Value/ Price of used Skydiving Gear

[Jojo89 0]

After looking into gear for some time i heard the standard advises:

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Buy used, its cheaper
Buy used, you will change your gear soon enough
Buy used, your fist rig should be used!

Also I heard the different methods how to determine price of gear.

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Deduct x$ per jump, deduct for line/wear/tear

... and so on

Looking into the market, i was confused how old gear could still hold such a high value sometimes, regardless of jump numbers and age! So I did the math to evaluate the offers that are on the market. I am open to suggestions, but i feel that "used=cheaper" is simply not true, due to the lack of people buying new and market price that results from that. Therefore, I think that skydiving gear may be a great investment, as it is not affected by inflation at all!

Here is my calculations. Feel free to correct me

[gowlerk 2,193]

You may be confusing asking price on a FB page with actual selling price. Many people ask too much and either don't sell or end up taking less. It's a jungle out there.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[Unstable 9]

I think a major factor in this that may not be accounted for is brand and brand loyalty. Some brands carry a higher resale.

I don't want to turn this into a gear-bashing thread so I'll leave names out. I am a dealer for brand (let's call it..) Y. A gentleman at my DZ jumps brand X. Brand X is what all the cool kids around here jump, Brand Y has a loyal following but not overly popular. This guy decides he wants to downsize to really takes a liking to my brand Y - we are able to sell his 5 year old X rig for more than we get him into a brand new custom Y rig. I believe that effect is contribution directly to the brand and perceived value of it. For my friend, it all turned out very well for him.

=========Shaun ==========

[gowlerk 2,193]

Unstable

I think a major factor in this that may not be accounted for is brand and brand loyalty. Some brands carry a higher resale.

I don't want to turn this into a gear-bashing thread so I'll leave names out. I am a dealer for brand (let's call it..) Y. A gentleman at my DZ jumps brand X. Brand X is what all the cool kids around here jump, Brand Y has a loyal following but not overly popular. This guy decides he wants to downsize to really takes a liking to my brand Y - we are able to sell his 5 year old X rig for more than we get him into a brand new custom Y rig. I believe that effect is contribution directly to the brand and perceived value of it. For my friend, it all turned out very well for him.

What this really means is don't buy a new Racer because it has very low resale value. But the good news is that you can buy a used one cheap. Of course if you are planning on keeping it for a long time none of that matters. Buy whatever pleases you!

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[councilman24 37]

We don't say pay stupid high prices for used gear. I didn't try to sort through your calculation but a couple of points. Lifetime of a main is likely not 35 years. Not that a main might not be jumpable for advances in the sport make them undesirable. 35 years ago was a cruselite and a pegasus and a cirrus cloud. The Cirrus Cloud failed in the market and depreciated 80% in 4 years. And at that time lifetime of a main was about 700 jumps.

Life time of a container isn't 25 years. While I jump containers that old or near to that old they are undesirable models no longer suitable for all types of skydiving. And I don't put hundreds of jumps a year on them anymore. Lifetime is limited by intensity of use and thus wear. But also again model obsolescence.

And gear depreciation isn't linear. While it's still the current model and has the desirable features it holds more value. When the Sabre II came out the value of original Sabres nose dived. (just an example.)

When we tell students to buy used we don't mean a 3 year old rig that somebody still loves, is attached to, just paid $7000 for and think they should get $7000 after 400 jumps because retail prices went up. We're talking the airworthy but not current model, older gear nearer the end of its life that gets you in the air and lets you learn with NO style or cool to the gear.

I have a rig downstairs that I finally convinced the last owner to retire because it was getting tired, container and reserve. About 25 years old. But it had been passed from its original owner to a second owner when he wanted to upgrade and then to 4 or 5 newbies needing a first rig to someone wanting a beater third rig to me for rigger training. First two, held its value as appropriate. Then became less than half of new for newbies to start with.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[likestojump 3]

gowlerk

You may be confusing asking price on a FB page with actual selling price. Many people ask too much and either don't sell or end up taking less. It's a jungle out there.

spot on.

There still are people selling (well, trying to sell) old velcro laden containers (original Talons, Vector2's) with 1980's reserves and crappy old F111 mains for $2500 saying it's good beginner gear. There are also people selling new Vortex setups for $4K.

Bottom line is the market will sort itself out, and just because seller tells you "it's a great deal", you should not immediately buy the gear.

Yeah, I have bias, but I don't sell old crappy outdated stuff to newbies.

[Unstable 9]

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There still are people selling (well, trying to sell) old velcro laden containers (original Talons, Vector2's) with 1980's reserves and crappy old F111 mains for $2500 saying it's good beginner gear

And people buy them.

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There are also people selling new Vortex setups for $4K.

I wonder how long that can last or if Parachute Systems is lowballing to break into the market.

=========Shaun ==========

[gowlerk 2,193]

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I wonder how long that can last or if Parachute Systems is lowballing to break into the market.

Probably a little of that. But more to do with the exchange rate between USD and the Rand. And also the price of labour in SA. It's the same reason the price of AADs has declined. They have not declined everywhere, just in the US.

Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

[likestojump 3]

Unstable

***There still are people selling (well, trying to sell) old velcro laden containers (original Talons, Vector2's) with 1980's reserves and crappy old F111 mains for $2500 saying it's good beginner gear

And people buy them.


Only to be disappointed within a week of delivery. I really, really hope that people would wise up and start asking their trusted riggers/experienced friends before making knee jerk decisions.

Unstable

***
There are also people selling new Vortex setups for $4K.

I wonder how long that can last or if Parachute Systems is lowballing to break into the market.

Does't matter for the sake of this thread. PA makes good gear, and while it ain't no Micron, the vast difference in price definitely makes them a choice, and a consideration for someone looking for new gear.

The point that I really wanted to make is response to OP : finding patterns in a niche, volatile market may not be possible. You are trying to define chaos, across way too many moving variables.
I can tell you that all the regular caveats apply : Good deal is a state of mind, always account for morons and liers, etc.
The "deduct $1 per jump and $100 per year of age" rule sounds nice and simple, but based on that rule my DOM 2001 Spectre with 400 jumps is a useless piece of shit that I have to pay people to take off my hands.