Must-Check Tips Before Buying a Used Tent
Key Points
- Verify Seller Trustworthiness: Know the seller or meet in public to ensure safety and avoid scams when buying a used tent.
- Check Tent’s Condition: Inspect the tent in person for hidden damage, missing parts, or unpleasant odors to avoid surprises later.
- Consider Warranty and Fit: Prioritize tents with active warranties and ensure they fit your group size for a hassle-free camping experience.
If you like camping, you probably need a tent. It’s sometimes fun to sleep out under the stars, but that means you’re also open to bugs or snakes crawling into your sleeping bag.
It’s much safer to get yourself a tent that will keep you safe from crawling critters, not to mention larger predators.
If you don’t have a lot of money right now, then maybe buying a used tent rather than a brand-new one makes the most sense to you.
You might even look into buying a used tent trailer at the same time you purchase your used tent.
If you’re thinking about buying a used tent, though, there are a few things you should always check for first. We’ll discuss them in detail now.
Can You Trust the Seller?
The first thing you need to think about when considering buying a used tent is whether you feel like you can trust the seller or not. Do you know them personally?
If you are purchasing a used tent from a close friend or your brother-in-law, then you can probably buy with a lot more confidence.
If you have any questions about the tent, then you can ask the seller and assume that they are telling the truth.
If you are buying a used tent from someone you don’t know, then it might still work out fine, but you should proceed with a lot more caution.
You will need to have a healthy skepticism about everything this person says. Maybe they’re honest, but perhaps they’re not.
Is the Seller Willing to Meet in a Public Place with People Around?
This second point of consideration is directly related to the first one.
If you are buying the used tent from someone who you know well and trust, then you should have no issues looking at the tent and picking it up in a private place.
If you don’t know the seller, though, then you should not go anywhere isolated with them.
If you don’t know the seller, then you should insist that they meet with you in a public place with lots of other people around.
This is a practice that you will want to follow when buying anything from a person you don’t know, not just tents.
You might also think about having a friend come with you to the sale. That makes it less likely that the seller will try something underhanded.
Is the Tent Still Under Warranty?
You should next ask the seller if the tent is still under warranty.
If you are buying a ten-year-old tent, and the seller doesn’t remember anything about the warranty, then this isn’t an area that will require a lot of your focus.
If the seller bought the tent a year ago, though, and they still have the original store receipt or other literature that states the tent is still under warranty, then you should be willing to pay a little more for it.
If anything goes wrong with the tent, then knowing that it is under warranty makes it more valuable.
The manufacturer might be willing to replace a part that breaks if the warranty is still applicable.
How Many People Does It Hold?
You should ask the seller how many people the tent can comfortably hold. If you are planning to go camping or to a music festival, and you know that you will have two other people with you, then you need to make sure all of you can fit in the tent before you buy it.
If you learn that the tent does not fit all of the people who you want to go with you on your next adventure, then that does not necessarily mean you won’t want to buy it.
Just know that you will need to bring multiple tents with you on your next excursion rather than just one.
Does the Tent Come with All the Original Equipment?
Next, you should ask the seller if the tent comes with all of its original equipment. If there is anything missing, then they should be willing to tell you that very explicitly.
It’s no good if you buy the tent thinking that all the original parts are there, but then, when you try to set it up for the first time, you see that some crucial element is missing.
If there are parts missing, the seller should be upfront about that.
Again, you don’t necessarily need to find a different tent if this is the case, but you should not be expected to pay as much.
If the seller is willing to let the tent go at a lower price, and then you can buy the missing parts yourself, then that might work out okay as well, assuming the manufacturer has not discontinued the missing parts.
What is the Brand?
You will want to ask about what brand the tent is. If you don’t know the brand, then you will probably want to look it up to see how reputable it is before you move forward with the purchase.
Just like any other niche, there are better-recognized tent brands and lesser known ones.
If you know the brand and understand that it’s one of the better ones on the market, then you will likely be willing to pay more for it.
Is There Anything Else Noteworthy About the Tent?
You may also have a situation where you see camera phone shots of the tent and everything about it looks okay, but then, when you see it in person, there appears to be something wrong.
For instance, maybe the tent has an unpleasant odor or there are some rips in the fabric that you couldn’t see in the pictures.
That’s why you need to inspect the tent very carefully in person before you buy it. If the tent is all rolled up in a bag, take it out and try to set it up to make sure there’s nothing wrong the seller was trying to conceal.
