When To (and not to) Buy Used

Like many in the Personal Finance blogosphere, I believe in the power of buying (and selling) things used. Many items simply depreciate faster than they should in terms of price, and this opens up a buying opportunity for you to get something of high quality without having to pay full price. Cars are infamous for losing a large part of their value once they drive them off the lot. With this knowledge in mind, why would you ever buy anything brand new?

When it comes to used equipment, you can go as far down the rabbit hole as you wish to go. Some consumers go great lengths to find out if they’re getting a good deal, and this is especially true of used cars and other large purchases. Another options is to check out services like Used Price, which will allow you to look up a whole sleuth of items, from appliances to gun prices, and find out what “fair value” they might have. This is also very helpful if you’re looking to sell say, a flat screen TV you don’t really want anymore, or if you are filling out an insurance claim and don’t really have any idea what your computer was worth. Just plugin the the item’s model number and the service will pop out a sell price based on the following:

“The used prices are derived from dealer surveys gathered nationwide. Dealers are asked to provide the “selling price” and “days to sell”. The used price is then calculated based on what an average store could sell the product for in 30 days or less.”

Keep in mind there’s a fee associated with the service (on a per valuation basis) when searching for an item’s value.