There was a joke that went "The only thing that holds its resale value better than electronics test equipment is a diesel electric locomotive." I'm not sure how

There was a joke that went "The only thing that holds its resale value better than electronics test equipment is a diesel electric locomotive." I'm not sure how true that is but the commonality is that they can be maintained to do the same job they were designed to do, as well as they did it when they were sold. The only reason they go down in value is because the jobs aren't there for them any more. Interestingly the evolution of chips has been much harder on "old" test equipment as equivalents can be made one, two, and sometimes three orders of magnitude more cheaply. As a result a "new" thing which has the same capability but usually takes up much less space and power, can do the job of the "old" thing just as well, and then the old thing loses its value.