When the avionics supply chain tanked a few years ago, the used avionics market was turned upside down as buyers scrambled to find alternatives to new equipment on long backorders. It got so bad that shops often finished the wiring part of the install but didn’t have the boxes to slide into the connectors and deliver the aircraft. That drove prices of used current-production equipment higher than the list prices of new ones—if you could even find them.
Things are closer to normal now, but the takeaway is you won’t score any smoking deals on the latest equipment that everyone else wants. Moreover, most owners just aren’t going to remove newer equipment, so that means sifting through aging equipment and that’s where the risk comes in.