CL Pricing Madness,

Ken from ontario said:
to price something way,way over what's considered "reasonable " and hope for that odd chance to find that person, is a fool's game.
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well, if that is true then I guess then that a huge number of sellers on ebay are "fools". Nothing new here, "Buyer Beware" has been a trueism since the first trade. :)
 
With the exception of the lathe, I would consider all of the machines to be antiques. Antique machine tools are not like antique furniture. They might be worth something to someone who is building a museum. Otherwise, they're worth their weight in scrap iron. Lack of familiarity with machine tools in general and the limitations of old machine tools can feed into the belief that old iron is better, and more valuable, than new. If you are truly interested in something that is listed for a ridiculous price, save the contact info (if you can get it) and wait a month or two.
 
It adds to the already hard to navigate maze that is CL. There are so many that feign ignorance of what the machines are really worth and now don’t know who really made them, yet are asking for more than they were new. Central Machinery is a Harbor Freight brand. Granted some of the early stuff was made in Taiwan, it can still be of not that great quality. Then you tag on these “legendary “ names like South Bend and Powermatic and it would seem you can get whatever you want. It’s crazy.
 
Papa Charlie is right about this: prices in the PNW run higher than other parts of the country. Compared with
other local ads, I would say that though high, those prices aren't unusual, and since the seller seems flexible on price a buyer might come out OK in the end. Asking prices on USA manufactered DP's are usually very high around here.
This area is a bit of a machinery desert, so supply of decent machines is limited.
 
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I think the 143 band saw could be worth it if it's nice.
 
Blame Antique Roadshow. If it's old, it must be valuable. If someone advertises an item as Vintage, or Antique, I know they're likely not to have any idea what the actual value is, and believe it's made of gold, so I don't bother. And if it says "Wow!" in the listing I don't even read it. LOL
 
My personal feeling is that his prices are X3. At least that is as far as I would pay. I got to admit, the South Bend drill press with the makers badges is pretty cool. But don't know if I would buy it for a tool that I would rely on in my home shop.
 
What we don't know about is condition. If they're projects rather than working tools, the seller is nuts.
The Jet is definately high: Jet DP's don't bring much. The South Bend is high I think as well, though at a somewhat lower price and assuming good condition it could be OK. After all around here folks routinely ask $850 - $1000 for
Clausings and Powermatics, (though I don't think they sell for that). The Camel Back is tough to call since they don't come up much. The bandsaw is the 2 speed model which brings much more than the wood saw around here, and Powermatic saws bring a premium. It will be interesting to see how long that stuff stays on CL. I'm thinking a while.
 
MrWhoopee said:
I gather that the presence of Boeing did not spawn a multitude of shops in the Seattle area the way the computer boom did in Silicon Valley.
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I think the problem is that Boeing has been the only game in town. Logging was the big industry in the NW for decades. The economy has become
more diverse since then, but there has never been a concentration of large scale manufacturing here like the midwest.
Seattle and Portland are the two biggest cities: everything else is small cities and towns with ties to agriculture and, in the past logging.
 
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