CL Pricing Madness,

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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Boeing supports many shops world wide including in the Washington area, literally tens of thousands. Shops range from small Mom and Pop type shops to some major players depending on the commodity they provide. Then of course their are all the support services, supplies, maintenance, founderies, equipment, etc. We have plants in Everett (787, 747, 767, Tanker), Renton (737) which are just our primary Fab/Assembly facilities. We also have a huge manufacturing shop located in Auburn. All our plants have their own Fire Dept's, medical facilities, ambulances, etc. They are like a small city. Everett alone employees somewhere between 20K and 35K in normal times. Of course this is only the commercial side of Boeing with the exception of the Tanker for Washington State only. We have plants all over the country.

We also have the Defense group (F15, Minute Man Missile, etc), the Satellite group and the Space group. Total direct employees world wide ranges from 120K to 250K, the latter in good times.

After all that, I think @Nogoingback summed up things pretty well for the PNW. It also doesn't help that our governor is, well I won't use the word(s) I would like to.
 
I reduced my uses of CL for awhile now. When I buy, the prices are so high. When I sell, either it's very low or I only get spams/crooks.
According to one "indicator" that I am very familiar with, about 5 years ago, 100,000 users would be now 50 users. So users abandon the system in droves.
I found Facebook marketplace safer. You often see people's profile, and it's "less" anonymous, so meeting them is a bit less daunting. Message back and forth is much quicker than emails, while people don't want to post phone numbers for the public to see.
Too bad, I used to love CL and was a big contributor to it.

That said, selling used equipment is not easy. Price is often half to 1/10, and still can't find buyers. It's the untrusted quality the user may get coupled to buyer's expectations. Some buyers just want to buy new, and not wanting to deal with the hassle. While other buyers just only want great deals, almost free. It's a nature of the beast I think.
 
nnam said:
I reduced my uses of CL for awhile now. When I buy, the prices are so high. When I sell, either it's very low or I only get spams/crooks.
According to one "indicator" that I am very familiar with, about 5 years ago, 100,000 users would be now 50 users. So users abandon the system in droves.
I found Facebook marketplace safer. You often see people's profile, and it's "less" anonymous, so meeting them is a bit less daunting. Message back and forth is much quicker than emails, while people don't want to post phone numbers for the public to see.
Too bad, I used to love CL and was a big contributor to it.
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I tend to agree. I do mostly idle shopping as there‘s few good deals and half of those won’t answer emails. I am not going to play phone tag. eBay has gotten sketchy too.
 
CL just doesn't seem to be as good as it once was. Lot more "professional" sellers and a lot less individuals who want to sell something they don't have a use for anymore. Used to be that CL was like the classified add section of the newspaper. That's all changed. A private citizen wants to get rid of something and hopefully get a little something for it to put towards something else, But the motivation is to get rid of it. Businesses are out to make a profit, only make a profit, and the more the better.
 
On the Powermatic 143 band saw, here's one data point. I bought a *really* nice Powermatic 143 from Boeing Surplus (remember that?) about 25 years ago. $500. Still have it and still love it.

Oh, man, do I miss Boeing Surplus. At the time, I was living out south of Issaquah and it was about a 15 minute drive. Also, Frys Electronics was nearby. Spent many a Saturday morning, blissfully browsing around those two places..

MK
 
Based on what I've seen around here, the older drill presses don't seem grossly out of line, high but factor in the bargaining factor and not ridiculous.

I'm still kind of kicking myself for not moving on a Powermatic 143 bandsaw for $800 earlier this year. It took some time to sell at that price so $1200 is probably a bit much. I ended up buying a neat vintage 14" saw for $250, but when you factor in the time and cost of bringing it back into service and adding a gear box to allow cutting metal, $800 for a plug and play industrial wood / metal saw was not out of line. I just didn't know what a ready to go wood / metal bandsaw sold for 6 months ago.
 
@Papa Charlie, I recognize that ad from at least a year ago, possibly longer. Same photos, too. The background in the scene is memorable.

I, for one, hate to haggle. I don't want to play guess-your-price. I really appreciate the Germans in this regard- the price asked is the price paid. Simple, with no psychology or weirdness. When I sell stuff, I am up front about what I want. I wish they were all
that way, especially if I am looking at a couple hours' drive to look at something.
 
pontiac428 said:
@Papa Charlie, I recognize that ad from at least a year ago, possibly longer. Same photos, too. The background in the scene is memorable.

I, for one, hate to haggle. I don't want to play guess-your-price. I really appreciate the Germans in this regard- the price asked is the price paid. Simple, with no psychology or weirdness. When I sell stuff, I am up front about what I want. I wish they were all
that way, especially if I am looking at a couple hours' drive to look at something.
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I HATE to haggle too! The worst are these “make me an offer” folks. If it’s too high it doesn’t even cross my mind that they want to haggle, it just means I think they want too much and I don’t bother.
 
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When I sell I always mention that the asking price is firm but when buying stuff, I can't expect the seller to feel the same as me about his/her asking price, but it's alright to haggle and very easy (around here) to guess the actual"want to sell it for" price, for example if something is $120 OBO, you know they'll want no less than a $100, the extra $20 is ro make the buyer feel good they got a deal.lol.
 
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