Newbie question - equipment with good resale value

A couple of other tube amp names might be AirTight and VTL. As for TTs, the list of good TTs goes on and on. Basis, VPI, and Teres mentioned above are American-made and currently supported. Some of the Japanese-made direct drive turntables of yesteryear are excellent value for money.

Whatever you do on TTs, unless you already have a large collection of records and a decently long history of playing them, I would start with a set-up which is easy to use and would be attractive on resale to someone like yourself. If you decide to go further, it will be easy to sell and you can move up in the chain cleanly and without buyer's remorse. If you are a curious type by nature, by far the largest "expense" in turntables is the time it takes to find records, clean them, set up your table/arm/cart, and then tweak it every now and then to see what it sounds like with the VTA changed, VTF changed, etc, then change carts to see what a different cart sounds like, etc. If you buy a turntable used at the low end of that TT's price range, you'll get out of it for not much less than you paid for it plus shipping, almost no matter what it is.

I second the bluebook option above. Spend the few bucks for the annual membership. It's an invaluable reference point.

The Audiogon Blue Book values may only be good for a short time as certain brands and models fall in and out of popularity.

If you are going to play the game you have to play it good if you don't want to lose money.

There are certain makes and models you can't go wrong with. They have maintained the same price or higher for many years. To list all of these would be very difficult and it depends on the price range you would be buying in.

Drop me an email with the type of equipment and the price range you would be buying in and I will tell you what I know.

BlueBook has been mentioned as a reliable source of information on resales. Retail dealers do not use BlueBook in calculating trade in values. As 'Rrog' mentioned, it is a shallow source of information. I have found the 'book' over states the values, significantly. For the major brands the general rule on fair used value, assuming a fully functioning unit that is less then ten years old, is 80% of the original MSRP (sales tax excluded) less 40%. This translates to $480 on a MSRP of $1,000. Once the unit is over ten years old, every year older would add an additional 5% discount, per year. Many dealers follow these rules in calculating trade in values. If the unit you are buying is not local and can be picked up/checked out, the cost of shipping the unit to you should be deducted from the calculated value. But in the end, value is always what someone would sell, and what a buyer would pay. It is called 'market capitalism.'

Buconero117,
I, on the other hand, find that the BlueBook is way off in the other direction sometimes, especially for pieces which are older than 10yrs old. The formula you quote seems to be the one used by the Agon BlueBook when they have nothing else. That puts a pair of great vintage speakers from 30yrs ago at 15cts on the original dollar, when that original dollar is worth many times what today's dollar is worth. That's a bit what I am getting at when I say yesteryear's almost classics can be a bargain. So far, I have been able to get a couple of things at 15cts on the dollar, but they are the very rare cases. And I love buying from people who would sell me the best stuff from 1980 at 20cts on the 1980 dollar.