www.stealitback.com

Look under Home/Garden and Professional Nursery equipment.

Sam

Thanks! Great stuff on that site. Unfortunately, the shipping appears to cost so much that I think I may be better off buying new equipment.

LT,

I spent a couple of years looking for used HID systems. When I found one in the newspaper, they were almost as much as new ones.

It has to do with the dynamics of the marketplace. There is just not enough of a market there to bring down prices. And the prices that exist now are affordable to enough of the market that there is no reason to cost cut. Much of the greenhouse/hobby market is the same way.

I am waiting for a harbor freight-like company to set up a HID manufacturing plant in China..

THEN and only then will it get interesting...I could see prices drop by half then.

I bought the used light but I think I saved $50...and it wasn't the latest technology either. I would have been better to buy new.

New lights also typically come with a five-year warranty for the ballast, and one year for the bulb. Though failures are uncommon, my ballast blew a few months after I bought it, and I had a brand-new replacement a week later. Bulbs, which make up a third of the cost, need to be replaced regularly because their light output falls off over time, though they continue to work; a used one may already have dimmed by 20%. Compared to the price of the electricity to run it, you really aren't saving much by shopping for a used system.

Thanks for the responses. I decided it wasn't worth saving a few bucks to pick up a used HID. I just bought a new system from Hydroponics.net. I can't wait to try it out this year! Thanks again for the help!

-LT