NorthWoodsDiver
Contributor
A short while back a thread was started with the title of No Market For Tech and since reading the thread and watching its tailings go off the deep end and seeing the current trends in economy and this industry I decided to ask the opposite. Is there to much of a market for technical diving?
Just today I saw a post on another board where a diver had a whole selection of good gear for sale at great prices, of that was some aluminum 40's. I saw the post only a couple minutes after it was started and immediately emailed the seller stating I wanted the tanks and would like a couple pictures for peace of mind. I wasnt even gonna try and knock the price down and was willing to pay all shipping charges. I missed out cause the seller had someone else offer the same thing after me and he didnt even care about pictures.
I have missed similar buys on things like regulators or spgs or hoses or what ever and these items are often seen on ebay going for only a few dollars less than new. These sorts of buying frenzies can only be attributed to the ever growing number of tech divers seeking equipment.
I myself have 10 first stage regulators (7- mk17's and 3- mk2's) and 7 second stages (6- S600's and a dive rite) and I have 3 aluminum 40's, 10 aluminum 80's, a set of doubles and some 72's for sidemount. All that gear and I can barely call myself a tech diver but I am still on a quest to assemble all the necessary components to be more active in the tech related dives. Based on what I have and do then some divers must most certainly have much much more gear than me which has to increase demand and thus causes price increases.
When I see a scubapro mk17's go on ebay for $180-195 and last month the cost from the LDS was something like $205 with all the parts coverage I cant seem to figure out how people justify there expenses.
Along with a growth in tech divers world wide it seems the DIYers have begun to procreate as well with people paying more for scuba repair tools on ebay than would pay from scubatools or northeast scuba supply. Things like scubapro parts kits go online for more than I would pay to have my LDS service the reg and the cost of parts.
Now it seems companies have seen this growing trend and have upped prices to match demand and also to cope with the increased cost of everything else but I dont think dive rite needed to drive the cost of the nomad from $699 to $999. Thats a thousand bucks for a BCD. I sure am glad I picked up my 07 model from Cave Adventures for $489 and I got some free stuff like stage rigging and some spools and a shirt.
Just today I watched 2 50' spools on ebay, nothing fancy just spools with brass clips, and last I checked they were over $30 + shipping. You can get a pair for $25 from cave adventures like me and thats including shipping and stainless clips or for like $14 each from TDL w/ brass clips or even Dive Rite express has them for like $20 each but they are new and not used ebay ones. Come on this is getting crazy.
I was watching for the 500 lumen lights from dive rite to come back in stock at fill express or cave adventures and when they did they came with a $90 price increase. Some backup lights dont even cost $90 in fact my current ones were like $35 and have been goin strong for a couple years. I emailed Fill express and Cave Adventures when the lights were still at $360 and asked if I could get a deal if I get 2 of the 500 lumen lights, Fill Expess simply replied with we dont give deals. That says something, they do so much business selling things at retail pricing they dont care about helping out a few people a day who want save some $$$ for their next big purchase. Cave Adventures offered me a great deal and I am just waiting for the $$$ cause its still a lot for me.
Watching certain items like tanks go up in price seems to correspond mostly to the cost of fuel now-a-days but even still seeing an aluminum 80 going for over $200 shipped is enough to make a grown man cry. When I bought my first and only new 80's they came from LP for $140 and included shipping and even some extra junk like boots and valve covers.that was only 2 years ago.
Certain gear is almost impossible to track down used for example the big blue box know as the Nitek HE was almost mocked to death but now those who have them usually have a couple and seem to cherish there little blue boxes and are hard pressed to ever sell them. Standard bottom timers seemed useless to the average OW diver after the creation and popularization of the dive computer but now its almost impossible to get one of the Uwatec timers which only stopped being produced last year.
We all have a set of jet style fins and love em but how many people actually liked them after the new fancy fins were being produced. Most rec divers dropped their heavy ugly black fins for something light and colorful and with splits and such. You could get jets for way cheap on ebay 2 years ago but now they go for only a few buck less than LP sells them and sometimes even more the LP sells them.
A BP/W was looked down at and viewed almost like something from space but totally lacking any sort of modernization. You never saw a BP/W on OW dive charters or in vacation hot spots or in rental racks but now they are blooming into use all over and on my trip to MX there was several divers throughout the week who boarded our boat boasting a BP/W. For rental gear a BP/W makes the most sense due to modular design and durability although few places offer this as a standard rental to OW divers.
As a standard most out of the way places had few options for tank rental, usually 80's and sometimes 63's and even a lp95 or 2 , but rebreather bottles or al40's or argon inflation bottles would be impossible to track down accept in areas with well established tech dive communities. Now I hear of breather divers going to 3rd world countries and finding 3 ltr O2 bottles.
Last year this time I knew some people who actually got a second pair of tanks with their breather purchase for free now they want $500 for em.
Maybe I am ranting and maybe its all just bs cause I am broke and cant afford to keep up with the hard core divers or the internet divers with big budgets but it seems to me like the growing percentage or technical divers has to be driving the cost of even used gear up.
Right or wrong the prices on gear are going up and used stuff next year will cost most than new stuff this year but I will continue to shop and watch for acceptable deals and try and talk shops down as much as I can in effort to afford the bigger items like lights, DPVs, CCRs, and the like.
Just today I saw a post on another board where a diver had a whole selection of good gear for sale at great prices, of that was some aluminum 40's. I saw the post only a couple minutes after it was started and immediately emailed the seller stating I wanted the tanks and would like a couple pictures for peace of mind. I wasnt even gonna try and knock the price down and was willing to pay all shipping charges. I missed out cause the seller had someone else offer the same thing after me and he didnt even care about pictures.
I have missed similar buys on things like regulators or spgs or hoses or what ever and these items are often seen on ebay going for only a few dollars less than new. These sorts of buying frenzies can only be attributed to the ever growing number of tech divers seeking equipment.
I myself have 10 first stage regulators (7- mk17's and 3- mk2's) and 7 second stages (6- S600's and a dive rite) and I have 3 aluminum 40's, 10 aluminum 80's, a set of doubles and some 72's for sidemount. All that gear and I can barely call myself a tech diver but I am still on a quest to assemble all the necessary components to be more active in the tech related dives. Based on what I have and do then some divers must most certainly have much much more gear than me which has to increase demand and thus causes price increases.
When I see a scubapro mk17's go on ebay for $180-195 and last month the cost from the LDS was something like $205 with all the parts coverage I cant seem to figure out how people justify there expenses.
Along with a growth in tech divers world wide it seems the DIYers have begun to procreate as well with people paying more for scuba repair tools on ebay than would pay from scubatools or northeast scuba supply. Things like scubapro parts kits go online for more than I would pay to have my LDS service the reg and the cost of parts.
Now it seems companies have seen this growing trend and have upped prices to match demand and also to cope with the increased cost of everything else but I dont think dive rite needed to drive the cost of the nomad from $699 to $999. Thats a thousand bucks for a BCD. I sure am glad I picked up my 07 model from Cave Adventures for $489 and I got some free stuff like stage rigging and some spools and a shirt.
Just today I watched 2 50' spools on ebay, nothing fancy just spools with brass clips, and last I checked they were over $30 + shipping. You can get a pair for $25 from cave adventures like me and thats including shipping and stainless clips or for like $14 each from TDL w/ brass clips or even Dive Rite express has them for like $20 each but they are new and not used ebay ones. Come on this is getting crazy.
I was watching for the 500 lumen lights from dive rite to come back in stock at fill express or cave adventures and when they did they came with a $90 price increase. Some backup lights dont even cost $90 in fact my current ones were like $35 and have been goin strong for a couple years. I emailed Fill express and Cave Adventures when the lights were still at $360 and asked if I could get a deal if I get 2 of the 500 lumen lights, Fill Expess simply replied with we dont give deals. That says something, they do so much business selling things at retail pricing they dont care about helping out a few people a day who want save some $$$ for their next big purchase. Cave Adventures offered me a great deal and I am just waiting for the $$$ cause its still a lot for me.
Watching certain items like tanks go up in price seems to correspond mostly to the cost of fuel now-a-days but even still seeing an aluminum 80 going for over $200 shipped is enough to make a grown man cry. When I bought my first and only new 80's they came from LP for $140 and included shipping and even some extra junk like boots and valve covers.that was only 2 years ago.
Certain gear is almost impossible to track down used for example the big blue box know as the Nitek HE was almost mocked to death but now those who have them usually have a couple and seem to cherish there little blue boxes and are hard pressed to ever sell them. Standard bottom timers seemed useless to the average OW diver after the creation and popularization of the dive computer but now its almost impossible to get one of the Uwatec timers which only stopped being produced last year.
We all have a set of jet style fins and love em but how many people actually liked them after the new fancy fins were being produced. Most rec divers dropped their heavy ugly black fins for something light and colorful and with splits and such. You could get jets for way cheap on ebay 2 years ago but now they go for only a few buck less than LP sells them and sometimes even more the LP sells them.
A BP/W was looked down at and viewed almost like something from space but totally lacking any sort of modernization. You never saw a BP/W on OW dive charters or in vacation hot spots or in rental racks but now they are blooming into use all over and on my trip to MX there was several divers throughout the week who boarded our boat boasting a BP/W. For rental gear a BP/W makes the most sense due to modular design and durability although few places offer this as a standard rental to OW divers.
As a standard most out of the way places had few options for tank rental, usually 80's and sometimes 63's and even a lp95 or 2 , but rebreather bottles or al40's or argon inflation bottles would be impossible to track down accept in areas with well established tech dive communities. Now I hear of breather divers going to 3rd world countries and finding 3 ltr O2 bottles.
Last year this time I knew some people who actually got a second pair of tanks with their breather purchase for free now they want $500 for em.
Maybe I am ranting and maybe its all just bs cause I am broke and cant afford to keep up with the hard core divers or the internet divers with big budgets but it seems to me like the growing percentage or technical divers has to be driving the cost of even used gear up.
Right or wrong the prices on gear are going up and used stuff next year will cost most than new stuff this year but I will continue to shop and watch for acceptable deals and try and talk shops down as much as I can in effort to afford the bigger items like lights, DPVs, CCRs, and the like.
