Beyond economic repair

[ewx]

How do you decide when something is beyond economic repair? A while back I bought a rather nice lens second-hand for £400; new it would cost £690 (maybe a bit less depending how much time I spent shopping around). Since then the AF motor has failed and I've now put it in for an estimate to repair it.

My current thinking is that £200 seems a sensible limit (being half what I actually paid for it and still keeping my total expenditure less than having bought it brand new in the first place). Any other views?

Comments

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Isn't this the sunk cost fallacy - essentially, the repair cost is a deal on a second-hand lens, and the fact that the deal involves returning your uselessish lens-shaped object is a minor detail. So the limit on the repair cost should be the most you'd be prepared to pay for a lens of this sort from eBay. And if it turns out you don't actually want the lens, if the repair costs less than that it's still worthwhile because that's the sum you'd get back selling the fixed lens on eBay.

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

IAWTP