Questions about pricing and function of Celestron 4050 optical microscope

In My Humble Opinion
1

I picked up one of these this evening in a local thrift, Seems to be in near new cosmetic condition and to be in perfect operational condition based on my playing with a slide that was clipped the in the stage section. It’s a metal framed scope and seems to very well built. I don’t know if it’s lab quality, but it’s as good as anything I saw in high school re quality level. Optics are sharp as a tack.

In looking at eBay they surprisingly show no sales listed or completed for this unit which I can reference. The new ‘on sale’ price is claimed to be 290. and a person has a used one in (claimed) excellent condition for 150 on Amazon.
PDF manual here
I have three questions.

Almost all the Celestron scopes on eBay are digital. Is this an old school scope worth nothing?

What should this thing be minimally listed for on eBay to generate some buyer interest?

I got it cheap because it looked like there was a crack in the eyepiece lens, but on further examination this appears to be some some kind of very fine steel needle with the point in the center of the field of view that can be rotated 360 degrees. What is this used for?

2

The needle in the eyepiece functions as a pointer - you use it to keep the object of interest in the center of the field of view as you go from low to high magnification. It also allows you to point out features to someone else (“hey, what’s that blob at the end of the pointer?”).
Not being a “digital” scope doesn’t make it obsolete by any means: all you need to make it digital is to attach a camera to the eyepiece. This can be done with a digicam and an adapter, or with a camera/eyepiece combination specifically made for this purpose. The optics of the scope itself are the same, it’s just a matter of swapping out eyepieces. Personally I prefer looking through the eyepiece over a computer screen.
That said, I have no idea as to pricing. Maybe start it at $100-125? I’m pretty far removed from the cheaper end of the microscope market - all I know is that the ones I used in grad school were more expensive than I was.

3

Thanks!