The differences are enormous and to answer this question would take
many pages. Briefly let us look at some key differences. Aircraft price
guides are published, marketed, and distributed by book publishing companies.
The facts are, they do not appraise aircraft, they do not even gather or
generate their own data. Rather, they simply send out a questionnaire every
3 months to subscribers of their books and ask a few questions which at
best are very vague. From these questionnaires the book publishers generate
their data base.
An interesting point to consider is this. Nowhere on these questionnaires
do the price guide book publishers request information regarding:
 |
The aircraft's damage history. |
|
Engine or airframe modifications, if any. |
|
Make and model of installed avionics and if there were any Avionic upgrades.
|
|
Physical condition of the airframe including surface corrosion etc.
|
|
Inspection status of the aircraft. For example, the aircraft may have
been out of Annual for some period of time or/and there may be Airworthiness
Directives and/or mandatory Service Bulletins which have not been complied
with. |
|
Props and time since overhaul. |
|
Engine overhaul status. For example, was the engine field overhauled
to FAA overhaul service limits or overhauled to factory new limits or a
new engine. |
|
Condition of de-ice equipment, instrumentation and other systems and
components. |
It is truly a mystery how one could generate an accurate database
of aircraft values without a clue regarding the condition of the airframe,
make and model of avionics, damage history, airframe or engine modifications
and all of the other important value points listed above. The National Aircraft
Appraisers Association is the only organization in the world which considers
all of these factors in its database. Additionally, all of the information
the National Aircraft Appraisers Association uses is verified by its members
who have physically evaluated the aircraft and each Association member subscribes
to the same evaluation criteria while performing the appraisal. The end
result is an extremely accurate database that is verifiable. |
