The time has come...

After a great deal of heart-searching, I now realise the chances of me doing any more serious caving are past (although I hasten to add, I?m somewhat slimmer than my Avatar would suggest. Hell, I don?t even have a beard!) so I?ve decided to sell my kit.

The items I?ve listed below were all purchased by me from Caving Supplies  in 1994 or thereabouts for the use of my company caving club but due to circumstances changing, me selling the company and then being rather tied up with business-type matters the stuff never really got used. Many of the ladders and ropes have never been used, those that have were for a trip down Alum Pot and were carefully cleaned afterwards.

Since then everything has been stored away in my nice dry garage and shed, home to the occasional spider, for the last fifteen years. Some of the ladder & tether ?C? links have superficial rust on their cut surfaces, some of the alloy parts have a touch of surface corrosion, but the rest is pretty pristine - some ladders even have unbroken plastic tags holding them together & the original labels.

Ideally, I?d like to see the lot go to a club in one hit; in which case I?ll accept any reasonable offer (I really haven?t much of a clue regarding the value of it all). I?ll leave it a month or so (no rush) and if there?s no interest I might then be prepared to sell bits and bobs off individually before resorting to the dreaded E-Bay.

Anyway, here are some ?photos -







THE KIT (all CS)-

7 Helmets, 5 small tape slings, 1 tape loop, 35M abseil rope (can?t remember its make - yellow with green flecks). The following lengths of Edelrid lifeline rope (blue, approx. 8mm dia.) - 25M, 2x30M, 16M, 55M.
35M white with black flecks SRT rope with a knot about 1/3rd of the way along it (which in my enfeebled state I can?t undo).
9 CS waistbelts/battery belts.
The following wire tethers - 2x 10?, 2x 5?, 2x 2.5? & one 15?
4 spreaders. 6 screwgate alloy crabs. 5 Petzl pulleys. 2 Petzl Shunts. 1 fig. 8 descender. 1 5-bar rack. 4 CS tackle bags.

Ladders  (all 25cm spacing) - 4x 5M, 3x 10M, 1x 7.5M, 1x4.5M

I'm In Need of some SRT gear so if you do split I would like the 5 bar rack, Harness and one bag 

OK, duly noted.

Tony, this is only my opinion so please take it as you find, with best intentions; I suspect you may have difficulty shifting this in one go.

A club or other organisation in the position to make use of such a haul should really be shying away from it (well, the ropes and fabric stuff, the helmets; the metal work too - past their sell by dates would be an official outlook) with the exception maybe of the ladders and obviously the kit bags. The job lot would be overkill IMHO for an individual.

My advice for what it's worth would be split it as an "as seen" sale; I sold ladders on eBay and got my hands bitten off.

Yep, ladders go for so much on ebay I gave up and made my own 

OK, thanks for the advice folks. I suspect I'll end up splitting but it's a shame no one wants the ropes. Have they a shelf life? Perhaps I'll knit myself a really thick sweater.

tony from suffolk said:

Have they a shelf life?

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A tricky one. Used to be 5 years, used or not. Some manufacturers are now willing to say a maximum of 5 years' usage up to a maximum of 10 years old.

FWIW I agree with Stu.

but it's a shame no one wants the ropes.

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Someone might have them for personal use, there are people that use ropes beyond the "life" that manafacturers give them - you've got to remember they need to be slightly conservative with their claims to cover their backs!

tony from suffolk said:

OK, thanks for the advice folks. I suspect I'll end up splitting but it's a shame no one wants the ropes. Have they a shelf life? Perhaps I'll knit myself a really thick sweater.

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I'll buy you a really nice sweater for the SRT stuff

As long as it's got a special pocket stuffed with money, that'll do nicely! 

I would like the nice SRT type rope (the white one) if it is affordable to me - how long is it?

Tony from Suffolk

Would It now be a good idea to put a single item pricelist  :read: on here? including P&P just like on Flee bay

I've had someone interested in buying the whole shebang, so I'll wait 'til I hear from them again before doing anything else.

OK Tony.
I hope all goes through

But if not

Continue with  defeating Anorexia your looking well on your way to recovery in the pic

OK folks, this is now sold. I didn't quite achieve the value placed on it by those friendly experts from the Antiques Roadshow but it's all going to a very worthy purchaser.

Thanks for your all your interest! (Sorry to Madame Slaparse's Red-Raw Spanking and Bondage Emporium for rejecting your substantial offer but I had a frisson of concern regarding the possible reason for you wanting this stuff. The use to which you would put the Figure of Eight and the 5-Bar rack doesn't bear thinking about).

Best wishes!

tony from suffolk said:

The use to which you would put the Figure of Eight and the 5-Bar rack doesn't bear thinking about).

Best wishes!

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Tell us more 

I can't Aubrey - it doesn't bear thinking about!

Forgot to add - the final purchaser successfully moved to the winning podium by spotting the two obvious mistakes - 1) No mention of the Sit Harness, 2) noticed that the diameter quoted for the ropes was miles too small. The latter was nowt to do with the fact that the vendor is becoming senile & gets confused with metrifications stuff. Oh no sireee...