There's an "interesting" $5400 buy-it-now on eBay at the minute. It's described as "Agilent 3458A 8.5 digit Multimeter CALIBRATED".
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Agilent-3458A-8-5-Digit-Multimeter-CALIBRATED/ 232593692038 When one reads the description, one can see it is an HP (not Agilent) 3458A, that was sent to Keysight for calibration, but *failed* on the 3 V 4 MHz AC voltage. Apparently it passed on everything else. Personally I would sell that as "spares or repair" rather than "used" and "CALIBRATED", but different people have different ideas of what is good or not. Out of interest, I asked the seller what Keysight had quoted to repair this. He said 2100 Euros, (which about $2600 USD or £1900 GBP). So to get it in shape, it is not exactly peanuts. The seller said to me that he has a *lot* of experience of 3458As, and knows that a used one has less than a 50% chance of passing a Keysight calibration. I wonder if that's the experience of others that have bought used 3458As and sent them to Keysight. If true, and I ever buy a 3458A, I think I would only buy one on the condition that the seller sends it to Keysight, I pay the calibration cost, but if it fails, I get a full refund, including the calibration cost. I can understand a meter going out of spec over time, but if it can't be sorted out without thousands of dollars spent on it, then it is not such a good buy. But are more than 50% of 3458As like this? Dave Dr David Kirkby Ph.D C.Eng MIET Kirkby Microwave Ltd Registered office: Stokes Hall Lodge, Burnham Rd, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 6DT, United Kingdom Registered in England and Wales as company number 08914892 http://www.kirkbymicrowave.co.uk/ Tel 01621'680100 / +44 1621-680100 _______________________________________________ volt-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volt-nuts and follow the instructions there.
