Atlas prices

I think the buyers are more to blame than the sellers for the rising prices. they want machines on a quick whim and hunt them down relentlessly willing to pay high prices--- so the demand is up. many of us that have extras are all the sudden willing to part with our treasures at the high prices people are paying. new machines also drive the prices up for the old iron. supply and demand in action. us old folks used to have to wait till our later years to chase our dreams of shop machinery, after we had some extra money. --- young people now seem to have lots of money to spend and can fill their machine shop quickly.
I think the reason the Atlas mills and lathes and shapers are high priced and in demand is they fit into smaller shops--- and machinists have accomplished a lot with them. they also can be picked up in a small vehicle and don't weigh a ton.
Dave
 
They've gone up in my area. It seems like you need a grand to get a 618 in good shape with tooling. Luckily, i have mine already. Of course there are always examples of machines for sale (ebay or otherwise) for crazy high prices. I think of that more in terms of what they don't sell for rather than what they are selling for. Exceptions to every rule though. I still see the occassional good deal, but not often.

I wonder if the price spike wasn't a convergence of the "maker movement" along with the pandemic. A lot of people were suddenly stuck home looking for things to do, like getting into or expanding that hobby they've always wanted more time for. Seems like home shop sized machines in general (I noticed the same uptick with old woodworking machines) got quite expensive. They were already trending up with the maker movement, then jumped quite a bit more with all these suddenly home bound people.
 
phubbman said:
They've gone up in my area. It seems like you need a grand to get a 618 in good shape with tooling. Luckily, i have mine already. Of course there are always examples of machines for sale (ebay or otherwise) for crazy high prices. I think of that more in terms of what they don't sell for rather than what they are selling for. Exceptions to every rule though. I still see the occassional good deal, but not often.

I wonder if the price spike wasn't a convergence of the "maker movement" along with the pandemic. A lot of people were suddenly stuck home looking for things to do, like getting into or expanding that hobby they've always wanted more time for. Seems like home shop sized machines in general (I noticed the same uptick with old woodworking machines) got quite expensive. They were already trending up with the maker movement, then jumped quite a bit more with all these suddenly home bound people.
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That and for many the stimulus checks were just free money which may have resulted in some people being a little less concerned with the price. If you have this new found free time, and have a job that let you start tele-commuting so your finances have if anything improved and then you get a check for $1400, well paying a few hundred dollars more than you should to get a new toy now when you can use it kind of makes sense.

The other side is the supply may have also gone down. I think a lot of the machines on CL and Ebay are spring cleaning machines. Someone is cleaning out the garage and decides it is time to get rid of that old machine they haven't used in years. With the lock down many probably saw that machine under boxes of crap and instead of heading for CL they thought, Hey I have time to learn to use that now.
 
New imports are in short supply. Precision Matthews, for example, has a lot of stuff listed as on back order or not available. I guess this is related to the ongoing US-China trade conflict. So I suppose that might cause the price of Atlas stuff to rise.
 
It would be interesting to see what the sell price is compared to the asking price. I sold an Atlas Craftsman 12x36 a few weeks ago for $1400. No tooling, just a 3-jaw chuck and a HF drill chuck. I took it apart and cleaned and painted it. I was asking $1900 to leave room for the low-ballers. CL seems to be like that; no matter what you ask, someone always offers you way less. I usually do my homework to get an idea of what something costs new and what it is selling for on CL, then I price my item to sell, and I have an idea of what my item is worth so I can accept a lower offer and get the sale.
 
Just a reminder that describing a lathe only as an "Atlas Craftsman 12x36" covers if I've counted correctly 18 different models (from 101.07360 through 101.28990) made over almost half a century. So no one can know whether the two quoted prices are from WAY! above average to typical price range.
 
wa5cab said:
Just a reminder that describing a lathe only as an "Atlas Craftsman 12x36" covers if I've counted correctly 18 different models (from 101.07360 through 101.28990) made over almost half a century. So no one can know whether the two quoted prices are from WAY! above average to typical price range.
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To be more specific, it was a 101.27440 (I think the bearing dates were 1950, IIRC) with the QCGB removed and replaced with change gears, so it was converted into a 101.07403.
 
ARC-170 said:
It would be interesting to see what the sell price is compared to the asking price. I sold an Atlas Craftsman 12x36 a few weeks ago for $1400. No tooling, just a 3-jaw chuck and a HF drill chuck. I took it apart and cleaned and painted it. I was asking $1900 to leave room for the low-ballers. CL seems to be like that; no matter what you ask, someone always offers you way less. I usually do my homework to get an idea of what something costs new and what it is selling for on CL, then I price my item to sell, and I have an idea of what my item is worth so I can accept a lower offer and get the sale.
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Wow I'm surprised you did so well on that without a QCGB. I've watched 2 semi-local to me, Craftsman 12x36 with stands and QCGB linger for a couple weeks at $900. I think one was the later "commercial" model with the underdrive stand. The other one came with a nice but non-factory work bench.
 
OK. Then I am also a little surprised that you got that much for a 101.07403 with no accessories to speak of. o_O
 
Aaron_W said:
Wow I'm surprised you did so well on that without a QCGB. I've watched 2 semi-local to me, Craftsman 12x36 with stands and QCGB linger for a couple weeks at $900. I think one was the later "commercial" model with the underdrive stand. The other one came with a nice but non-factory work bench.
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wa5cab said:
OK. Then I am also a little surprised that you got that much for a 101.07403 with no accessories to speak of. o_O
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The buyer said he was working on some "secret project" (something to do with lighting that sounded like BS to me) and needed a lathe because he could have someone else make what he wanted or do it himself for the same price and keep is secret. There wasn't much else available at the time, either.
I kept the change gears, too. It came with nothing, except as noted in my edit to my post above. It was actually a nice machine. Had I had room, I would've kept it.
 
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