The value of a Beogram 8500, or any, is up to how much a person is willing to spend for any given condition.  £400 to me does not sound like a lot, especially if it is in working condition.  I see the 8500 going for £1,949.99 and £1,650.00, so if the one you see is in working condition it may be a bargain.  What would be a comfortable price for you? You have to be careful purchasing a turntable from eBay because if it is not packaged correctly it could arrive in pretty poor condition.  I've purchased a few players that arrived with parts broken that needed to be repaired after I received it.  I purchased an 8002 that was completely refurbish by the seller for $1500 without cartridge, and for me it was a bargain and I love it a lot!  Luckily the seller knew how to package it for shipping.

I do think those who are trying to sell Beogram 8500s for neat £2k are being a little optimistic - they have been up for sale for a while, certainly! Maybe £400 is reasonable.  It's only that I paid much less for my Beogram 3000 only last year, and you see 3300s and 3500s come up for less than £400 with a cartridge quite often, but I don't want either of those because they have the built in preamp. The advantage of the one I saw for £400 is that's it's quite local, so I could collect it. I'll think about it, thanks.  If anyone happens to have one for sale though, with or without cartridge, let me know.

Update - I made an offer to the £400 eBay seller for £325 and they accepted.  BOOM!