What a used board costs in Bali

Nobody can quote you a price for a used board without seeing it, and any page that does is guessing. What this one can give you is where boards cluster, worked out from the used boards listed on SurfPoint in Bali, and what pushes one to the top or the bottom of its band. Prices are in rupiah first, because rupiah is what changes hands at the meeting, with dollars beside them.

The same board gets advertised both ways. A seller who has been here a while thinks in rupiah and one who arrived last month thinks in dollars, so compare in one currency before you decide a board is cheap.

Posts in the Facebook groups and on WhatsApp use a shorthand that reads oddly the first time. The rule behind all of it is that Indonesian writes thousands with a dot and decimals with a comma, the other way round from English.

Two more words you will meet. Nego, or bisa nego, means the price is open to an offer. Nett, or harga pas, means it is not.

Water in the foam

This is the one that takes a board to nearly nothing. A waterlogged board is heavy, it will not dry out, and the repair is not economic. Everything else on this list is a discount. This is a write-off.

Repairs, and who did them

A tidy repair that is sealed, sanded flat and dry costs a board very little. A lump of resin with no glass under it costs a lot, because the buyer is pricing in doing it again properly. A board that has been snapped and rejoined sells for a fraction of one that has not, however well the join was done.

Whether the volume is known

A board with the litres printed on the stringer sells faster and higher than the same board without, because the buyer can filter for it and does not have to take a risk on fit. This is the cheapest thing a seller can fix and most do not.

Brand, and whether the model is still made

A current model from a brand people know holds value. A discontinued model from the same brand does not, even when it is the better board, because fewer buyers can look it up. Soft tops hold almost nothing regardless.

Season

Boards get cheap when people leave. There are more sellers than buyers at the end of a long stay, and a seller with a flight booked has a deadline you do not have.

Boards are shaped in Indonesia, and several brands people know run production here. That compresses the gap between a used board and a new one more than it is compressed at home, and it means the used price has a floor: nobody pays 80 per cent of new for a board with two repairs in it when the shaper is a half hour away.

So the case for used is strongest in the middle of the range and weakest at the bottom. At the cheap end a new soft top from a shop costs little more than a beaten one from a stranger and comes without the water in it. At the top end a custom order gets you the volume you actually want rather than the volume that happened to be for sale.

The case for used is strongest when you want a specific board that is no longer made, when you want to spend one week's money rather than one month's, or when you are going to sell it again in three months. In that last case the used board is close to free: you lose the difference between what you paid and what you sell it for, and on a fairly priced board that difference is small. What the big brands charge new, from their own shops, is in the used surfboard price guide.

• Look at what comparable boards are listed at on this site, filtered to the same volume and shape. That is the only comparison that controls for fit.
• Price the repairs you can see. A ding shop quote is a real number and it is the strongest argument you have.
• Decide what you would sell it for in three months. If that number is close to what you are about to pay, the board is cheap.
• Do not negotiate before you have inspected it. A price agreed over WhatsApp is a price agreed on photographs.