If the buyer is still leaning toward purchasing used equipment, thesales rep can play his trump card: He can say his company will not beable to provide support. That happened to Tim DuBose, who ownsRiverside Technology Group in Riverside, Calif. He was selling $1.6million worth of high-end Sun servers to a large company, but says thebuyer dropped out after Sun said it could not support them.

Brokers say that nine out of 10 times the support ploy is a bluff. Butit's a good one. No one wants unsupported gear. Still, CIOs andbrokers say that if the buyer calls the bluff, the sales reps willstart trying to sell services, or they'll cut the price onnew gear.

Ultimately, that kind of aggressive selling is myopic, argues EricJohnson, associate professor at the Tuck School of Business atDartmouth University in Hanover, N.H. Vendors may grab back somebusiness in the short term, but already third-party companies arestepping up to offer alternative maintenance contracts, and somebrokers are getting into the support business.