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Why do people think their used racks are worth so much more than they are?
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I wouldn’t say anything if I didn’t see this all the time. I’m wondering why people post their racks on Facebook Marketplace or here for around $2,000 when they’re worth half that. Like: 15 cams, a set of nuts, etc. The retail value of all of it brand new is about $2,200, and you can often get cams on sale and build a similar rack for just under $2,000. Or you’ll see a bunch of cams that are older models, potato-masher stems, double-cable Camalots, old Wild Country Friends with the black plastic around the cable, where you’d need to replace the slings just to safely use them and they think they're still worth $50-60 a cam. Do people just remember what they paid and think they can get most of it back? |
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Because people don’t know how to comparison shop, join organizations that provide discounts, or apparently search online. It’s not just racks it’s shoes, ropes, etc I see things all the time for sale in climbing Facebook groups used for more than I can buy them new. I’ve bought climbing shoes new and resold them for more than the purchase price on eBay when they were the wrong size rather than return them. A lot of times you absolutely can get what you paid for something or more. If someone wants to overpay that’s their issue, demand will set the price. |
 do i really need to say anything |
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People, they're the worst. |
Luca DeMegliowrote: Can you really put a price on gear that's gonna save your LIFE though??? |
Luca DeMegliowrote: In the sellers defense, he did say "open to reasonable offers". |
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I see all the time people trying to sell 25 years old quickdraws and trashed ancient age ice tools for crazy prices, sometimes I feel the urge to reply with a 2000 words AI insult letter. |
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No scratches. |
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Give it all away to young and those who cant afford gear. Used gear is often not worth the sales effort, so get over it and make a new climbers day. |
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I personally love all of the ads that say “like new” with gear that has been extensively used and is 20 years old. |
Sidebar: Years ago I bought a hard to find Bibler tent on fleabay. Several people specifically asked about the condition, the seller said it was in good condition. That was back when fleabay published buyer questions. I bought the tent and among several of issues found it had many pin holes in the floor plus a small tear. When I contacted the seller their reply was "I guess your definition of good condition differs from mine." That did not go over well. So I had the folks at BD give me an estimate for the repair and proceeded to use that to do a credit card charge back. This request was done before fleabay's money back guarantee. My credit card company granted the chargeback. I asked what I should do with the tent. The credit card company said I should return it. About the same time paypal who was the recipient of the chargeback froze my account (which had no money in it). Paypal said they would unfreeze my account when I provided proof that I shipped the tent back. So I shipped the tent back with about $60 COD charges, $20 was for the shipping, $20 for beer for the BD guys who fixed some of the issues for free, and $20 for my time. The $20 post office charge also included a proof of shipping. This incident was before every package was tracked and purchasing tracking was more expensive than the proof of shipping. I sent the proof of shipping receipt to paypal. They said that it was not acceptable as they wanted tracking. I then argued I did exactly what they wrote and if they wanted tracking they should have been more explicit. They finally capitulated when they realized their mistake. In the meantime the seller received a notice for the COD charges but refused to pay them. So it was sent back to me. The seller sent a nasty message that I needed to return the tent or they would report me to the police. As it was a civil matter the police were not going to do anything. I told the seller I tried to return the tent but they refused it so they could to come get it. They never did, probably cause they lived 2000 miles away. I used the tent once and it was in worse condition than I thought - even with the repairs. I later sold it with a disclosure and bought a new pair of climbing shoes. |
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Y'all hush. You're tanking the value of all my retirement savings invested in cams. It's a good thing I've diversified my portfolio to include a used cam ETF to smooth out market volatility. |
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Years ago I bought an inflatable sleeping pad off eBay. It was listed as “new”. I got it and the seller had just taped the shipping label on the stuff sack so it was all sticky and dirty. And the pad had sharpie X marks on all 4 corners because it came from REI in a returned gear clearance sale. The thing that pissed me off is I had to pay return shipping even though it clearly wasn’t new. I mostly stopped using eBay after that. |
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I’m often tempted to message them and say if you want to sell it you need to cut the price in half. But I figure many would get insulted and I don’t bother. |
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I don't blame folks for pricing high. I do that often on here with the intention of lowering aggressively if I don't get any bites. But I'm continuously surprised at the amount people will pay. There's a lot of ignorant semi-broke climbers on here who don't know what they don't know and see any price below retail as a good deal. |
Adam Flemingwrote: Planet Money did a fun little short on this a few months ago |
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It's called capitalism. No one is making you play. |
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It’s annoying for sure, but it’s not so much that the sellers think their gear is worth a lot, it’s that there are friggin idiot buyers out there who think their gear is worth a lot. I’m pretty sure the law of supply and demand is at work here somewhere in the background ;) I guarantee that none of these sellers ever sold for a price that someone wasn’t willing to pay. |
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I'm going to venture that a lot of the FB marketplace stuff is stolen and the sellers really have no idea what the value is. |
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I mean you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Can you blame a seller for trying? kinda falls more on the consumer supporting that price in the market |
