Selling a used KX155A in the US

I have sold a lot of stuff on US Ebay

You need to go about it in a certain way because Americans are suspicious of certain kids of sellers; rightly so IMHO

• a good description, honestly written (most Ebay text is illiterate or inadequate)
• hi-res pics (uploaded elsewhere if you like)
• get an 8130-3 issued by some FAA145 firm here (not necessary but you get more $$$ and it gives buyers a warm feeling) OR
• get a letter from the installer here saying the kit worked when removed

I sold my two KX155 to Harley Bennett of http://www.bennettavionics.com/ a couple of years ago and as far as I recall got about USD1,000 for each towards an 8.33 capable 165. Just give them a call and maybe they’ll bite. I also sold my KLN 94 to Bill Flynn at http://www.sea-aviation-parts.com/.

Whatever you do don’t let anyone tell you that there is no market for used stuff like my shop tried to. For all my used “junk” (including a KMD550) I got close to USD10,000 which helped a lot towards my GTN750.

We tried selling a nice KX155a for a while on various US sites. I couldn’t get it on Ebay. As far as I saw you need a number of sales before they accept a high value item.
In the end – after a friend brought the unit to the states to have it available locally – our existing unit failed and we had to get the good one back with UPS.
I think there is a german saying – außer Spesen nichts gewesen

There is a large experimental market in the US that won’t require any form of release for a nav/com and there is a demand.

You could try Barnstormers/controller/Trade-a-plane or the experimental boards like Vans Air Force.

You might even see wanted ads. I’ve seen then recently for SL30s.

seaerospace.com may buy it and their site will give you an idea of retail values.

mrfacts wrote:

Whatever you do don’t let anyone tell you that there is no market for used stuff like my shop tried to.

Actually I do tell this to my customers as well, AND recommend them to sell their old equipment themselfs. When you sell to the new end user you will get the maximum out of it, else one or when shipping to the US, two shops have to make some money, and give warranty etc. Not worthwhile for equipment that I can’t install / is no market for under my customers.

I got $1500 for a mint condition KX155A from South East Aerospace about 4 years ago.

Later my 2nd one (the original was replaced with a KX165A/8.33) developed a dodgy display and I regretted selling it so cheaply

But then the display sorted itself out and has been fine since…

Europe is a funny market for avionics because EASA’s dodgy restrictive STC practices have handed a monopoly to Garmin. Throw in the poor competence of many installers and the resulting desire to stick to well known gear and it’s no wonder they tell you the old stuff is worthless.

In the USA people have much more choice and there is a lot more general expertise around, much helped by the lack of restrictive practices around component documentation. In Europe, anything without an 8130-3 or Form 1 (if new) or without a Form 1 (if used) is “worthless”, unless you have a helpful engineer and do it off the books.

And a lot of people out there value their existing (say, 1990s) avionics because the King stuff from that era more or less just keeps on working. I would never take out my KLN94+KMD550 because that stuff does everything needed in Europe, but one day I will have to because LPV will become operationally relevant (currently it isn’t because – to a UK based pilot – every airport of relevance either has an ILS or has some IAP which can be flown with a GPS). And the USA doesn’t have this 8.33 crap (wholly a product of yet another Euro restrictive practice – a refusal to pool frequency allocation between sovereign countries) so the good KX radios will always be in demand in the USA.

Loads of European pilot-owners swap like-for-like (failed) avionics with stuff off US Ebay, obviously off the books, but they are still a small market. And Germans can’t do it because their avionics serial numbers are checked at each Annual, so they would have to resort to heating up the stickers with a hair dryer and transferring them Also selling stuff across Europe is hard due to cultural/language differences.

Peter wrote:

Europe is a funny market for avionics because EASA’s dodgy restrictive STC practices have handed a monopoly to Garmin.

Could you explain, not sure if I understand?

Peter wrote:

I would never take out my KLN94+KMD550 because that stuff does everything needed in Europe

Equipment which is in Europe “worthless” are like mode C transponder, 25 kHz radio’s, as these can not be reïnstalled. So these must be sold abroad. When as an avionics shop you try to sell a large lot to another shop, prices are quite low. Prices for private sellers is better, but a lot of work. This is why it is best to sell it yourself to the end customer.

Equipment which is not “worthless” is equipment then can be easily installed in other aircraft.
For example, de KCS-55 system is just to expensive to reinstall. You will spend far more on labour, then for installation of an Aspen, therefor it doesn’t make sense. These don’t make to much sense for experimentals either, because they can have much nicer equipment at even lower prices, and do the installation themselfs.

And Germans can’t do it because their avionics serial numbers are checked at each Annual, so they would have to resort to heating up the stickers with a hair dryer …

You know interesting things ;-) Never ever were the numbers of my devices checked at an annual. And if a device failed and I bought one with a form on ebay, the avionics shop would change the number.

Could you explain, not sure if I understand?

It is the relative lack of EASA AML STCs, for vendors other than Garmin.

One could argue that Garmin eating everybody’s lunch anyway is a coincidence

For example, de KCS-55 system is just to expensive to reinstall. You will spend far more on labour, then for installation of an Aspen, therefor it doesn’t make sense.

However, I think that again Aspen’s EASA STC is a factor there. It has become very popular because it delivers a lot of “bang for the buck” but that would have been of little use in Europe if they didn’t have the paperwork.

Then you have the much greater amount of freelance activity in the USA. In Europe, even where it could be done, most (non N-reg) owners are scared of managing / unable to manage a freelance installation.

The end result of all this is that the range of “interesting avionics” in Europe is a lot narrower than the range of “interesting avionics” in the USA.