron AVX I offered 70% of the current new price minus money for my petrol and time. The seller bit my hand off. I should have gone with 60%. 😬 It's not sparkly clean but works, plus a psu and polar scope were included.

If an item is sought after or difficult to source new, you will eventually get a fair price, although playing the long game is sometimes required.

Edited August 31, 2021 by ScouseSpaceCadet

[Stu]

As ever, it is a case of supply and demand, plus how much the seller needs to sell!

If you are in a hurry and need the cash, then of course a more aggressive price is needed. If you can afford to wait, then often a better price can be achieved. There are often not that many buyers around for less popular items, so it can take time for them to see the ad and make an offer; dropping the price too quickly isn’t always the best answer or necessary. There is also the value to the seller to consider; it may be that they would rather hang on to the kit unless they can get a certain value for it. Nothing wrong with that either. As a seller you have to accept that something may not sell above a certain value.

I agree on the 60 to 65% ish level for decent used kit. Ultimately it is all our interests to maintain a good used kit market and to look after our kit so it is worth a decent amount. It’s in no ones interests to push pricing way down; we might gain on one deal, but ultimately it will make owning and using decent kit more expensive because we will lose much more on each transaction. I’ve owned lots of lovely scopes, and with only a few exceptions have lost very little or nothing on most of them when selling them on.