On Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 7:42:57 PM UTC-4, RichA wrote:
> Guy is selling a scope. Rather than just assuming the buyer will know or can look up the specifics of the instrument being sold, they feel the need to move into "used car salesman mode" with florid descriptions of the product, coupled to too much information to actually sell the thing quickly. The pista resistance is when you check them out and find out they have a very similar type but different scope which they've kept because they found it to be better than what they are flogging. Luckily, this is the exception and not the norm.

>

It's a good idea to be leery of most used telescopes that are advertised so widely. The best stuff is either kept, given to family or sold to close friends, and never gets advertised.

Cars are like that too.

On Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 5:50:33 PM UTC-6, RichA wrote:

> The used market is now awash in second-tier small refractors being put up by people
> who found out astrophotography actually requires an effort.

An equatorial mount with a clock drive would help too.

But only *second tier*? You mean half-decent apos, but made in China?
And not the horrible department store scope, which would be a fourth-
or fifth- tier refractor?

In that case, it sounds like there are bargains to be had!

However, given that I value scopes largely by price per inch of
aperture - but also by _some_ convenience features that make
me prefer a Schmidt-Cassegrain or a Maksutov to a Dobsonian...
but which _don't_ add anything to apochromatic refractors to
enhance their value per inch... even if that _were_ true, snapping
up one of those bargains would be of interest to someone other
than myself.

John Savard