ETC equipment loaners for sale?

You have to be careful with what you buy on ebay. Janky...

It's not sexy but their listing guarantees it to be in working order in spite of not being able to test it. I.e. one way or another you're getting a refund if it doesn't work so long as you are prudent in testing it as soon as it shows up on your doorstep. Also comes from a reputable seller. Anyone buying old Unison processors on eBay at this point shouldn't have high hopes though of getting something that'll live a long and fruitful life.

Of course for $280 Buy It Now you can have an entire Unison rack incl. electronics that appear to be in much better shape.

MNicolai said:

It's not sexy but their listing guarantees it to be in working order in spite of not being able to test it.

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Working or not is less of a concern than the fact that it's basically stolen property being offered for sale. ETC maintains an inventory of loaner equipment to help keep systems up and running when something has to be sent in for repair. Once the repair is finished and returned to the customer, the loaner is supposed to be returned to ETC. The obvious "loaner" spray paint is to help keep people from "forgetting" to return it.

Perhaps @starksk might be interested in looking into the provenance of this particular unit:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ETC-Unison...490239&hash=item287e2d0f5c:g:rCYAAOSwMiJc2chX

ETC sells/donates off their loaner equipment from time to time. Dealers may opt to have their own loaner equipment in stock to serve their local customers. That could just be a processor that a dealer tore out of a project and decided it was worth more to hang on to and turn into their own loaner equipment than to resell used.

If someone didn't return loaner equipment that they were supposed to, I'm sure they were billed accordingly.

Thanks for the heads up.

As a general rule, ETC does not sell our loaner units. However there are exceptions to every rule and we are aware of the history of this unit. As with every online auction, it is good to exercise a healthy amount of caution before purchase and if you are concerned about the history of an ETC product listed, please give ETC a call with the serial number and we can assist with questions.

Reminds me of the time I bought two Hog III's from a lakeside storage unit for $500 each. Each had a PSAV barcode, so I called the before parting with any cash. They confirmed that the consoles had been auctioned off and were fair game, so I bought them and turned a healthy profit.

Was a weird situation, though. The entire unit was full of old PSAV gear and the seller apparently knew what they were worth - but didn't want that much for them. Those consoles paid for my Associates degree...

So @starksk -- what is the history of this unit?

"Exceptions to rule" usually means big client. Still would not consider purchasing such a unit even if blessed by ETC.

I've definitely bought, sold and exchanged my fair share of PSAV equipment. I've checked a bunch of times with the local branches and they've said that equipment gets cycled through all the time and someone should be better at removing stickers.
Sometimes, as was told to me, equipment had to be listed as "purged" vs sold or retired because of inventory purposes, even when it was way past its useful lifetime, in order for that branch to be able to purchase replacements. If it was listed as retired then another location had the ability or obligation to acquire it vs purchasing something new that was actually useful.
This was a huge deal with slews of 720p monitors needing to be replaced with 1080p displays for compatibility purposes and a Hog2 that didn't work, couldn't be repaired, but a huge Marriott that had dozens of moving lights and as far as corporate was concerned, they had a console to control it. Once Hog2 was "purged", DOO was able to purchase a Grand MA.

Mac Hosehead said:

"Exceptions to rule" usually means big client. Still would not consider purchasing such a unit even if blessed by ETC.

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I’d bet it’s exactly what it looks like, a loaner unit that was owned by one of the authorized service centers. I’d bet they have zero use for it and haven’t sent it out in a decades. I can’t think it’s anything but a functional unit, thus they (with ETC’s knowledge) are selling it. Somebody, somewhere who cannot afford a Paradigm upgrade and that has multiple ER4 units in use, might want this as backup. Lots of hotels and conference centers as example,

Just looks bad. ETC should repurchase it and put it back in their loaner stock from where it came.

Not for ER4, this module is for DR racks.

Mac Hosehead said:

Just looks bad. ETC should repurchase it and put it back in their loaner stock from where it came.

Not for ER4, this module is for DR racks.

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I would guess that ETC knows their needs a lot better that we do. What's the point of buying it if they know they won't need it? Wouldn't it be better off in the hands of some venue that will put it to use? And who cares if it says loaner? If I needed one then I know I sure as hell wouldn't care in the least as long as I knew it wasn't stolen. And if you really cared you could probably get that label off, or just paint back over it.

I know someone who has a company that he called White Stripe Lighting. He called it that way because if he needed to rent gear for a production, he would put a piece of white tape over any stickers or markings that identified the rental source. That might have to suffice in this case. Another use for gaff tape.

I don't understand why you think it looks bad. Reselling used equipment is an entire subset of this industry. Almost all of the ETC Desire equipment on eBay is from huge auctions of theme parks and cruise lines that are doing a full replacement after 5-7 years and the equipment's in great shape. Quite frankly, if I see something that's LOANER equipment that tells me it's probably spent most of its time in a box. Maybe got beat up in extra shipping and has been in and out of racks more often than normal but LOANER equipment is common. Regardless, for $99 if you get a year out of it before it croaks that's a steal.

My previous AV shop had a ton of miscellaneous Crestron/Biamp/QSC/EAW/Shure/Crown/BSS equipment that was our own loaner inventory. All of those manufacturers have great support and most offer advance replacement programs but if someone calls us on a Friday afternoon and the show's at 7p, we need to get something online with whatever we have. If that means going on the Crestron Facebook group and asking, "I need a Pro3 in Milwaukee this afternoon. Will pay extra for you to deliver to our shop", then that's the bat signal we would send up. Most of the equipment in that inventory hasn't been used more than 10 days total and are either eBay specials or were scratch and dent equipment we couldn't put into a new install. Tried selling some of it off at one point but after a few years on a shelf most of it costs more to ship than the equipment is worth. Wasn't uncommon for a church or school to call us up trying to do something with no money and we would do their project for cheap and burn up some of our loaner stock. Not a lot of profit but it was a reliable way to fill gaps in the project calendar and fostered good relationships.

Mac Hosehead said:

I know someone who has a company that he called White Stripe Lighting. He called it that way because if he needed to rent gear for a production, he would put a piece of white tape over any stickers or markings that identified the rental source. That might have to suffice in this case. Another use for gaff tape.

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Cross-rentals are common. I don't care if the equipment comes from 3 different vendors so long as I only have to do paperwork with 1 and the equipment is functional when it shows up. If it's not functional I only want to deal with that 1 person. I'm surprised anyone even bothers to cover it up. When certain times of the year come around it's next to impossible to find 24 wireless mic's from the same vendor unless you book 6 months in advance. I'll pay a little extra so someone else does all the work to find everything, book it, and give me one location for pick-up and drop-off.