How long would it take to exhaust the supply of gear in everyone's closet to the point that a normal person would consider it unsafe to use, or not functional? 6 months and we would use up the worlds gear supply in closets and need new stuff? 5 years? A decade?
It's a good idea in theory (basically a giant gear co-op) with problems in practical execution.
With shipping costs adding up from all the transactions at a certain point buying and then reselling used doesn't economically make sense. If you sell something, and then buy it used two years later, you're out the cost of shipping one way (presumably, if you can sell for the same price you can buy at). For you as a user, it didn't make sense for you to have sold it then, since you reduced the lifespan of the item (by letting someone else use it) and also paid for a round of shipping. You'd be better off "renting" the item to someone else, but that runs into issues with getting the item back (imagine some random stranger paying $80 to lease your tent for a season, and then never returning it). So there's a short-term gain in selling your gear, but a long-term loss (that could be avoided) if you buy the same (or similar) item later.
Basically, my philosophy is that if there's a good chance that I'll use a piece of gear some time in the future, I don't sell it.
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