After climbing my first 5 pitch trad route with a friend's gear, I decided I'm hooked. Any advice on where I can find used Cams and Nuts so that I don't have to pay retail? Also, what are the most important questions I can ask other than have any of the pieces been fallen on?

I've got plenty of biners and slings, how much of a help is it to have the color coded neutrino biners? I find that I am more often than not looking at the cam instead of the biner on my harness or gear sling.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Mountain Projects for sale section is good. Not sure where you are, but in Denver area Wilderness Exchange is good, and in Boulder, Boulder Sports Recycler is alright. Don't put too much emphasis on gear history. My experience is that most of the time you can tell how rough people were by looking at them. Just pay attention to the slings/wires. As far as color coding I belive it's the only way to go. I have Camalots with Nutrinos. That's my 2 cents!

I picked up a couple used pieces on eBay, but you really have to search for something that's worth the time you spend looking for it. MP used gear is a much better resource.

Yup MP is the best I have a full rack of doubles in tcu's and mastercams(metolious) and just picked up 5 more friends. I got all of them off MP. Plus nuts and biners and tricams. And all sorts of other goodness. The folks here know their gear and give you honest reports on it.

ask about the history of the piece, and ask for photos.

look at the lobes of cams, try to see that the axels are straight and there are no dents or deformation of the lobes.

check to see that the slings are in good shape. stiff, fuzzy, dull colored slings probably need replacing.

nuts are pretty foolproof, as long as the cables are straight, no kinks and no broken wires.

slings and biners are cheap enough to buy new.

also, look through MP's dirtbag deals, you can find online retailers selling brand new gear for prices comparable to what people ask for used stuff on here, and new is best.

oh and i though colored neutrino's were a joke until i got some and now i'm totally a believer.

I normally wouldn't post a link to an ebay auction but this is a full rack of singles i'm selling.PM me if you have any questions.

www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Diamond-and-Metolius-Climbing-Cams-Fu>>>

color coded nuetrinos aren't necessary since the sling and lobes are usually colored, but they can a be a little nice. About 8 months ago there were rack packs of nuetrinos for sale online for about $4.50 a biner so getting colored nuetrinos for about the cheapest price of any wiregate made a lot of sense. I wouldn't pay an extra $2 per biner just for color.

Check place like Gear X.com....they have great prices especially on blem 'biners! Mountain Gear has specials too on dome 'biners when you buy 10 as does Campmor as well. EMS has been having a lot of 20% off sales as well...

Usually you can find used gear at the base of easy/moderate routes after a busy weekend. Also on the route after a storm.

Buying new carabiners is a cheap way to update your rack a little. The rack pack is kind of nice, but when you rack your gear on your harness, you usually know which pieces are where. As you lead more and more, you'll get better at rack management. I would say then just go for some inexpensive new biners instead, but the rack pack is actually pretty cheap. Have a blast man, climb safe.

+1 for the color coded neutrinos. Not necessary of course, but I love them (and I initially disliked the idea), so if you need to buy some biners anyway it might be worth it to spend a few extra bucks. Nice thing too is you can use your REI 20% coupon on the pack..

As others have said, nuts are easiest to assess and they go up for sale on MP quite a bit, I would at least get those used. Bentgate.com has a 20% off sale on camalots either once or twice a year, which is pretty good, 48 a piece up to the #2 I think. I'm in CA so I didn't have to pay sales tax, and they had free shipping if you order over $100.

Also, I wanted to like using a gear sling, but didn't and never use it. You can probably save yourself some money by not buying one. I've never climbed with anyone who uses one (although I haven't climbed with that many people, so take that with a grain of salt).

Enjoy man! Just don't buy anything you don't feel 100% on. You want to be confident in the gear you put in, you don't need some unknown wear eating at the back of your mind while your leading.

Mountaingear.com has 25% off cams right now, pretty good deal.

www.mountaingear.com/webstore/Climbing/Rock-climbing-Gear/Cl>>>

"ffffuuuuu I wish I had known this earlier in the month. Any idea how long it will last?"

2 weeks according to their flyer...