Why so many CPAP machines on craigslist?

Are these sellers dead? Fed up? Buying newer better ones?

Anyone know why so many are on there?

All of the above area reasons, however I think the primary reason is that many patients simply don't adapt to using the machine and give up. I expect some of the machines come from the estates of those patients.

Compliance is less than 60%

A large percentage of the people who start CPAP give up and quit doing it. Some people put it up in the closet, promising they'll try again later, and never do. They finally get around to selling it much later, so a lot of the units are old.

There is something with some people where insurance will do weight loss surgery to try and fix apnea, but they require the patient to try and "fail" CPAP first. These people end up doing CPAP for a while and then end up selling the machine.

There's a lot of obsolete, crappy CPAP machines on sale on Craigslist. They get a dumb, dataless CPAP you can buy online for $400, get a phony bill for $2500 by the DME, although insurance only pays $1000. Then after a few years, when the model is obsolete, they try to sell it for $800.

However, if you watch for a while, you can find some pretty good deals. You might have to watch for weeks or months to find what you want at a good price.

Another note; if cheap enough, even a brick is usable as a travel/emergency backup machine-
-but only if the price is consistent with the value of the machine.
Check the open box or lightly used machine prices on secondwindcpap.com, and KNOW what model you are looking at.
--another little thing; if the previous user was inside the Medicare rental period,
the machine may not belong to the seller, and someone may come after you for the machine-
-or try to get more money out of your pocket.

I have both bought and sold machines on Craigslist in the past. Back then it was almost always private owners who were selling for myriads of reasons. In recent years the trend is to see after-market machines posted by someone obviously in conjunction with a dealer, even when you select "private owner" in the search criteria. I'm not sure how they are bypassing the professional's obligations regarding prescriptions, but it sure seems they've found a loophole somewhere. I recently inquired about a mask on CL listed with a multitude of other posts by the same seller. Suspect they are affiliated in some way with a large sleep practice in the neighborhood listed. I asked if I could pick it up instead of shipping since I live 10 minutes from the listed community. No response. This made me wonder if they've truly found a legal loophole or are just hoping to not get caught. Maybe someone on here who is a dealer knows how this works.

I suspect a lot of those machines are walking out the back door of DMEs. And when you see a seller with a lot of the same masks to sell, they are invariably free clinical samples the manufacturers give DMEs so WE can try on masks to find a good fit. If your DME doesn't let you try on masks or limits it to very few, there's a good bet his samples are being sold out the back door. This is one reason CPAP supplies are so expensive. Manufacturers have to recoup their losses somewhere.

And people fail at CPAP in astonishing numbers, mostly because the professionals give them little or no help and they don't know to come here. So then they offload their machines.

Many transactions on CL take place in a neutral location--just for security's sake.
(Police reports of burglaries seem to spike right after garage sales.)
Thieves know lots of folks sell the old whatever right after they buy the new one.
OTOH, a power inverter is a useful tool if you are buying anything electrical from a seller in a parking lot;
just in case the item for sale does not work.
--if something sold is not really stolen but "something funny" is going on . . .
Just cover your butt.

chunkyfrog wrote:Many transactions on CL take place in a neutral location--just for security's sake.
(Police reports of burglaries seem to spike right after garage sales.)
Thieves know lots of folks sell the old whatever right after they buy the new one.
OTOH, a power inverter is a useful tool if you are buying anything electrical from a seller in a parking lot;
just in case the item for sale does not work.
--if something sold is not really stolen but "something funny" is going on . . .
Just cover your butt.

Interesting points. Never thought about the "after garage sale" perspective. I know on the safety issue, the seller needs to exercise caution especially if their item is of resale value. It may turn into a snatch-and-grab. For the purchaser, it could all be a robbery setup because they know you will be showing up with cash. Thankfully my transactions happened when CL was still fairly new and hadn't yet become a hotbed of criminal activity. Got a lot of household furnishings off CL. I used to go to people's homes alone to pick up items. Those days are gone.

chunkyfrog wrote:Many transactions on CL take place in a neutral location--just for security's sake.
(Police reports of burglaries seem to spike right after garage sales.)
Thieves know lots of folks sell the old whatever right after they buy the new one.
OTOH, a power inverter is a useful tool if you are buying anything electrical from a seller in a parking lot;
just in case the item for sale does not work.
--if something sold is not really stolen but "something funny" is going on . . .
Just cover your butt.

I prefer starbucks for my black market transactions... typically plenty of people around, and they've almost always got extension cords and outlets peppered around for the laptop crowd.

Great idea, PR!
Any very public place is good, as you never know how many buddies a baddie has.

palerider wrote:I prefer starbucks for my black market transactions... typically plenty of people around, and they've almost always got extension cords and outlets peppered around for the laptop crowd.

Just be sure to politely tell your nearest table mates in a calm friendly voice that you are testing a CPAP machine. You don't want anybody calling the 'bomb' squad or 911

Sir NoddinOff wrote:

palerider wrote:I prefer starbucks for my black market transactions... typically plenty of people around, and they've almost always got extension cords and outlets peppered around for the laptop crowd.

Just be sure to politely tell your nearest table mates in a calm friendly voice that you are testing a CPAP machine. You don't want anybody calling the 'bomb' squad or 911

*lol* about that, the last time I was doing it, buying a vpap adapt, the guy at the next table looked over and said "that's a great machine! I've got one of those" turned out he didn't have an adapt, just an elite... and had *never* (surprise surprise) been told he could do anything with it, or get data, or anything useful... "hush hush, very mysterious, doctor only secrets, don't touch".

I referred him to here, I don't know if he ever signed up though

I found a nice resmed s9 autoset for $250. We met at a Starbucks. Plenty of outlets, so I could check it out first.