Selling second hand !

[Rob Barnes]

At present selling second hand helicopters and spares is getting increasingly difficult and prices have dropped considerably. Basically your getting very little in return for second equipment despite the cost new. What makes it worse is people agreeing to purchase goods and then backing out at he last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. As you all know my Logo 700 is up for sale and I had a member contact me on here wishing to purchase it, he even asked would I consider selling the helicopter with the Kosmik too. Yes yes and yes ! However it now transpires that they found out his wife was pregnant which changes everything and they now need the money to buy prams etc. etc. ! "BUT" because he felt guilty about letting me down at the last minute he would buy the Kosmik off me as consolation gesture lol ! Absolute time waster !

[Tim Procter]

There is a lot of "Tyre Kickers" around and always will be Rob.

Sad fact of life sadly.

[vinny155]

ive given up trying to sell my heli's,nice ornaments though,is it the same accross the board,i mean,how is the likes of trying to sell on bmfa or ebay,just as difficult?

[trillian]

Yeah, what amazes me as well is the enquiries you get. You'll be selling a bare airframe at a near giveaway price and people will ask if it comes with servos, blades, etc.

I have a couple airframes I want to sell and I'm wondering if I'd be better off completely dismantling them and selling all the parts separate like I see some Ebay sellers doing, I'll have to do the maths and see if it adds up. It's more posting but the consolation is it would be small boxes, I always find it very difficult getting a box to fit an entire airframe.

[Jez N]

I had the same when trying to sell my raptor 30 and trex 450. Both models in great condition and good value. On both occasions I had people agree to buy them and on both occasions they either backed out at the last minute or worst still didn't reply to messages and never heard from again. Luckily I did manage to sell them to two guys who have both been very happy with their purchases.

I think the market on RCHA is deflated by people occassiinally selling things at well below the market value. They are great bargains when they appear but then it is difficult to sell at a sensible price as people expect the new low to be the norm.

[daz700]

At present selling second hand helicopters and spares is getting increasingly difficult and prices have dropped considerably. Basically your getting very little in return for second equipment despite the cost new. What makes it worse is people agreeing to purchase goods and then backing out at he last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. As you all know my Logo 700 is up for sale and I had a member contact me on here wishing to purchase it, he even asked would I consider selling the helicopter with the Kosmik too. Yes yes and yes ! However it now transpires that they found out his wife was pregnant which changes everything and they now need the money to buy prams etc. etc. ! "BUT" because he felt guilty about letting me down at the last minute he would buy the Kosmik off me as consolation gesture lol ! Absolute time waster !

Sorry to here that rob i too have had the same problems ebay is the worst for it that 700 would make a great buy for someone hope you sell it soon if only i had the spare money .....

[pgkevet]

'market forces' and 'business is business' Two simple reasons not to get upset about these things. Folk are feeling the pinch and frankly new heli stuff is silly overpriced for what it really is. The fact that the excitement of a new toy stirs folk into paying those new prices and the inflated costs of all the new bits needed to actually get it in the air - they're the folk with a loose budget or they wouldn't be buying new to begin with....
Current secondhand prices are actually probably more realistic than they used to be with the risks of neding to rebuild, buy new bearings and all the hidden pitfalls and a model that may not be supported as long as new kit would be....

[Rob Barnes]

Price are what they are and I have excepted buying new will always be costly and selling stuff second hand will always be cheap. What annoys me is people who waste your time and come up with pathetic excuses why they cant go through with the purchase after building up a rapport etc. ! If you want , haggle a bit yes why wouldn't you, if you have no intention of buying don't bother contacting the person in the first place ! Simples !

[MartinW]

Nobody can excuse the dropping out and the time wasting, though of course there will always be the odd genuin reason, or course - we have to accept that. But from a buyers point of view I've bought 3 second hand heli's now. The last as recent as last week (despite telling myself never again) and each time they have turned out to be at best trouble, at worst nothing more than a pile of spare parts. Of course theres nothing you can reasonably do about this since you don't find this out until you've already at best stripped it down or at worst flown it (and maybe crashed) and at the point there's no point in even going back to the seller they'd be fully justified in telling you to go away.

One proviso here - I'm talking about small birds at the moment. Maybe the story is different for bigger heli's?

So just another take on things. I'll certainly never be breaking my rule on no second hand heli's again. Unless it's from someone in my own club that I know the history of it. And then you have all the economic reasons that other people are already mentioning.

[Mark_T]

Well, I guess you could always insist on a pregnancy test before agreeing a price in future, Rob

Seriously though I know exactly what you mean, over the weekend I carefully disassembled an Hirobo SDX and packed it away.

No point in even thinking about trying to sell it 2nd hand, so easier to keep it for the future.

[michael_fly_more]

Most the time it's down to some one gets a better deal see some thing cheaper etc

i had some fuel for sale guy sent god know how many mail and questions agreed a price and date and time to meet couple of days be for some one else put n add up selling fuel

guess what guy didn't reply to my mail then last min said I crashed my Heli so don't need any fuel now

hmmm just think he went else where

but it does work both ways have agreed a price to buy some thing sent money via PayPal etc

then got a refund just saying decided to keep it now sorry hmmmm

found out a few weeks later when mate turned up with new heli

that it was same Heli he paid the guy the asking price so guess the guy took it although I'd paid

mate wasn't to know mind

[Varelco]

Definitely a buyers market atm. It does seem to be getting worse too, like some have said its probably better to just hang on to what you got!

[trillian]

guess what guy didn't reply to my mail then last min said I crashed my Heli so don't need any fuel now

hmmm just think he went else where

Yeah that's a poorly thought-through excuse, is he saying because he crashed he's never going to need fuel again

[RcRotaryMadness]

Mostly part of buying and selling used items. Yes its a pain but no need to start moaning about it... you can't prove if the person is telling the truth or not so try not let it get to you. Also as said I've bought 2nd hand helis in the past that needed rebuilding/replacing so its a pain on both sides of the fence.

Theres dishonest sellers as well as nuisance buyers too.

and a few notes in general:

Sometimes I think people expect too higher price for their well used items - sometimes asking near new price from something thats almost ready for the bin. Varies on the item in question of course.

Also I do think some things when bought new are way overpriced and so if you pay that in the first place, expect a bigger loss when you come to sell it on. Things carry a certain "value" in their minds and sometimes the RRP is way off that value.

The other thing in this hobby is it is highly fashionable.. when somethings "in" it holds its price but when its "out" they become worthless.

Its nice when an honest good seller does a deal with a good honest buyer, a fair price is made and the goods are worth their price. thats the ideal situation but it only happens once every so often.

Just get on with it =)

[trillian]

Its nice when an honest good seller does a deal with a good honest buyer, a fair price is made and the goods are worth their price. thats the ideal situation but it only happens once every so often.

The vast majority of my 2nd hand purchases have been like this. Very few times have I been disappointed and to counter those there have been times I was very pleasantly suprised.

Posting is one of the biggest variables because it seems some people either grossly under-estimate the amount of padding and sturdiness of box it takes for something fragile to survive through the post, or they were just lazy or didn't care. This has been the cause of most of the small handful of dissapointments. (and sometimes they think by buying insurance they can get away with shoddy packing but insurance is worthless if the packing is not within the specs laid out by RM or whoever delivers it).