Hand an Avalanche for a year... Really liked that bow and it is a good shooter. Shot the Vapor once.. Not a bad bow for the money. You will need to add some dampening equipment most likely. While it doesn't happen on all of the bows some Darton models have a bit of hand shock. It is nothing major, IMO, and is something that you might not even notice untill you shoot a bow that has no handshock..

To me Dartons are a stiff pull. Smooth in that their is no giant hump to get over to get into the valley but there is good resistance throughout the draw cycle. While they are not speed burners they are plenty fast. My Avalanche was a great shooting bow when I did my part. I was looking at Hoyts, Mathews and a couple bowtechs when I bought ny Darton. But Finances were not what they needed to be for the more expensive bows and truth be told, when I picked up that Darton and shot my first 5 arrows out of it on a test I was sold.

Resale values.. Depends on how you do it. I sold mine for 80 bucks less than what i paid for it. The price went up about 100 bucks after I bought mine (I think the dealer got the first one on a promotional thing and sold it to me cheap). I was patient and waited and got what I wanted from that bow. I wouldn't count on this being the norm however.