Message Forums

Hi Jim.

          This is defo the wrong time of year to be buying a tent from a retailer if you are looking for a bargain, as an example I bought my tent from a retailer in November last year for £699 end of season clearance as they were not ranging it for the following season, this seasons price is £1335 for the exact same model no changes, as for Ebay this is probably the best time to buy, all those folk that bought last season, now deciding to get somthing bigger, or to get out of camping all together, in most cases the Ebay tents will be in very good condition, some never used, and example of this would be my Sons tent, a Vis a Vis 6 person Tesco tent, current shop price £85 we picked it for £15 and it had never even been out of the box!, my Son is using it down on the Cote d Azur this week! the only problem with buying of Ebay is that if you are looking to spend say £500 you may be close to what a retailer would charge for an end of season bargain, not to mention you would get the 12 months warranty, at the end of the day tent's are relativley cheap items in comparison to TT or Caravans and Motorhomes, even the big Tent names like De Waard and Karsten, although beyond my budget top out at 3K a pop, if I was you I would go for Ebay bargain say £250 tops, use that for this season, buy your WL7 in November, and sell your Ebay bargain next May. hope that helps.

Andy.

Hi Jim.

         I would imagine over 90% of all new tent sales are between February and August, so if you do buy from a retailer you won't be on your own, hanging on for end of season bargain is not even a sure bet either, if we have the promised heatwave this summer you can bet retailers will soon run out of stock this season, which I imagine most plan to do in anycase, remember last season was a washout for UK camping, so many dealer had loads of stock left over at the end of saeson, so some will have looked at the spread sheets and bought in less for this season especialy with the higher prices due to the Euro/Oil thing, take my local tent shop Winfields, a big Vango/Outwell seller some 55 tents on display, but not a single Polycotton tent, there last Outwell BL6 went for around £500 back in January (brand new in the bag not Ex-display) it was the last in stock from 2008, as they are not stocking the Polycotton's this season, too expensive they told me.

Andy.

Hi Jim.

          To be fair I don't always practice what I preach, who does?, at the end of March I decided I would try a Kithchen Tent for this season, and decided on the Cabanon PN20, quite compact, but in Cotton Canvas, anyway I chased after a couple on Ebay, with no luck, then I happend upon ABC Caravans, and got one brand new for £135 which was quite good as this season's RRP is a whopping £220, even the well used Ebay ones were going for around £50, although I got the last one from ABC as I guess they are dropping Cabanon Tents for this season. certainley looks that way from their web-site, although I have read some negative posts about ABC, I can only say that product service and price was all tip-top, seems that going into the actual shop is a different matter though.

Andy. 

Hi

We bought out Wolf Lake 7 from the Caravan Show at the NEC and paid £999.00 for the 2009 version.  The 2008 version does not have the 2 side poles which keep the tent taut.  This is the BEST tent we have ever owned.  We had the footprint for free, and the carpet at half price.  Our friends with luxury caravans come and drool over the space and the carpet!  I would deffinately buy another one in the future!

Hope this helps

Jackie

any good?

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/710-53481-19255-0/1?type=4&campid=5336267448&toolid=10001&customid=&mpre=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Outwell-Wolf-Lake-7-Tent_W0QQitemZ220414021999QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_SportsLeisure_HikingCamping_Tents_JN?hash=item220414021999&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Seems a lot of money at £600 for a second hand tent, that would have cost around £800 this time last year, even though it does include carpet/footprint, as for the seller quoting the full RRP, we all know that no one ever pays full RRP for a tent, as jim has already proved finding them today at £900 to £1000, I am amazed that the bidding has got as high as it has, but again it is easy to push the bid up to what you wan't, with the help of a friend, even if does mean you don't sell the item, but have to just pay a commision. at least one other seller on Ebay, did include a copy of thier receipt for a Biscaya 440 £990 current RRP is £1889!, not sure if that one has finished yet.

Quote: Originally posted by jackie h on 17/5/2009

---

The 2008 version does not have the 2 side poles which keep the tent taut. 

---

I'd ignore whoever told you that! AFAIK the 2008 and 2009 models are identical and they certainly both feature the horizontal 'brace' poles along both sides of the roofline! If anyone is looking to buy a WL7 and can find a 2008 model at 2008 prices I would bite their hand off!

to be honest i'd pay up to £700 for it on ebay

used twice is nothing (unlikely to have been used much more than that anyway)

plus as it's a collection you just take it back if there are any problems, it was sold as undamaged

saves £300