Quote:
Originally Posted by latreche34
I suspect some shill bidding there,
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I also suspect shill bidding.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dpalomaki
(if you can consider an ~18 year old VCR new).
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At this late date, there's really no such thing as "new old stock", because the equipment will age regardless of use. The grease, capacitors, etc. Even worse if it was stored in attics, garages, or storage units.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dpalomaki
That beats the inflation rate
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Quality video hardware is a lot like quality cameras lenses. They hold value, and are never really obsolete.
The way pricing works is this:
Take the TBC-1000 as an example...
- In the late 90s, it was about $350 new.
- Varying factors caused it to increase to about $500 new ($480 + shipping at
B&H, the best price at the time) when it hit end of life in the mid 2000s, used prices in $350 range (+/-75 depending on supply&demand).
- Used prices in the early 2010s were still in the $350 range, with many longtime owners simply wanting their money back for their purchase ($350). They finished their projects, no longer needed it, whatever. And I was one of those several years ago, sold a few of my oldest TBCs for about $400 shipped.
- Go forward in time several more years, mid 2010s, and now you had people wanting to sell off their TBCs for the $500 they had invested. Understand that $500 new 10+ years ago, and $500 now, is not the same amount of money. When considering inflation, $500 then is less than $500 now. So used price did decrease some. I also sold some in that $550 range, recouping my initial costs for those units.
- Understand that used camera gear (f/2.8 glass, pro bodies, etc) generally fetches anywhere from 50% to 125% of original price, ignoring inflation. What happened now on the TBC aftermarket is that scarcity has driven those up to the 125% range, which gives you the $750 range (+/-100 depending on supply&demand) now commanded for the units. Taking inflation into account, it's really not that much above the $500 new from 15 years ago ($650 in 2019 dollars).
- Now you have both buyers that got in at $350, some at $500, and some from the new-normal $750 range. So you get resale asking prices all over that range, but most are in the $500-750 range. Even those that got in at $350 see the value is $500+, and so ask for that as well.
But unlike the TBC-1000, which has no moving parts, and can be just as perfect now as when it was new (based on storage, care, and usage patterns), that specific JVC has known wear issues with dynamic drum gears. $1000 is outlandish, not at all reasonable. A minty cherry 9800 may be worth $500, but no more.
But the inverse is also an issue:
I recently had a person tell me he's waiting to find a TBC-1000 for under $300. Well, good luck with that. Yes, you sometimes see strange things like this, those "too good to be true deals". At least some tiny % of those deals really was true, but the rest are not. I should know: I hear about them in emails, PMs, or shared here in forum posts.
Another person recently told me about snagging the FA-125 for $150, but it needs calibration. We're still messaging to determine if it has other noise issues, and it probably needs a quick mod to work better. It's not going to be a simple process of buy it, plug it in, and go. People must come to terms with the facts that cheap video gear needs repair and service, more often than not. At a low price point, you're gambling, not buying.
The 3 bears: too high, too low, just right.
- JVC 9800 for $1k = too high
- TBC-1000 for under $300 = too low