What percent do you think USED is worth less than Refurb?

Any? A lot? Say a lens/body is $1000 refurbished, so with an one year official Canon warranty.

For you to give up the peace of mind and warranty what kind of price break do you need on a used version of the lens/body? 10%, 20%, 30% ? For sake of easy let's assume the lens/body is in perfect condition, in both cases.


Extra Credit: Due to depreciation difference, do you value used/refurb lenses different from bodies?

It depends. If I'm buying semi-randomly from ebay vs refurb with warranty I want a significant savings. If I'm buying from a well-established forum member whom I trust then a little savings is enough.

In terms of valuation, I don't think much about depreciation. I do believe that if you sell your refurb item with full disclosure it will potentially lower your selling price a bit vs what a non-refurb used item will go for, all else being equal.

In general, refurb pricing will traditionally be about 10-20% off new pricing. For me to buy used over refurb, the used pricing would have to be in the 30-40% range.

The kicker with this is very few items take that big of a hit on the used market, unless there is some underlying reason as to why everyone is dumping the item (i.e. expensive maintenance costs or bad/suspect functionality). And if that's the case, you'd want to buy it with a warranty to protect yourself from whatever issue is plaguing the item and destroying its used value (rapidly increasing depreciation).

So unless it's a "I'm going through a divorce and I just need money to pay off my &$*%# ex and the lawyers" sale, I pretty much always go refurb, if given the chance.

Refurb has a warranty. Used no warranty so it has to be a great deal for me to buy used.

It really depends on the lens and when you want or need it. Canon refurb sometimes is higher cost than a new product at a given vendor. Very rarely will I see a used anything selling at the same price point as a refurbished unit, unless the refurbished unit happens to be on sale for 15% off or more. Occasionally you will see the rebates allowing the double dipping, in which case new may be cheaper than used. The 70-200 2.8IS for example has settled in at about $1850+ used. During certain times of the year you can buy a new one for less. Accordingly, a Canon refurb is $1999 but does go on sale for 15% off.

The opposite is true of a lens like the 24-105 where you can buy a new one from a member for less than $700 while the refurb from Canon is over $900.

This has been discussed a number of times, and the general consensus is that a used item is worth approximately 20-40% less than new (assuming it's a current model, older would warrant much less), and approx 20-30% less than a refurb. Of course, it's on a case by case basis, but I would tend to agree with that.

KirkS518 wrote in post #17042387
This has been discussed a number of times, and the general consensus is that a used item is worth approximately 20-40% less than new (assuming it's a current model, older would warrant much less), and approx 20-30% less than a refurb. Of course, it's on a case by case basis, but I would tend to agree with that.

This. Of course it depends on how used,. Some cameras are babied and pristine while others have been through a war zone.

At least 20%. That's the figure I use. If it doesn't meet this, I keep it moving.