Engine price guide.

Waste of time IMO. What SEM prints is not generally seen by a lot of folks including myself, and like most guides it is overtaken by events, condition of the engine, what you feel like on the day etc etc.

What is the purpose of the guide? SEM don't sell anything themselves, and a lot of people aren't going to thank GW for posting a price for their little engine that is less what they paid for it....

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes Email: snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Web:

Personally I think that it would be a waste of time and would do more to annoy people than help them. Engine enthusiats tend to have a good idea of engine values and know what to pay for a specific engine. Also it is nearly impossible to produce a reliable price guide as no two engines are the same.

Mike M

miley snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

GW knows naff all about any stationary engine prices! The guy wants to find something better to print for the so called engine mag before he kills it of altogether!

There's two aspects to this. A price guide (it's only a guide) would certainly make interesting reading for the likes of me who are not heavily into SE's but still enjoy them. However, since SEM is generally not read by those folks, what's the point. I suppose I concur with everyone else. He can easily annoy and loose his readers so why risk it?

John

too many variables to make any guide representative

going rate for anyway - looking at SEM ads. is fairly

more variables such as rarity and desirability.

auction and who's there. Many bargains are to be had at

agricultural equipment, whereas a specific engine sale will

impossible to track unless you make it a life times study.

I started collecting engines 30 years ago when they were still available from the farm. I used to offer good prices to the farmers but could never get one to agree to sell. then after a couple of months I tried an idea I had just thought of. I used to offer only half of the value of the engine & on refusal I increased the offer slightly. This lasted a varying time but usually the farmer got me to offer double the origional offer when he would see the tears in my eyes (Well nearly) & allow me to buy at the proper price. Sometimes I even made a profit on the deal but the farmer was always happy he had done a good deal.

Never seen so many of us in agreement about anything!

Me to, BTW. However well intentioned, Gordon Wright will be on a hiding to nothing, I'm afraid.

Anyone who wants to work out the price of (say) a Wolseley WD4 can do so by either looking at 90 days archives of eBay sales and/or the last year's back issues of SEM. It would take an hour or two & just reading the ads will give one a much better view of what's about & what to pay.

Don't do it Gordon!

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

Seems a little hard Steve, since stepping in as 'temporary' editor GW has found an enthusiasm for the subject which I think may have surprised even him and probably knows as much about pricing of bread-and-butter engines as any of us. However, as his stated aim is to save newcomers from potentially expensive mistakes and my observation is that that SEM is generally 'discovered' some time after one's first purchase, it really doesn't seem worth braving the many pitfalls for what could be a largely illusory benefit.