I wonder if anyone could give an idea about the price range of a LC-ion trap MS, a LC-single quadrupole and a LC-triple quadrupole MS? An ion trap can do MS/MS but a single quadruple can not. If you want to do MS/MS using quadrupole, you need a triple quad. If an ion trap is about a half price of a tripe guad., and you cannot afford to get two LC/MS, is it worth getting a LC-ion trap MS, rather than a single quad?

I would appreciate any comments. Thank you.

P.S. I posted this message under "LC/MS/MS Traps", but I did not get any responses, so I started a new conversation.

Rather than get caught up in the price, you should instead decide on what you need to do the job at hand. To help you determine this information, I recomend the following book: A Global View of LC/MS by Ross Willoughby, Ed Sheehan, and Sam Mitrovich. The book guides you through the LC/MS buying descision making process and is full of great information.

BTW - Price is dependant on many factors, your country, your company (your company might have a better discount with one vendor over another), your timing, your ablity to negoiate...

Thank you very much for a useful advice. I will check the book. The reason which I asked about a price range is that I though that a price is also one of important factors to decide which instrument to get, thought, as you say, it will end up an insignificant factor.

I think that MS/MS is very important for my application, because a lot of impurities interfere with the compounds which I want to detect, and MS/MS will be able to clean up the chromatogram. I though that, if an ion trap MS can do MS/MS and can buy it with a similar price to a single quad., it seems to be worthwhile getting an LC ion trap MS. Since I have not used an ion trap (I only have an experience with LC- a quad. MS), and I heard that an ion trap LC/MS needs more attention, I hesitate to look into an ion trap. But if I have an idea about the price, I thought that I would look into an ion trap in the first place. So, I am still interested in hearing a rough idea about the price. But, as you said, there are many more other important factors. Thanks again for your help.