What is old equipment worth?
- Thread starter Muffin9780
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Both the tanks are probably aluminum. If the LAST hydro date is the 90's they might be old aluminum. The old 6351 alloy aluminum suffers from Sustained Load Cracking (SLC). So Luxfer recommends eddy current testing as well as visual inspection. This means they cost more to maintain than new aluminum tanks. Additionally, a lot of shops won't fill them for fear they weren't properly maintained. So even if you can get them hydro'd, eddy current tested and filled, the number of places that would continue to fill them would be limited.
Hood, gloves, wetsuit are all going to break down with age. I doubt anyone would want to buy neoprene that is that old. Same thing with BCDs, reels, etc. if they look worn out they are going to be worth very little or worth nothing.
People here are saying the regulators should be in a museum but I sold my Sherwood Blizzard regs just 3 years ago. They worked well for recreational diving. You can even find a number of shops in my area which service the SRB3200.
I'd want a shop to pressure test the gauges to make sure they still work okay. So it might not be worth selling if you have to include the cost of testing them.
Lead is always valuable. If you check local dive stores for the price of lead, you should be able to easily sell your lead for half the price. For example, if shops are selling lead for $5/pound then you can EASILY get $2.50/pound. It doesn't wear out. I have lead which is probably 20 or 30 years old. I know someone who has lead which he made himself from the early 60s.
Hood, gloves, wetsuit are all going to break down with age. I doubt anyone would want to buy neoprene that is that old. Same thing with BCDs, reels, etc. if they look worn out they are going to be worth very little or worth nothing.
People here are saying the regulators should be in a museum but I sold my Sherwood Blizzard regs just 3 years ago. They worked well for recreational diving. You can even find a number of shops in my area which service the SRB3200.
I'd want a shop to pressure test the gauges to make sure they still work okay. So it might not be worth selling if you have to include the cost of testing them.
Lead is always valuable. If you check local dive stores for the price of lead, you should be able to easily sell your lead for half the price. For example, if shops are selling lead for $5/pound then you can EASILY get $2.50/pound. It doesn't wear out. I have lead which is probably 20 or 30 years old. I know someone who has lead which he made himself from the early 60s.
OP
Muffin9780
Registered
OP
Muffin9780
Registered
I really appreciate all of the responses! Thanks so much!
OP
Muffin9780
Registered
I think it was manufactured in 10/89. Would that be stamped on the tank? I know that I didn't buy it in 1988 because I didn't purchase equipment until 1990 and beyond.
runsongas
Contributor
Yes as part of the crown markings. If you aren't sure, post a picture
Typically, when a tank is manufactured they do a hydrostatic test then stamp the cylinder. For example, one of my cylinders has three stamps on it:
01 @ 16
01 # 06
01 @ 11
01 # 06
01 @ 11
The @ and # symbol would be the mark of the people doing the hydrostatic test. If you have it tested at different facilities that symbol will be different. The 01 is the month and the other numbers are the year. So my cylinder was tested on January 2016, January 2006 and January 2011. The oldest test, January 2006, is the date my cylinder was manufactured.
You need to find the oldest stamp and that is the date you cylinder was manufactured. If "10 @ 89" (where @ could be any type of symbol) is the oldest stamp, your cylinder was manufactured October 1989. Around that time some tanks were the 'bad' aluminum alloy and some were the modern alloy. If it was 1988 or older and Luxfer, Walter Kiddie, etc. then it is definitely the 'bad' alloy.
All shops in my area just avoid everything older than 1990. Some shops won't fill anything older than 15 years.
CT-Rich
Contributor
The wetsuit is junk, they get stiff with age. A lot of shops won't fill AL tanks that old, reguardless of hydro. The regulators are worth something, if in good condition, but will need service. I still have my Sherwood Magnum from 1980 it was used twice this year. The shop said they won't service it again because of parts. The improvement in performance of regulators in the past 30 years is mostly hype IMHO. A quality regulator from the 80s will not be significantly different from one today. But yours are not old enough to be vintage, so don't expect much.... the lead took 4.5 billion years to decay from Uranium, so I think it will remain heavier than water. If they are nicely coated or good condition they may sell. Of course, you won't be able to offer the manufacturer warranty on the lead......
Craig's List the lead, reels, and accessories as package deal. Ebay the regulators just get them sold. Expect a long wait.
Craig's List the lead, reels, and accessories as package deal. Ebay the regulators just get them sold. Expect a long wait.
I represent that remark!
The only thing g you have worth anything is lead. Unmaintained tanks 20+ years out of hydro are worthless. Old wetsuits are worthless. 90s regulators are worthless. 90s bcds are wprthless.
Sell the lot at $2.50 per pound of lead you have, the rest of that gear is worthless. It isn't vintage and it isn't good.
Sell the lot at $2.50 per pound of lead you have, the rest of that gear is worthless. It isn't vintage and it isn't good.
Similar threads
