To ask if you bought a second hand travel system/ pram, do you have any regrets?

[Gieenorg]

Me and DH are shortly expecting and were in 2 minds about purchasing a second hand travel system. We could afford a brand new one but we are both suckers at trying to find second hand bargains, including from charity shops/on vinted etc.

I dont really know much about prams in all honesty and wondered whether I could get real life experiences of buying a second one, whether they are usually robust enough to last through a few families or whether perhaps you purchased one and it was defective/worn and ended up a bit of a nuisance!

Any regrets?

Also, naive question by me, how long do your children tend to use the prams for? I would assume approx 3 years maybe?

(I imagine there would be some factorS to consider, I.e brand of pram/ how long the owners have had it for.. things we need to research and consider!)

I bought my Quinny from Ebay for £200 and it should have been well over a £1000, it was beautiful bright red and orange with deep memory foam seats. No regrets whatsoever, DD was in it for about a year before we scaled down to a smaller and more manageable Qunny Zapp. One of my mums colleagues then bought it from me for a small amount because her daughter wanted a 'proper' pram to push her dolls around the garden.

I wouldn't buy the car seat second hand for safety reasons but buying the first travel system makes sense financially and environmentally. You can often buy spare stickers etc on eBay or Etsy if you really need them and get new wheels / tyres if they look a bit rough. The rest of it can be washed or spot cleaned and you'll have it looking almost as good as new.

You could stick the difference on what you would have spent in a childs SIPP and invest in their future, the sooner you start the better.

I'm going to have to go against the grain here...

I was very much in the mindset of it being a waste to spend so much money on a brand new pram (even though we can afford it) and so bought a second hand fox 1 a couple of months before baby was born. It wasn't the colour I wanted but it was a real bargain for the condition.

Fast forward to baby arriving and every time I saw someone with the pram I actually wanted (a Fox 3 in green) I was just a bit gutted and so ended up buying a brand new one anyway as I decided life's too short to not have exactly what I want!

I sold the Fox 1 for about £80 less than I paid so didn't really lose out there.

Definitely get a second hand one, because whatever you get, you'll want/need something different in 6 months' time. I speak as an aged mother of 3 kids, 2 uni age and 1 age 4. There is no such thing as "one perfect pram/buggy" because what is good for a newborn is too bulky for an older baby. With the youngest we had a Babyjogger City GT, which was amazing, but we got a Yoyo Babyzen for a holiday when she was about 6 months and as she got older we just used that more and more as it was so convenient. Wouldn't have been ideal for a tiny baby though.

With my older DC I had a Silver Cross travel system which was great, but filled up the boot of the car! Got a Maclaren buggy when the oldest was 6 months and used that for both of them from that age onwards. If anything, the first one is the one to get second hand as you use the smaller/more lightweight one for longer.

Likewise for so many other bits of baby kit. We got a second hand Nuna travel cot on FB Marketplace for £30. Perfect condition. We've used it a handful of times. Those things are about £200 new. I'll probably sell it on Marketplace for the same price I got it for.

I bought a secondhand Bugaboo Bee for DD1 8 years ago and used it for 3.5 years for her and now using it for DD2. I bought a mix of second hand and new accessories for it (foot muff, baby cocoon, parasol, clips to fit a car seat on). We bought new car seats for each of them but other car seat brands fit. The handle adjustment mechanism broke but Bugaboo sell parts so we fixed it in a few minutes.

I couldn't of justified the cost of a Bugaboo new but this way we got a really good quality pushchair for less than half the price.

That's a good point too- I've had far nicer, and closer to what we needed at the time, from buying second hand. I wouldn't have had more than the travel system and then maybe a compact stroller if I'd had to buy new each time. There was no way I was going to pay new icandy prices even for PFB but for £60 I've got one that needed a bit of TLC and has been absolutely fab for what we need it to do at the moment, and it will be given away when we don't need it if it hasn't fallen to bits by then. But I still wouldn't have bought it new, I'd have made do and adapted things.

With my 13 and 11 year old I bought new buggy, nothing extravagant Hauck Apollo 4, served us well. Then bought Phil and Ted second hand on eBay, back then you didn't have marketplace or shpock, so getting second hand wasnt as easy as now. I'm in my third pregnancy and didn't want to spend thousand pounds for new travel system that will loose value as fast as car. Also didn't really want budget range, ended something that folds easily and is not too bulky for my porch to keep. I managed to get whole set of GB Maris in very good condition for £50 on shpock🙈. Everything in perfect working order, apart of few small scratches looks well looked after and to be honest car seat is way better than my cheap plastic Hauck one ...and even that was fine for us back then. I would definitely recommend second hand, let someone else pay premium for new one if they fancy.

We got a 2nd hand (barely used) Phil and Ted's pushchair when I was expecting my 2nd. The only regret was spending so much on a new bugaboo for DC1 when the 2nd hand p and t was so much better!

I got a secondhand Stokke v4 for my baby. I couldn’t justify spending so much on a pram.

I’ve gotten so many compliments on it and it suits us really well. It had a few scratches but other than that it was in great condition and I’ll sell it on again when I’m finished with it.

First DC I paid £80 for a lovely Cossatto travel system (not including car seat) for this one I'm pregnant with now, I looked at brand new & one day randomly Cossatto had a huge sale on a few weeks back & I managed to get a brand new travel system (again no car seat) but foot muff & a few other extras reduced from £600 to £200, including delivery! But if that hadn't have happened, I would have happily bought 2nd hand. Facebook Marketplace is great for finding them. It does make me laugh when I see people listing their 2nd/3rd hand Bugaboo prams for £500... I just think no one surely would pay £500 for second hand?! Maybe just me!

No regrets. Paid £100 and i get comments on what a nice pram it is! Its like new.

Second hand all the way, our travel system was bought from a colleague for £200, it was still available new for about £1,200 if you bought all the accessories she had. It folds very very small, so its also been great for going abroad as it fits most cabin overhead lockers.

I've bought everything second hand via fairs and FB marketplace (except car seat and personal hygiene items). Everything has been great so far - £200 for mamas and papas pram set with all accessories except car seat, we then paid £75 for a professional clean and its like new. We did look at new prams in shop to help decide what model and could have afforded it but the £800 price tag was just eye-watering and I personally didn't feel comfortable spending that kind of money with decent second hand options available.

Yes and no, but more no!!!

First pram we bought from eBay was rubbish, we persevered for a while before I bought a £60 uppababy vista. It is fantastic, did our first baby from a year till be was done, now DS2, 15 months uses it. A bolt has snapped, but we've ordered a replacement. The rest is still in great condition.

I also love the 2nd hand lightweight holiday buggy we have, £25 and its still on great condition too.

I reckon we've saved about £500, and that's taking into consideration the £150 we spent on the shit pram we bought initially.

I would go and try it out and inspect in person though, make sure it rolls OK, that was our problem with the first one!

I bought our travel system new for my eldest and it cost a fortune! It was great and I sused it again for my second, but if I was doing it again I would definitely buy second hand and save the money.

Car seats we have mostly bought new but I do have one I was given by a close friend so I knew it had never been in an accident. I would never buy one second hand unless I knew and trusted the previous owners as it's not worth the risk.