Do you sell your trip-specific gear right away?

I certainly have a number of used tents from this forum and others which had very low hours on them.  I use these for group trips with family and friends that are new to backpacking and cannot afford ultralight gear to try out the sport.  I have in the past sold used gear to some friends and they were happy with the gear.   I would rather see someone get to use the equipment and get some new backpacking partners in the process.

When I read “trip-specific” in the thread title, I was imagining that there was some exotic type of gear that was useful only for certain obscure trips. But tents and packs aren’t trip-specific IMO, and the owner should be able to use them again for other trips in the future. Do you think that there are a lot of Backpacking Light forum members buying expensive UL gear for a one-off trip, and don’t plan to do any more backpacking? My guess is that most people selling lightly used gear are doing so because there was something about the gear that they didn’t like, or they found something that suited them better. I doubt that many people pursue a deliberate strategy of flipping gear that they are happy with, to free up cash.

I generally use my gear until I find something I like better. In practice, it rarely wears out, since I’m reasonably careful with my gear and I’m also not bothered by patching and repairing it. I’ve given away a few pieces to friends, and my wife “borrows” some of it. But most of my old gear is still sitting in my basement, taking up space.

Huh?  Selling gear?

That’s why there’s no room to park a car on “my” side of the 2-car garage.

I’ve tried to get better and quicker about noticing when some item has been supplanted in every way by other pieces of equipment and gifting or PIFing it – when it’s the last arrow in my quiver but it could be the first arrow in someone else’s.

Now, for an apartment dweller, a college student, an itinerant backpacking bum?  Yeah, I can see buying something used and selling it again at essentially the same price.  “Renting it”, as you say, for any loss in the two transactions.  I suspect that is a generational thing: under-30s having a dearth of space and acreage and being a generation more removed from children of The Great Depression with their inability to toss anything of any possible value.

I’ve done that with motor vehicles in Europe – buy a beater car or truck and sell it a month later when I leave.  The most extreme example I saw was a young couple from NZ whose parents fronted them the money to fly to Europe to buy a Porsche for $50k at the factory, drive it around Europe for 6 months, ship it home, and then sell it to someone else for $80k (because that prior ownership/use avoided even higher import luxury taxes), and thereby financed their whole trip on the proceeds.

No, I keep my gear for 40 or 50 years unless it wears out.

All the gear I didn’t buy, I invested the money so I could retire comfortably ;-)

Sounds like a lot of work. I sell gear on here, but that’s only because the product didn’t meet my expectations. Once I find a solid piece of gear, I hold onto it for the long haul.

Yes and no.

I bought a few things for specific purposes

And sold them

Example….10×10 mid  for scouts

But usually I keep everything.

Yes and no.

I bought a few things for specific purposes

And sold them

Example….10×10 mid  for scouts

But usually I keep everything.

Until I’m sure I don’t want to use it in the future.

I believe in the long haul.