Buy tent at second hand store?

[Gabbie]

Have any of you ever bought a tent at a second hand store? We saw one the other day at a really good price and looked it over as best we could in the store. It 'looked' ok but we didn't get it because we couldn't really examine it real close and didn't want to get home and have some small little thing wrong with it that we didn't see. There were no returns.

 

[Lorax]

I would, but only after checking the stitching, seams and zippers, poles and shock cording. Even then, I know I'd have to do some routing tent maintenance like re-sealing the whole thing.

 

[oldsarge]

Personally I'd rather buy a tent new. If your are a resourceful individual and good with making repairs, you can take the chance. Some times seams that have separated or ripped can be a pain to fix, not to mention any other holes or missing pieces.

 

[ponderosa]

I would if it was a high quality tent. I'd rather have a high end, well-made tent from a second hand store than a brand new mediocre tent from a department store. If it's a fiberglass frame tent with a skimpy rain fly, I wouldn't bother.

 

[Grandpa]

For 3 bucks, took a chance on a pig in a poke piece of canvas in a duffle bag. Its a 10x14 wall tent, just like new, with floor, 5 ft sidewalls. but no poles. For that, I can make the poles.

 

[catspa]

Heh, heh. Early this summer, my camping buddy bought a 5 dollar tent at a rummage sale. It turned out to be a nice little nylon 2 person dome tent, stakes, fly, and poles intact, and we used it for a couple months until...

I bought a 5 dollar tent at a yard sale, a 8x10 Coleman cabin tent with big windows and plenty of room. So then we used mine for a while.

If a tent costs 100 bucks, I'd look it over pretty carefully. For 5 bucks, even if it turns out to be trashed, a couple evenings with the sewing machine will turn it into some stuff bags...

Parker

 

[Grandpa]

If a tent costs 100 bucks, I'd look it over pretty carefully. For 5 bucks, even if it turns out to be trashed, a couple evenings with the sewing machine will turn it into some stuff bags...Parker

I agree, we can always find uses for old tent material, even if it's only to cover the tomatoes in the fall.

 

[shane123]

No i always prefer to have new one as second hand could have some defect. As tent be very useful while the whole journey we need it. So prefer new one.

 

[Qweetzy]

Yeah, I would. If it's less than $20 and a good name brand tent, go for it. You can always let the kids set it up in the backyard during the summer, to play in. We had an old Army tent that we did this with, we had a blast!

 

[Lamebeaver]

I would, but only if they would allow me to set it up first. It would be fun, just from the perspective of the strange looks you'd get from the other shoppers.

 

[Joe S.]

I think I would steer clear if I was planning any serious tent camping. If it's for the kids in the back yard for summer night sleep overs, that would be different.

 

[RoyalAmbassador]

I found a nice 3 room 12x20 tent in a pawn shop. They wanted $75 for it I made an offer on it as it sat in the bag for $30 because of no return policy. I figured I can get that much use out of it for that kind of money. It had alum. exterior pole frame and what looked like a good fly, so I went for it. It turned out to be the best tent I have ever bought. We got about 8 years out of it before a major mishap with some visiting children. We still got great use out of the parts. I have never found a tent as good since