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Greg-
There may be two reasons why no one has bid on it. First, the BIN price is $475
versus $510 new from Celestaire. Very little incentive for anyone to BuyItNow
and get a used instrument, especially since that price is higher than it used to
be.
The opening bad price at $375 probably isn't bad, if there's no reserve price
behind it. But part of the eBay bidding strategy is that people will wait until
the last minute rather than bidding things up gradually, and since there aren't
many sextant BUYERS out there anyway...It is possible that someone will try to
buy it for $375 two minutes before the auction close. (And miss if someone else
is in there at $400, 20% less than new.) At $375 I'd call it a very good chance
to buy a good metal sextant. At $475...Absolutely not. And it may be that some
buyers are simply offended to see it offered for a price that close to retail.
The Astra enjoys a good reputation and with Ken's Celestaire (an excellent
reputation) to back it, there's nothing wrong with it. I've used the Ares and
Astra (both similar Chinese metal sextants) and both are indeed a big step up
from plastic, and capable of taking you around the world. But at that price and
performance point, there's a lot to choose from in used sextants (i.e. Tamaya,
Freiberger) so buyers may be prefering to wait for a better instrument at the
same price, or a better instrument at a slightly higher price.
By comparison, I put my C&P Horizon Ultra up with a BIN of less than half of
the new price. More than an Astra, yes. But I'll leave it to others to say which
might be the better bargain for what purposes.
