The glider market is sophisticated, true. But that doesn't mean it's immune to fads, rumors, and conventional wisdom.

"Easy to sell" has several dimensions. At the right price, any glider can be sold. But there are more potential buyers for a type that's in greater demand (hence, a higher price). What you want is a below-market price on a popular glider. Good luck.

In the meantime, I feel about my ASW 24 like Mike Opitz does about his Discus 2, and I've owned mine for 24 years. The gel coat is showing its age now (though not terribly so) but it still goes with the rest of the Standard Class, is a delight to fly, has Gerhard Waibel's safety cockpit (why I bought it instead of the more popular first-generation Discus at the time), has not suffered the spar waves of some later Schleicher models, is easy to solo rig with the right equipment (I've been solo rigging since 1982), and is comfortable for my 6'3" (1.9m) frame, albeit with a few tweaks from the factory.

But because the initial version didn't have winglets, "everyone knows the '24 doesn't climb well." This was not helped by Schleicher's clever marketing for the ASW 28, which purported to "fix" the problem. In reality, the '24 climbs great with the right winglets. Mine are from Hank Nixon here in the U.S., which are now approved by Schleicher, as I understand it, but there are others.

But...when the time comes to sell it, there will be fewer potential buyers. It's the same challenge I faced when I sold my well-maintained, competition profiled/tuned LS-3. Everyone wanted an ASW 20. The performance was identical but the '20 was (is) almost a "cult" glider in the U.S. And a new buyer (the logical candidate for, at that time, a 13-year-old glider) was more interested in keeping up with his/her buddies, and not just in climb and glide.

Here's an off-the-wall idea. Decent performance, easy to fly, light weight, durable gel coat, large owner group, much lower investment than even a generation-old Standard Class ship: has anyone suggested a Libelle 201? I know Glasflugel has been out of business for decades (most of these gliders are 40 years old) but spares are available from Streifeneder. I flew one for years, including in our first 15M Nationals, and loved every minute of it. Many in the U.S. came in the Eberle "clamshell" trailers that made rigging a trivial task.

Chip Bearden