I almost never see Ketron boards and modules for sale on eBay or here on Synthzone. Is there ANOTHER Ketron site somewhere that I don't know about, with an active Buy/Sell board?

I know they're rare (at least compared to Yamaha or Korg) but sooner or later players want to upgrade or change brands. Where do they sell their gear??

Personally, I believe that the lack of huge re-sales on Ketron used gear is partly because most Ketron owners like, enjoy and keep their products. When new ideas or enhancements are released in updates and upgrades, Ketron chooses to implement these enhancements to existing products to thier maximum capacity before releasing a whole new product (hence the lifespan of thier products going as high as 8-9 years before being replaced by a new model all together).

A good example which supports the above statement is the recent introduction of the KETRON USB CARD READER AND AUDIO PLAYER - which not only replaces Floppy drives in the Ketron X, SD and XD series keyboards and modules, but now ofers the playback capability of AUDIO (Mp3 and Wave) files too along side Midifiles. The capability to now read USB thumb drives and SD cards in these products (no more floppy drives nor PC data tranfer cables needed) is now standard (if you purchase a new SD5, SD3, Midjay Plus ...etc today). Some may say this is a small upgrade, but when you consider the fact that the X1 (an almost 14+ year old keyboard) now has the capability to play back audio files PLUS use USB sticks and SD cards for data storage (you ask yourself which other manufacturer has offered such an upgrade to a 14+ year old piece of gear), you will then begin to better undertand why these instruments are generally not that easy to find being re-sold.

This in general seems to be the European marketting approach (which eventually means less sales as many hold on to what they have) - such as BMW, Mercedes ...etc. The Japanese/Asian apporach is quit different (better for the company really, but harder on the end-user's wallet). New ideas (small increments) generally find themselves in new products all together ... in 8 years, you will probably see 2 model Toyota Camrys but only 1 model BMW 540, so Toyota would have sold twice as many Camrys as BMW (average ofcouse as price points and other factors play a roll too) in this time frame.

AJ