I'm new to eBay and I bought 3 "vintage" recurve wood bows.  I monitored the bidding on about 70 bows and noted the winning bids.  I also did some research on the values of different manufacturers both new and used.  I figured that about half of the price of the bow new, would be a reasonble price for it used and in shootable condition.  This what I have learned regarding expected values for either buying or selling, what to look for and what to avoid.

VALUES: 

Bear -  If you can win the aution for less than $50.00 you got lucky.  Don't expect it to happen again any time soon.  You can reasonably expect the winning bid to be between $100 and $175.  Of course there are some that are well worth over $175 but this does not seem to be typical.  The most common bows available seem to be the GRIZZLY and the CUB.  Any take down models usually will go for the highest prices with many bidders.

Ben Pearson - Bottom  line, if you pay more than $90 for most Ben Pearson bows, you have over paid.  $50 is a reasonable expectation.  Don't get me wrong, they are fantastic bows and I prefer them over Bear, but for what ever reason they don't bring in a lot at auction.  I bought 2 of them and love both.  My sons and I have a lot of fun with them and they are made very well.  It's a fun bow to collect, are relatively inexpensive and there are plenty of them out there.  You can shoot them and have fun with them without worring about messing up a rare collectable item.  There are some rare models out there but so far I haven't seen any put up for auction.  The most common bows available seem to be the PUMA, COUGAR, COLT and the entire JET series.  Ben Pearson stated to put names on their bows in 1958.

If there are not any pictures that show the entire bow, there is probably a reason ie.  broken tip, cracks, or twisted limbs.  An easy way to reasonably evaluate if a bow has a twisted limb is to lay it on a flat surface (unstrung) with the tips pointing up.  Any twists will be obvious from this position.  Also most of the bows that I saw did not come with a string.  A great place to do some research on a bow is at www.archeryarchives.com

Hope this helps.