Outdoor Play
Buy and sell trampolines, swing sets and kids’ bikes in Panama.
A garden trampoline, a Step2 playhouse with its slide, a water table for the patio: outdoor play kit is big, mostly plastic, lives outside and gets outgrown long before it wears out. That is why it turns up new in the box and pre-owned, usually when a family trades a house in Arraiján for an apartment with no room for a netted trampoline. Kids’ bikes and scooters sit one level down. With any of the larger pieces, the hours it spent in full sun tell you more about what is left of the plastic and the net than its age does.
Trampolines, playsets and slides measured against the space at home:
the ground you have decides more than the child’s age. A garden trampoline needs clear, level ground all round the net, not just room for the frame, while the small toddler kind with a handlebar fits in a living room but takes little weight. Plenty of children in San Francisco or Costa del Este grow up in towers whose social area already has swings and a slide, and for them the useful pieces are the small ones: a toddler slide, a water table, a sandbox with a lid. A full playset with swings, a climbing wall and a slide off a fort belongs to a house with a patio. A child who would rather ride than climb is better served by bikes for kids, chosen by wheel size, or scooters for kids, chosen by age and by whether the bar folds.
Step2 and Little Tikes plastic against cheaper moulded slides:
both brands mould their slides, forts and playhouses in thick, hollow plastic, which is why their pieces turn up second-hand and still sound after years outdoors. Cheaper unbranded ones use thinner plastic that flexes under an adult’s hand and cracks where the steps meet the slide. Metal swing sets are lighter and cost less, but they rust at the joints and need staking down, and wooden ones are the heaviest of all and want a level spot that drains. On a trampoline the net matters more than the brand: one that sits inside the springs keeps feet off them.
Garden trampolines new, and what the sun takes off a used one:
new, a netted garden trampoline of 8 to 10 feet costs around $200 to $350, and a branded plastic playset with swings and a slide runs to several hundred dollars. Second-hand, both lose value to the sun faster than to the years: a faded, stiff mat or net has to be replaced, and a buyer prices that in before anything else. The other discount is the move. Taking a trampoline or swing set down, loading it into a pickup and rebuilding it is an afternoon’s work, so one handed over already dismantled, bolts bagged, can ask more than one still standing in the garden.
How a slide, a net and a trampoline mat age in full sun:
UV does more harm to this kit than rough play does. Plastic that leaves a chalky film on your fingers is also turning brittle, so press hard on the slide surface and the edges of the steps, and look underneath, where cracks start. Rub a trampoline net between your fingers: if it feels stiff or splits, it is near the end. Look for holes in the mat near the springs, springs that have rusted or stretched longer than the rest, and rust at the welds and leg joints. Inflatables need a different test. Blow up a paddling pool or a bounce house and leave it a while, since sagging walls mean a slow leak. A home bounce house stands only while its blower runs, so make sure the blower comes with it and starts.
Taking a trampoline or swing set apart for the next family:
give the brand, the diameter or footprint and the age range on the label, and say whether it stood in sun or shade. Photograph the net, the mat next to the springs, the welds and any faded plastic in daylight, and add the model number so the buyer can find the manual. Say whether it is still assembled and whether you will help load it, because whoever comes will want to know if it fits in a pickup or needs a second trip. If you take it down before the sale, bag the bolts and springs by section and photograph each stage: someone rebuilding it on a patio in Chitré will lean on those pictures more than on anything else you write.