Dan Thompson wrote:
Another way to look at things: it is better to buy a plane with perfectly
repaired damage history. If there is any discount off the price, you get
that going in. Then if you ding up and repair the plane while you own it,
it does not go down in value. In fact, since "time since repair" seems to
be the test of whether the damage should be a factor, the value goes up the
whole time you own the plane.

I forgot what sort of plane we're talking about here. If it's unusual, or
really old, damage history isn't such a big deal. You can always try to
use it as a negotiating point, but the seller is free to tell you to take
a hike. At the other end, the ubiquitous old 172 is also less phased by
damage as most of these come and go into the training pool and end up being
ragged out pretty bad even if not "damaged" formally.

The place it hurts you value wise is in the cross-country four+ places (Arrows,
later Bonanzas, 210's....)