Do you sell equiptment for less than what its worth?

If you get a deal on equiptment, do you sell it for less than its worth when you are done with it?

[fencer]

I usually end up selling my equipment at a fair price. Which means at a loss in general. I try to give breaks to those people in the hobby because I want to sustain the hobby. Plus people already in the hobby have already sunk alot of cash into it, so saving on equipment means alot. Besides it generates goodwill within the forum.

[digital-audiophile]

I've never got back what I have put into fish equipment. Personally I am just looking to recover a bit of my investment.

[Skimmerking]

I think that when you sellign you want to get every penny out of your investment. Since you take care of your stuff. Well I hope you do . alot of people that are looking for deals tend to low ball alot of people. trying to get the cheapest price for good quality equipment. Like skimmers when you pay for a skimmer in the range of $800 dollars and you use it for 6 months I can't see how that Skimmer is worth only half. The acrylic doesnt wear out. the pump may have some time in the water but its the pump what makes the skimmer not the plastic. So IME if you buy a skimmer for 800 then it should be sold for $600 take off what the pump is worth. Now that if you look at the deltec the pumps are 249 per pump. and if you are running a skimmer that requires 5 Ehiem pumps well then that is $1100 dollars taken off right. NO you have to look at the size of the acrylic that is being used too and ig some one is paying that much for a skimmer , you know that its taken care of extremely well so the resale valve is goign to be good. Yes scratches and knicks do happen ,but its not affecting how the skimmer preforms. But cracks can have a impact on the sale and the price is usaually dropped a bit to ease the selling factor.

Lights are a good example of what is sold half price in the hobby. Bulbs are iffy due to being the bulb has been fired and the filment is very easy to break. So when shipping the cost of the bulb will have to be put into the deal too. Some of the lighting are crazy expensive too like the silfoli Spelling sorry..

you are paying for the advanced fixture like dimming the MH on the ALCS. The Solaris system. is another fixture that you pay big bucks for, is it worth the 2500 for some fixture that are 48" or 60" "YES" to some of us. how every if it comes to sellign the product some people are not willing to pay the huge cost to get one over their tanks. SO lots of people won't budge on the price alot since ytour not having to spend money on the bulbs. So its a great piece of equipment for resale.

the last thing that I will talk about is the taxes and shipping when some one buys a peice of equipment, you have to look at the taxes are usaually lost from the point of purchase and the shipping is sometimes added into the price or the buyer is taking care of that. Depending on the piece od equipment like lights skimmers, extra money is sometimes added for the safe arrival of the equipment. Or the seller will meet half way in the price to sell his or her item. you see alot of sellers buying a another skimmer and end up selling the older one to off set the new skimmer and will sometimes take a hit just to get it out of the house. That is what has been happening alot and IMO and IME its a fad that has continued to become a night mare. no equipment is worth 50%less of the of the cost. just because its 2-3 months old.

HTH

[Seriak]

In most cases I just want it gone so I sell the item for about half of what I bought it for just to get the ball going as I don't want to hold it for 6 months hoping to get an extra few bucks.

If I didn't care how long it took to sell, I would jack the price as high as I think I could get for it. But then I would never be able to go in my basement again.

[Aquattro]

I bought a complete 125g reef setup years ago for around $200. I parted it out for around $1500. So, if I get some great deal, I'm not likey to pass it on. I did sell the pieces at really good prices, but I wasn't about to flip it for the same or less than I paid. That would be silly.

[hillbillyreefer]

Cool some spice on the site thanks Rene. Who cares what was paid for something originally, if I want to buy it I want to know what it's going to cost me. In case you hadn't noticed this is a capitalist system, that's how it works. If you don't like it move to a nice socialist system like Cuba, or China and see how you make out. Everything you buy has markup on it. Just because it's on this site why can't someone make some money? I'm sure our sponsors don't lose money to support this site. They don't sell at a loss because they advertise on this site. If you don't like the price don't buy it.

That was as gentle as I could be about this topic.

[Delphinus]

Hmmm, interesting thoughts.

See to me the real reality of the capitalist system is that something for sale, is only worth what someone will pay for it. That doesn't mean you can set the price to whatever you want. If you set the price too high then the only people who will pay it are likely those who don't know better, and well .. that's not going to be everybody and it's not going to be all the time. Generally speaking, with the exception of maybe livestock, most equipment are depreciating assets. Thus if you had possession of it, used it, you should expect to have to suffer some depreciation on the resale value. That's only fair. By using an item you remove value, unless you go out of your way to add value somehow. "Adding value" can be a subjective thing. In Brad's case I'd say he added value by taking on an undefined "complete package", enumerating the item list and then reselling each at market values. That's the thing, parting items out generally nets you more in the end because it's more work.

But the flip side, if you apply blatant ethics of scouring for deals and then reselling at higher prices, then you're going to eventually gain a reputation and people won't deal with you. That too, is a reality of the "capitalist system". Capitalism doesn't mean chaos, it simply means the market is self-regulating.

[ElGuappo]

if i no longer have use or room for somthing i am more interested in getting a little somthing back. you have to consider the time of usage and well anything is better than nothing. but if i resell i basiclly consider this to be a rental at that time i sell for water ever i can get being happy that it worked for the time i needed it. i am just happy it goes to good use instead of the refuse pile.

[Skimmerking]

Well said Tony

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Hmmm, interesting thoughts.

See to me the real reality of the capitalist system is that something for sale, is only worth what someone will pay for it. That doesn't mean you can set the price to whatever you want. If you set the price too high then the only people who will pay it are likely those who don't know better, and well .. that's not going to be everybody and it's not going to be all the time. Generally speaking, with the exception of maybe livestock, most equipment are depreciating assets. Thus if you had possession of it, used it, you should expect to have to suffer some depreciation on the resale value. That's only fair. By using an item you remove value, unless you go out of your way to add value somehow. "Adding value" can be a subjective thing. In Brad's case I'd say he added value by taking on an undefined "complete package", enumerating the item list and then reselling each at market values. That's the thing, parting items out generally nets you more in the end because it's more work.

But the flip side, if you apply blatant ethics of scouring for deals and then reselling at higher prices, then you're going to eventually gain a reputation and people won't deal with you. That too, is a reality of the "capitalist system". Capitalism doesn't mean chaos, it simply means the market is self-regulating.