Craigslist gym equipment-thoughts?
 

So I am really wanting an elliptical...I find it to be the best equipment for me, I enjoy working out on it, it burns the calories, and since I don't use any other machine at the gym, I've decided to get one.

My issue is that money is kind of tight, so I thought about buying used equipment off craigslist. Has anyone done this before? A part of me says "heck yes!! gym equipment at a cheap price!" and the other half says "but why are they selling it? Is there something wrong with it? What happens then?"

I found a seller with a mid-high quality elliptical for $450, which is cheaper than the full cost (normal retail price is around $1000), but still a big chunk of money. Is there anything I should specifically ask this seller before purchase? I intend to use it a little before purchase, to make sure there are no strange noises, everything works, etc.

Any help is greatly appreciated, I've never really bought anything like this online before lol!

I've bought and sold exercise equipment there. Do your homework and ask questions. Make sure you are getting a good price and test it out before you pay.
Just because they are selling it doesn't mean something is wrong. I sold a great treadmill because I was bored with it and bought an elliptical

There are all sorts of reasons people might sell things even though there's nothing wrong with it...they no longer use it, they prefer other equipment, etc. But absolutely ask questions and, more importantly, give the equipment a thorough testing...including at different resistance levels and different inclines (if there is an incline feature).

The other thing you need to be careful about is how old the equipment is and what make/model, in order to determine whether you would be able to obtain parts to have it fixed if something did go wrong a year or so from now. For example, I had an old treadmill that worked very well, but then all of a sudden the incline stopped working. I was unable to get it fixed since the manufacturer is no longer in business and you can't get the necessary parts. As a result, I ended buying a new treadmill (mind you, it was about time, since my old one was at least 15 years old).

I bought a $1500 treadmill for $650 on cl that I really love. On some models of treadmills (and I believe ellipticals) there is away to check the total mileage/hours of use. There was on mine, so I was able to see that it was used as infrequently as the seller stated. Definitely try it out, and make sure you know what year it is for accurate price comparison. Sometimes people try to sell 10 year old treadmills for big bucks just because the new models of that brand are spendy. I'd say the most important thing I did was to research brands in advance.

Yeah - research the brand and look at the reviews for that particular model. I've bought a treadmill on craiglist in the past and used it like 3 times then sold it again on craiglist, haha. You can always come to their place just to check it out - you don't have to buy if you don't want to.