whats it worth

[Ernie Martin]

I just used the Vref service for a friend's Twin AeroCommander and it works quite well. If you're a member of AOPA it's a free online service that is easy and comprehensive. This will give you only a retail value -- defined roughly as the price a dealer or broker will sell it for. But if you call AOPA and speak with one of their reps they will do it with you over the phone and give you the trade-in value -- defined roughly as the wholesale price. Somewhere near the middle of those two values is where a private sale should be. The rep can give you another important factor not available on the online calculator: the trend. This helps further define where you should be in a private sale -- closer to wholesale if the trend is down, closer to retail if it's up.

Ernie