Silent Partner - going rate??

Anyone know what these are selling for these days?  I see one on eBay for $1,799.00… Surely they’re not actually selling at that price??!?

Look at "sold items" on eBay and see what price they sold for recently.

$890-1150

Subtract ~15% for fees and shipping for your net

Expensive. . .

Why?  You got one to get rid of?  

I get the sense that people who aren't lead rope soloists (or necessarily even climbers) are buying these hoping to turn a profit.

Alex Ghiggeriwrote:

Why?  You got one to get rid of?  

Maybe?  I mean yes, I’ve got one… just can’t seem to make myself post it up on eBay.  Still in shock that they’re going for as much as they are…

They cost about as much as a black market kidney. Maybe a little less. 

I might have a kidney to let go of for the right price 

What's the condition? 

I love forums and have seen the mention of the mystical piece of gear worth as much as my car. Would some one please explain what and why the Silent Partner is so expensive and hopefully good?

caesar.saladwrote:

What's the condition? 

Couple scratches in the finish along the edges… if you’ve ever used one, you’ll know that it tends to bang the rock from time to time as it’s essentially dangling from your harness.  Action is super smooth, and I’ve only taken 1-2 falls on it.

Jeremiah Joneswrote:

I love forums and have seen the mention of the mystical piece of gear worth as much as my car. Would some one please explain what and why the Silent Partner is so expensive and hopefully good?

Expensive because they stopped making it, so demand>supply.  Hopefully good because it’s (AFAIK) the one singular piece of gear that’s essentially failsafe for lead soloing.  No backup device or chest harness necessary, although you still can certainly use backup knots with it.  No issues stopping an upside-down fall, or risk of rope tangling keeping it from functioning properly.

Requisite porn.  Mixer not included ;)

Hamish Hamishwrote:

Requisite porn.  Mixer not included ;)

Old Tascam?

Scott Hallwrote:

Old Tascam?

Nope, Pioneer DJM-500.  Ironically I’m thinking of selling the silent partner to go towards a Xone:96… trying to balance my expensive hobbies :P

Does anyone know why someone hasn't bought the patent and just started producing them again? It always seems like there's such a high demand in the rope solo community for these. 

Hamish Hamishwrote:

Couple scratches in the finish along the edges… if you’ve ever used one, you’ll know that it tends to bang the rock from time to time as it’s essentially dangling from your harness.  Action is super smooth, and I’ve only taken 1-2 falls on it.

given how little you've used it, ask $1500.

Kaan Cavwrote:

Does anyone know why someone hasn't bought the patent and just started producing them again? It always seems like there's such a high demand in the rope solo community for these. 

Don't remember where the thread is, but it's been discussed around here before. If I remember right, the conclusion is that the rope solo community simply isn't large enough to make it worth it. There would be (I imagine?) a non trivial amount of testing and verification (and liability) associated with restarting production to make something that works, even while having all the plans, and it would be too costly to make it worth it with the smallish number to sell.

I'm pretty sure Silent Partners go for around 10 USD these days

 with that being said I call dibs on the purchase when you list it.

Elliot Kwrote:

Don't remember where the thread is, but it's been discussed around here before. If I remember right, the conclusion is that the rope solo community simply isn't large enough to make it worth it. There would be (I imagine?) a non trivial amount of testing and verification (and liability) associated with restarting production to make something that works, even while having all the plans, and it would be too costly to make it worth it with the smallish number to sell.

https://www.climbing.com/news/rock-exotica-silent-partner-sells-for-1400-on-ebay/

"Update: Rock Exotica founder Rock Thompson provided his thoughts in an email to Climbing, which are published in full below.

Yes, the Silent Partner situation is pretty interesting. I wish I had squirreled away a couple dozen of them… But no, I just have one.

In the earlier days of Rock Exotica I worked on products that were interesting to me without much regard to the financial side of things. Rent was cheap, employee bonuses might be a six-pack, there was always time for climbing and life was simple. Those were very fun times and the Silent Partner was a great product.

The company grew and that growth is a two-sided coin. It’s gratifying, but there are also hefty machine payments, expensive rent, employee health care and other benefits, etc. Many of our other products expanded beyond climbing and technical rescue into all kinds of other markets, such as arborism, rope access, stage rigging, linemen work, and more. We make big quantities of those products and they are what pay the bills, whereas the Silent Partner sales were down to around 100 a year. Although we realized we were not making any money with it, we kept it in production for some years anyway just because we liked it and we liked the climbers who used it. But in the end it was a necessary financial decision to discontinue it.

I’m sure there are people and small companies seeing the continuing demand for the Silent Partner who are wondering if they could make something like it. Who knows? Maybe this could happen. As for us, we’ve toyed with the idea of making a special, one-time batch. But although a few people want it very much and there’s no real substitute for it, the “few” is probably not enough to justify it.

And then there’s what I’d really like to do. For a long time I’ve had in my SolidWorks files a design for a new solo device. I’d really like to make it. It would take a lot of time and the only way to justify it would be to find some other uses for the underlying mechanism. So far, I haven’t quite been able to. But, you never know…

—Rock Thompson"

Damn one just sold on eBay for $1k, ‘twas pretty well used too.