While working one day a guy came up to me and asked if I would be interested in any diving kit, to be honest I was not at the time very interested but after 5 minutes I was a little more that interested.
It turns out this guy thought he would love to dive but had never tried before. Now the interesting bit is that the people who he was talking to basically talked him into buying everything and I mean everything even down to BCD wash and anti fog for his mask in a tube.
Well you all know what’s coming, he fell into a swimming pool and threw a wobbly, not a small one but a major one ‘Get me out of here I hate this’
So this guy is now talking to me, and I must admit I felt sorry for the bloke especially after showing me the complete list of equipment and bills, almost 6000$ AUS.
He duly dropped everything around and slowly I sold it of bit by bit, I was in the throws of moving back from Australia and did not have the space or the money otherwise I would have had the lot. At the end of the day I got him back close on 2000$ and the people who brought the stuff were laughing all the way home.
I did buy one thing and that was his D9 Suunto computer with transmitter that cost him 1500$, I paid 600$ with one very short swimming pool dive on it. What makes it even crazier is I sold my old Suunto Stinger to one of the people who brought some other stuff for 300$ and that had a shed load of dives on it.
You only have to look online and check out sites like EBay and I was staggered at the amount of stuff and the price. A great example, one of our dive club guys asked me the other day if I would check out a set of regs for him, Mares Abyss, Mares Nikos Octopus, a set of Oceanic Gauges, Contents, Depth and Compass, First stage looks brand new. When he told me he had paid 45Pounds for the lot on EBay I was staggered.
After a service and a new high pressure hose on the gauges they are hot to trot. I used them the other day and they performed perfectly and to be honest he could sell them tomorrow for 150pounds.
I personally have 2 back up sets, one an Old Aqualung Spiro set and a Scubapro set both have been well looked after and I use them on odd occasions just to make sure things are good and in working order.
Today other than some rouge sets of gear most of it is fairly bullet proof and if kept clean and looked after they should give you years and years of trouble free diving.
I am in the market at the moment for a possible new reg set but having seen on EBay this week that I can get a complete mouthpiece assembly for my Poseidon Jetstream for next to nothing maybe that is the way to go.
So would I buy second hand kit, you bet I would, I am not that wealthy that I can splurge 1000€ on a set of regs I am happy that my gear is well looked after and if I do buy anything second hand then its only common sense to get it checked out by an expert, don’t take chances with regs get them serviced and then if like my dive club mate you could end up with a super bargain, in fact he is going to use them himself as they breath better than his newer set.
I have in my possession a new set of Beuchat VTR80 For sale !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not!!
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