I have a friend who was recently widowed, and she has asked me for input on how to best sell off her husband's machine shop equipment. I am looking for some advice from you on what might get her the best return. She is in the Kansas City area. Some options I have thought of are:
- Ads in the newspaper - problem is she doesn't know the fair market value of items
- Ebay - I don't know
- Find a broker (if there is such a thing) and if there is how does one find one who would be fair to her.
- ?
There are three Bridgeports, a couple of sinker EDM's, lathe, several grinders, other mills, boom? drill press, monster granite table, lots of tooling and more. I have stuck some pictures here:
There are Machinery Auction companys around the country that do everything for you. You just have to pay them a % of what you make. can be a hit or miss thing though. You can make allot of money or lose money.
Looks like a nice shop! A local auction for at least the big stuff would likely be the best bet. If one wants to invest the time, I am convinced ebay will result in higher prices for the smaller, more easily shipped items.
I don't know about your area but in my area (Charlotte, NC) machine shop auctions have become quite common so nothing brings very much money. There are lots of people that don't go to auctions though so they don't realize that and prices in the newspaper classifieds are usually quite a bit higher.
eBay can usually get you the best price but if you're like me shipping larger stuff is out of the question and the one time I tried selling something "local only" via eBay I didn't do so well.
What you might want to do is watch eBay to find out what comparable items are selling for and then try and sell them locally via classified ads. If you set the price at the eBay price you'll probably have a tough time selling much of it but if you were to set a price of maybe 75-80% of the price it's going for on eBay you should have pretty good luck. As interested buyers come to view the larger equipment you can try and sell some of the other stuff to them too.
I suggest this because checking prices on eBay seems to have become the way many people monitor what something's worth. If they're looking for a mill or lathe and see a price lower than the average eBay selling price they figure it's a good deal. :-)
One other option would be to contact tool and machinery dealers in your area and invite them to make an offer. It will probably get you less money but it will also be much less hassle if you can sell it all in one lot. Call as many as you can and make sure each knows they're not the only one you've called.
Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com
A couple of years ago a fellow that a friend of mine had worked for off and on over the years passed away leaving a large machine shop to be disposed of. The wife was already deceased so the estate was left to the kids to deal with. This was all super nice machinery, most of it he purchased new and bought just about every accessory that could be bought for each machine at time of purchase. The oldest daughter was the executor of the estate. She called machinery dealers from almost a 500 mile radius and many came to look see. Two were hired to put a price on just about anything that looked to be worth money. Herein was mistake #1. These people priced everything beyond what they would even ask for it. I am sure the thinking was they didn't want her to be selling equiptment on the market and competing with them, and if she couldn't sell the equiptment chances were she would call and sell it as a whole cheap to them. Mistake # 2 is that she believed what the machinery dealers told her. It took over a year to finally get her to realize that there was a major machinery glut going on and she was going to have to adjust them dollar signs in her eyes to get things moving. My friend ended up spending countless hours showing machinery and making contacts to help get the last of the machinery sold. In the end almost nothing went for even half of what the machinery dealers said it was worth. My suggestion is you need to do your research. Ebay is a good starting point. Myself if I am going to look at a machine or a car or whatever I go to ebay and see what is there and what it is selling for. Typically ebay prices will be 10-15% higher than what I would expect to pay in a cash and carry purchase. Even if you list on ebay you can have a reserve and if things don't meet reserve you can try and work a deal with the high bidders. You are also fairly centrally located which is a plus when it comes to shipping. Another option would be to once you had an idea of what you want for items is to post it here. I am sure there are folks reading this newsgroup that would be interested or know of people that are. That would save you the hassle of ebay and the costs involved. As my friend said " Inviting the machinery dealers in, is like asking the wolves if they want to come to a huge chicken dinner". They have gotten the used car dealer mentality( or were used car dealers), if you own it its worthless but if you want to buy it .... watch out.
I saw your post for the machinery for sale; I will answer your question to the best of my ability. It would work well to sell the business and just ask for a bit more than what market value is for the machines. Market value is funny it is different in everyone's area. California sells machines at auction prices for more than I could buy used retail. Second you could just put it for sale but it would take time, if you /or the widow is paying rent this might be a bad option. With all that said, what would you consider for the whole shop everything? It would be worth it to me as a whole place. Shipping will be less if I fill one truck. You may email me or call me at (305)505-5985 Antoine is my name.
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