UKC

Would it be imprudent to buy a secondhand rope from someone, in-person, if it's new in the packaging (plastic outside, uncut zip tie)?

I know buying used rope is a no-no, but would this be considered "used?"

It's a Mammut Supersafe 10.2 x 70m Dry.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

https://harrisburg.craigslist.org/spo/d/harrisburg-mammut-supersafe-102-mm-...

What's the manufacturing date code? Personally i'd be OK with that as long as they're not ancient. Seems like they could do them for a better price though

I disagree.  Buying a used rope from someone you do not trust is a no-no.

Why is somebody selling multiple identical ropes still in their original packaging?  That looks highly suspicious to me.  More than anything it looks like the ropes have been stolen.  Who is this person, what's the story?

They look stolen? 

Come on then Columbo, how can you tell?

Are they US dollars?

You'll get a new rope in a shop for that price. 

I can't tell they are stolen, I'm merely saying that ad looks fishy as f*ck to me.  Not unlike the people you occasionally see selling second hand climbing kit on ebay who clearly don't quite know what it is or understand how it's used.

Buying one brand new rope, never getting around to using it and selling it again I can see.  It's a bit unusual but it happens.  Three of them?  You don't think that's a bit weird?

I would much rather buy a 'used' second hand rope from someone I trust to tell me it's history honestly than a 'new' rope still in its wrapper from someone I don't. (Indeed I have done, on here, in the past.)

Unusual yes, I'll give you that.  But I wouldn't go as far as to say they "look stolen".  There could be all sorts of explanations as to why somebody has ended up with three ropes they never used.

I don't think it looks that fishy - the description below lists some main points and shows some understanding of what these are.  It also has some grammatical errors so I doubt it's been cut n pasted from a manufacturers site.

Would I buy them?  No.  Not cheap enough to tempt me...

If I was thinking about buying them, I'd contact the seller and ask then how they ended up with three brand new ropes.  If they weren't able to give a reasonable sounding explanation, or if anything seemed a off at all I'd move on.

The advert is in the USA...

Off the top of my head, I can't think of one.

Could be all sorts...

Running some kind of outdoorsy kind of business.  Got a bulk deal on ropes, bought 10, never used 3 of them.  Business now closed due to Covid.

Shop going out of business, ropes for sale for next to nothing, bought three with the intention of making a profit selling them online.

There's two, which I thought up as I typed.  Neither beyond the realms of possibility?

I would be interested to know how they came about them, sure... But to say they look stolen is stretching it a bit.  

I expect they are okay, they look like they are in factory packaging. I would look to confirm that and date of manufacture. You could always ask about circumstances of sale.

However, I would not buy them myself, because the result of a rope failure could be life changing, so I would insist on a purchase i had total confidence in.  A few $$ would not change that.

If I remember correctly Mammut stopped manufacturing their ropes in Switzerland in 2016, so it is at least five years old.

That's a big help to know. I was wondering the same thing. It's probably best not to.

Does anyone know of a comparable rope for a similar price range? Maybe something along the line of Mammut's crag workhorse rope? 

He said he was supposed to go on a big trip but never got around to it because of a personal injury plus COVID restrictions.

I assume you are in the States - in which case you can get a Mammut Crag Classic 70m from Backcountry.com for $189.95.

It's 9.5mm which is plenty thick nowadays, unless you are planning to jumar up El Cap.

I've been climbing on 8.7 mm for the last 6 years.

Funnily enough that was another potential reason I thought of after I posted.  

I got two dislikes for that, am I wrong... or would you prefer some Trump style 'alternative facts'?

Yeah, a bit wierd to dislike you helpful post but not point out why if they think you are wrong.

That looks like a great option... do you know if it's dry-treated?

The dry treated one is about another $60 I think. I don't bother with dry treated nowadays for cragging and have another dry rope for alpine stuff 

About 8 years I noticed someone on that auction site was selling one or two ice axes and a pair of crampons brand new in packaging, made by the long-gone Mountain Technology company (Glencoe). They would sell. Then another listing would come up from the seller, for similar or the same. Totally legitimate, they had simply bought a lot of the bankrupt stuff way back when, and were slowly bleeding it out for regular “trickle” income. Maybe they thought that listing it all at once would raise unwarranted suspicions. Anyway I got some awesome “brand new” C3 crampons with monopoint option, for £30

Reminds of one of my favourite personal ads I ever saw on a supermarket board (I never see these crazy ones now)

“For sale. Three trombones. Top quality” and then just the phone number.

Exactly. 

There was an advert for 76 trombones some years back...

Seems legit.  Somebody probably just bought them for an extended brass band holiday that subsequently fell through.  Happens all the time.  Exactly the same way a climber wouldn't dream of setting off on a trip without three identical brand new 70m single ropes. 

Then there was the bloke on ebay selling 'army surplus' Petzl harnesses a few years back, remember that?  He'd sold dozens of them, and it turned out they'd been chopped and chucked in a skip on a French army base somewhere, fished out and sewn together again on a domestic sewing machine.

Erm...
Link: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/dangerous_harnesses_on_ebay-637...
 

It must be alright it says super safe on the label 

Yes I remember that one but to be honest my brain has gone into "Ron Manager" nostalgia mode about favourite supermarket personal ads. I had photos of them, but they were taken on a Nokia Windows phone that I lost, and I seem unable to find whatever Microsoft Account should be hosting them. 
Most peculiar one was a woman who desperately needed Italian lessons because her entire family had disappeared to Italy and she wanted to find them. Sounds likes the makings of a bad melodrama from the Hallmark film studio. 

And "Wanted - shed. URGENT"

Yeah happens all the time in the with car parts - once a model gets discontinued (especially a classic) someone buys up as much of the unused stock parts they can then sell them off bit by bit to people who need them as "new old stock".  Often a buyer will specialise in just one make or model, and just trickling the parts onto the market like that ensure they hold their value. 

I remember that - I bagged a few of the cornets they were flogging in the follow up ad