HGR Closing...?

I live 40 miles from HGR and the rumors are spot on. They will be closing it's doors after this week. Indeed the new owners and their modern day school of management team are the major part of HGR's demise. Second by the poor resale value of machine tools in general. Topped off by the wretched economy and inflation over the past three years. I can only assume the banks will push for a speedy auction to recoup some of their losses. That in turn will flood the market with bargain basement machines...
 
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I talked to someone today that claimed he was looking to buy the business. I hope someone does.

I really liked that place. I didn't buy much there, but did buy a couple machines, one I sold off afterwards. The pricing is kind of weird, though. Which may have contributed to the situation. I bought a Sanford surface grinder they had listed for $600 originally. It sat for a while, long enough, that they took the $100 I offered them for it. It needs work, and probably worth more than the $100, but a LOT less than the $600 they asked for a few months prior.
 
MyLilMule said:
I talked to someone today that claimed he was looking to buy the business. I hope someone does.

I really liked that place. I didn't buy much there, but did buy a couple machines, one I sold off afterwards. The pricing is kind of weird, though. Which may have contributed to the situation. I bought a Sanford surface grinder they had listed for $600 originally. It sat for a while, long enough, that they took the $100 I offered them for it. It needs work, and probably worth more than the $100, but a LOT less than the $600 they asked for a few months prior.
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Before the new owners took over, the pricing was simple. Things were priced moderately high when they arrived, and then the prices would drop every month or 6 weeks until they got down to scrap price, at which point they would sell it to the scrappers. So if three bridgeports arrived on the same day, they'd all be marked $3500 or whatever. One might be mint and one might be trashed, but HGR ran on volume and didn't spend a lot of time and money evaluating machines. If its a Bridgeport, start it at 3500. If it's mint, someone will buy it right away. If it isn't, it will sit there for a while and someone will buy it when the price drops to a more reasonable level. If its trash, the price will keep dropping till it gets scrapped. It's really a smart way to do things; minimal effort or knowledge is needed to list thousands and thousands of items, and basically the buyers decide what things are worth. A knowledgeable buyer could find good deals; someone with more money than brains would probably overpay.

The new management didn't totally change things around, but they started having sales where things would be marked down for a few days and then pop back up, instead of just continually dropping.
 
Looks like they took the web site offline today.
 
I have been buying from HGR for about twenty years.
I have purchased and sold to HGR, One of my customers got burned by using their consignment service.
The Euclid store was local to me and I have spent many many hours walking looking buying and I know several people who were resellers of merchandise bought at HGR.
This last sale to the investment group was the down fall.
They started selling on ebay
They stopped taking offers unless the item was more than 30 days in stock.
They raised prices.
There are many resellers that used to buy there but have stopped because they can't get a deal that will allow them to make money.
They started seeing a "retail" value instead of actual value.
Near the end there was only one salesman that could make deals.
Apparently they thought opening more stores and raising prices would be a winner.
From my understanding they are in deep with the bank.
I hope there is a purchaser of this business as it is a very valuable source of many items.
.
 
Today was the last day... Great sadness
Got some great deals there....
 
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