Garmin maps on a budget

There are two general kinds of maps available from Garmin:

Unlocked maps like Topo and MetroGuide. This page is about buying used copies of these.
Locked maps Like City Select, City Navigator, etc. No discussion here. The software is locked to the owner's hardware, so even if he could sell the software it may be useless to the buyer.

There are also free garmin-compatible maps out there if you are willing to do the legwork. Quality and coverage may vary.

general strategies for getting a good deal on used maps

make it easy for the seller to sell to you

Know what you want; do your homework ahead of time. If your email/PM gets there first but has a ton of newbie questions like "will it work with my [fill in the blank]" and the next PM is ready to paypal, who do you think gets to buy the mapset?

Be ready with the funds. Have the money ready in paypal or cash. If you have the funds waiting in your paypal account, say so. It costs less for the seller to receive a paypal balance than a paypal credit card payment.

Contact the seller in their preferred manner. If they want a PM, then PM. If they want an email, then email. This sounds simple but people dork it up all the time.

watch the geocaching.com garage sale forum

This is a good place to buy because some folks sell cheap, and you can get it right away without waiting for an auction to end. And someone who is an active poster is likely to be more careful than a non-geocaching ebay seller.

Watch the garage sale forum carefully. Make it your homepage or subscribe to the forum so you get emailed whenever a new thread is started.

eBay

Bookmark your searches and use them often. If you use a browser like firefox or maxthon you can store them in a folder then open all at once; boom. All your searches revealed unto you at once.
Auctions with mis-spelled titles may go for less.
Auctions with funky end times may go for less.
Use a sniping service like esnipe to keep from competing with emotionally-involved newbies who don't understand the concept of proxy bidding.

$Id: usedmaps.orb,v 1.3 2009/01/05 02:13:11 mouse Exp $