Used Climbing Gear

Was hoping someone could shine some light on why there is so much preowned new climbing gear listed for sale in the for sale forum. I look through it and it has me curious about why do they have so much new gear. The minute I get something new or even new to me haha I must go place it ASAP!!!

pro-deal/bro-deal resellers.  Overexcited trad dads with too much credit and an amazon prime account.  Overexcited sport climbers that are "gonna trad someday".  

I have a lot of new or nearly new gear posted here.

It’s mostly due to missing return windows or just not feeling honest about returning lightly used items that I know will be thrown in the trash. 

Chris C. wrote: I have a lot of new or nearly new gear posted here.

It’s mostly due to missing return windows or just not feeling honest about returning lightly used items that I know will be thrown in the trash. 

What stores take lightly used climbing gear back?  I thought even REI who has a pretty liberal return policy wont take gear back. 

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

What stores take lightly used climbing gear back?  I thought even REI who has a pretty liberal return policy wont take gear back. 

REI will take it back, at least in person at their Flagship Store. I also just hate when people take advantage of good return policies in general, so I try to not be that guy.  I rather take a bit of the hit and see somebody get a good deal here.  Before I had good consistent income I used to buy all my passion-stuff off forums and eBay and I still remember how much I appreciated it. There is a lot of assumption that sellers are trying to profit off sales, maybe it is the case, but I'd like to think that it's not all the case!

Some of it is probably also gifts, and certain types of gear are non-returnable.
But yeah, mostly stuff bought for resale after a clearance or pro-deal.  
Probably also some that employees of places that can get wholesale are marking up and re-selling.

Dark-horse occasions also include things acquired in larger packages at charity event auctions or as raffle prizes (IE Access Fund or an LCO there of, AAC, or even at climbing comps) which are not needed or wanted.  I've resold some stuff like that which I didn't personally need.  Then I donate that $ back to the charity as well.
IE: Presently I have a crash pad that I got after throwing $100 in a raffle hoping to get new shoes at a BCC event.  I got a helmet and a rope too, but gave the helmet to someone who said that they'd just retired theirs and needed one, and gave the rope to someone who'd volunteered a ton of hours of trail work for the BCC.  I'll probably sell the crashpad to get me $100 back.
What's the point?  
Well, I guess that it isn't always nefarious.

I figure a lot of it is - Shoes: bought 'em too small. Camming units: salivating that saving half an ounce is going to get them leading at the next level. Ice gear: didn't like the cold. And sadly, yes unscrupulous folks flip pro deal gear. Which is SO clearly against the terms of the deal.

Well, it's not just climbing. Go search for skiing, cycling gear and you'll find similar stuff.

People buy over-expensive, too fancy for their personal needs crap all the time in most activities.

Part of it is just legit turnover that being said - I have a bunch of powercam in my trad rack that I still use, but over time I'd be looking into replacing those with Totems & BDs which I just overall prefer in most cases. In that case I started with cheaper stuff & am just upgrading as I go...