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Recommendations/Reviews/FS/WTB Equipment Shortage

Products recommendations and reviews, items For Sale or Wanted To Buy
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JeffC

JeffC

Level 7 Valued Member
With weight rooms closed there is a massive demand for fitness equipment.

I posted a pile of plates, 28mm Power Bar, 48mm Axel, spring collars, and two cutoffs of 3/4” stall mats. Everything you need to barbell train at home(besides squat stands).

I posted it for $1000, above used equipment value, for the whole lot Within minutes of posting a bidding war broke out, and I sold for $1600.

Is that price gouging? How can you price gouge a luxury item? Is it just supply and demand?

I am considering selling another lot.
 
Interesting moral question. If what you did were considered price gouging, then by definition anything that ever involves bidding could be considered price gouging, like selling your house. I don't see that as gouging.

Certainly, if grocery stores were to go to a model of allowing people to bid up the price on loaves on bread, most of us would call that gouging. But what if we're talking about a small artisan baker, who only makes 12 loaves a day using all self-sourced ingredients? That's less clear.

It would seem there must be some threshold of "necessity" of the item and production capacity to be considered gouging.


It will be interesting to see if, when the world settles down and people go back to their usual routines, could you buy all this stuff back at $500.
 
I’ve seen cases on eBay and Amazon where it looks like the sellers selling kettlebells at highly inflated prices appear to be vendors that do a lot of drop shipping. And thus one won’t be informed until after making the purchase that the item is on back order — and that when the rest of the world can buy kettlebells at normal prices, so will the drop shipper. This is dodgy in a way that @Geoff Chafe ‘s auction is not. One thinks one is paying a premium to get an item that is otherwise unavailable, but one is only getting the kettlebell at a time when kettlebells are widely available enough that the drop shipper gets their back orders filled. I am avoiding this situation altogether.
 
Most of my bells are gone. Posted for $2.25/lb. Many sold for $3/lb. Never thought about fitness equipment as an investment.
 
I don't think it's price gouging if people kept bidding the price up. Presumably, they wouldn't bid more than it's worth to them. Price gouging is when you're the only supplier and your starting price is unreasonable high.
 
I have sold most of my equipment and have started Wendler 5/3/1 again. With all this stuff gone I feel like a literal weight has been lifted off me and am excited to make progress again. It will be refreshing to get back to basics.
 
As a side note people messaged me accusing me of price gouging, and aggressive name calling, after refusing offers way below current market value.

I reread some messages while calculating my profits.
 
The bartering side of fitness equipment has been a part of buying and selling fitness equipment that I always liked.

I have a guy pouring me new Atlas Stones in trade for an Axel, Rolling Thunder, and Inch Trainer. If you can build a small network of Cellar Dwellers you can help each other.

He needs an Axel right now, I don’t, I can build a new one. I want to expand my backyard gym with heavier and better quality stones. He can fulfill that.

Try trading or borrowing what you need to get the reps in. Adapt and evolve.
 
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