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Determining selling price for an entire tank & set-up?


Air_Cooled_Nut

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Air_Cooled_Nut

When you're ready to sell a tank and everything that goes with it, how do you determine selling price?

 

I understand it's what the market for the area will demand, however, there needs to be a starting point. I did an inventory of my 29-gal BioCube and everything that goes with it (livestock, stand, pumps, lighting, rock, nets, pH balancer, filters, heaters, etc., the whole she-bang for a complete set-up!) and if valued as new it is over $1000...yes, over $1K for a small sub-30-gal tank! That number surprised me a lot. I realize one can't ask for "as new" values so how does one determine a fair asking price? Is it 50% off? 75% off? Where to start?

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LeCharlesMuhDickens

Its worth exactly what someone will pay for it as they say. Are you selling it with livestock too? When I sold my 180 a few years ago, I tried offering it with livestock and nobody wanted it. I gave my livestock to a friend, listed the now empty setup for the same price and it was gone within a week.

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Air_Cooled_Nut

Not sure about selling it as I've grown a little attached to it. Dunno. If I were, yes, I would sell EVERYTHING so livestock & cleaner crew, too. But good to know about maybe negotiating not including the tres amigos. I have a friend with a salt water tank a couple hours away, he could possibly take them if I were.

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Air_Cooled_Nut

Hammer,

I'm on the fence. It's more effort than I expected and has given me a great respect for those who are into this hobby. I thought classic VWs and Ducati motorcycles could be money pits but I can easily get deep into this just as much ;) I was so excited the day I realized that I finally got my FOWLR tank stabilized and was in the groove for water & filter changes. Chemistry checks are second-nature and I have a nice refractometer to better help me meter salinity.

 

My wife originally accepted the tank from a friend since they couldn't take care of it (algae & aptasia EVERYWHERE) because our kids wanted one. I'm the animal person in our household (I used to foster old and special needs cats) so I joined several forums, did a lot of research, and talked with a couple local wet-friends businesses. Well, I'm the only one who really cares about the tank now but my passion is really at the loud, petrol-burning end of the spectrum :wub: I'm thinking of putting it up for sale, just not necessarily in a rush to sell it to the lowest bidder. I put a lot of time into it and am not going to sell it to just anyone!

 

Just contemplating things right now. Getting some corals or anemones to add color to the tank looks appealing, I'll admit, but I'm gonna want to put down for a better chemistry set and additional chems to insure things live in our little biosphere and that's more money away from my stinky vehicle fund :unsure:

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If you interested in some corals why not set up at softy tank? There is a great variety with lots of color but since they don't build stony skeletons they won't contribute much to the reduction of elements in your tank such as alk/calc/mag which means you wouldn't have to change much about your routine besides maybe buying a planktonic type solution to feed the corals. Softies are usually much cheaper than stony corals as well so won't burn away from that car fun so much ;).

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Biocubes go for about $200 used where I am from. I would try to piece out the livestock to your local reef group on FB as most people are not looking for complete tanks. I would say you could get 150-200 for the tank and stand, 20-50 for the LR and livestock on an individual basis.

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Uhg, I hate parting out. Cars are a PITA to do that but at least with a tank setup it takes up less space :D

Well you dont have to part out but dont expect to get much of your cost back. I can see a complete setup like that going around $300. Hardly seems worth it when you can most likely get 150-200 for the tank alone. It all depends on the value of the livestock really.

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Air_Cooled_Nut

Well you dont have to part out but dont expect to get much of your cost back...

Oh yeah, I know about that. Same goes for cars & motorcycles :wacko:

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Oh yeah, I know about that. Same goes for cars & motorcycles :wacko:

So true. With an active local reef group I bet you can part it out pretty quick.
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righttirefire

I know I'm "local" I'm not in the market to buy anything specific. But might consider "parts" or livestock... I know another few people on N-R are in the Portland/Vancouver area.

 

Good luck whichever way you decide to go. As for pricing. Personally, I got a nuvo 8 from a member here free, stocked... had to drive to roseburg. I dropped another... too much money into it. Heater, ato, nanobox mini, inTank media basket...

 

Atos seem to sell well.

Heaters not so much.

But a "complete" clean system is always temping

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