I wonder whether they get any sales.
Ebay is an odd place though and I really don't understand why (some) items "For Parts or Not Working" go for so much money. I came across a HP8648C last week, listed at £555 and described as dead but even before it died the output level was off. These things have SMPSes in and while "dead" might be very simple Dave's recent videos on the HP35670A show that the other end of the scale is "the SMPS died and fried half the stuff in the box".
I offered £100 based on the fact that it might be a £100 box of dead parts - the seller's counteroffer was only just a little off his original list price. His justification was that they were originally a high priced item and so it should be worth more.
Been there, seen that. There seem to be a few Israeli sellers who excel at this sort of thing. Equipment that looks like it was dragged out of the rubble of a building, completely wrecked (there was a Keithley DMM with a smashed front panel and VFD on there not long ago) selling for near the new RRP.
Everyone seems to think that test equipment doesn't depreciate... market speculation or something of that ilk?
I checked - there are some listed at quite high prices (over £1000) but the last two which sold went for £435 and 800USD (which is just over £500) respectively, making £555 a bit on the high side even if the thing were working.
BUT a couple of days ago I notice he'd sold it - so someone was prepared to offer pretty close to his original asking price. Either that or he climbed down a lot (but I doubt that from the exchange of messages).
I don't understand this - or am I just too tight?
If you're tight, I'm... I don't know how tight that makes me, actually. Think a gnat's (ahem) might be a touch less tight
The last good deal I got was my Advantest spec-an -- just shy of £1k, 2.6GHz, tracking generator installed and soft-options for EMC Quasipeak and Multimarker enabled. That thing's going off for calibration tomorrow... will be interesting to see how badly it's drifted over time. Last cal date sticker is the one from the UK distributor!
I sometimes wonder what OTC think of all this old kit I send in for cal... last time it was a pair of Solartron 7150Plus DMMs. They're going in again, one for a one-year cal (just to see how much it's drifted) and the second for a full calibration now I've rebuilt the broken keypad and analog input stage.