Why Buy Used??
Especially in the USA, companies are scrambling for gear, busier than they’ve ever been, and trying to keep up with growing demands on their resources for 2022. But so many remain reluctant to look at used equipment as a viable solution to their needs. I wanted to provide you a quick reminder, and 3 HUGE reasons you should consider used gear as you’re planning CapX for 2022 and beyond.
- Availability: Tours and shows are being booked and you don’t have the gear you need to meet those demands. Manufacturers are struggling to increase production, or they are missing components to finish product. This is a dilemma in many industries, not just our own. Used Gear – even from other regions – can ship immediately, and therefore, outside of shipping time – can be available right away to utilize on your shows!
- Cost to Acquire: Lets say the cost for a new product is $10,000. In most cases, you can purchase a very clean used one for $7,000 or less. And usually that will include a case, which might have cost you another $1,000 or more.
- Increased ROI: Purchasing used vs new gives you an immediate savings, as demonstrated above. But there’s a hidden, residual value as well. I’ll demonstrate.
- Purchase the item New for $10,000 plus case, Total: $11,000. Now, you rent the item for 30 weeks at $150 per week, that’s $4,500, or 40% of your initial investment. Consider instead, you purchased used for $7,000 and did the same rental. The result of that rental would return 64% of your purchase cost.
- Now, we want to sell the item (on GearSource of course). We sell it for the same $7,000, paying GearSource fees of 10% – your net is $6,300.
- If you paid $11,000 for new, you lost money $11,000 (cost), $4,500 (rent) leaving a balance on that investment of $6,500. You sold it for $6,300, therefore losing $200.
- If you paid $7,000 – the math would be $7,000-4500 = $2,500 balance. With a sale for $6,300, that leaves you a profit of $3,800.
- This can also provide options to buy, when the numbers may have made more sense to cross rent!
Of course, there are used gear horror stories of quality or warranty issues, and while those exist from private sellers or unscrupulous brokers, they still happen less often than you might expect. Buy from confidence from GearSource, and by the time you read this, GearSource have likely already begun offering our new Extended Warranty programs for lighting products sold in North America.
