What's It Worth?

[partsman]

I have a series I PNC1100 that I'm thinking about possibly selling. It is a great machine but is just not seeing much use in our shop for various reasons - none of which are the machine's fault.

I have done a lot of recent upgrades including power drawbar, vectorless spindle drive, load meter, cnc scanner, and a few other small things. It has the deluxe stand & coolant pump. The machine MAYBE has 10 hours on it.. probably closer to 5 though. It has only cut and drilled aluminum & plastic, it works flawlessly, and is in really good shape. I priced a new series III with these options at $13,775. Any idea what would be a fair price to ask? Trying to decide if it is worth selling or if I should hang onto it.

Thanks in advance!

[Steve Seebold]

I would keep it. With your Haas, it would make a great second operation machine. Or you could use it to square up material to get it ready for the Haas.

If it's paid for, it doesn't cost anything to just sit there. If your shop grows, and space becomes a problem, then sell it.

I have a PCNC1100 in my garage, and I wish I had another one.

[GLCarlson]

My experience looking for a used Tormach -several years ago- was that the few used machines around sold for very little difference from new. And given Tormach's established support of used/older models, that'll continue.

I'd price the base machine at your cost plus cost of upgrades minus 5% or so, but I would not include the cnc scanner in the pricing- that's an option someone may want, but might not. Make it optional. And of course you'd include the spare drivers and steppers.That should deliver a Series III machine (effectively), nearly new, for a very attractive -and fair- price.

If you did that, you'd get your money back out, minus a few hundred bucks (think of that as the cost of buying a machine you haven't needed), and the buyer gets a nearly new machine at 5 years ago plus upgrades prices.

I disagree that it doesn't cost anything to just sit there. It's true that it's sunk capital, but it does have a value now, and the machine is depreciating, however slowly. And if you're paying any taxes on it (as you may be for a commercial operation), that's another cost. The question of keep vs sell really depends on whether you have a better use for the equivalent cash value.

My advice is to price it at a point where you are indifferent to whether it sells or not. That's probably less than it's actually worth, so somebody gets a bargain- but you get the space, and cash, to use more productively.

[MichaelHenry]

I'm a big fan of Tormach products, but there is no way I'd pay 95% of new price for a used one. Even fully optioned that can't be a savings of more than $1k and for that "little" amount of extra money I'd be willing to buy new.

I'm usually willing to be like new used stuff at 50-60% of list price. I might bump that to 75% for Tormach, but not much more unless there are some extraordinary circumstances involved.

I'd ask at 80% of new and expect to settle for 75%.

Mike

[shred]

I bought a beater used 3rd+ owner Tormach and I agree. Condition is huge, but saving 5-10% to get a mystery-machine? Even one that looks good and the seller says they haven't run at all, do you really know some flunky didn't run it a while with no oil or put cutting oil in the oiler by accident and then deny ever messing with it or whatever?

[partsman]

I was sort of thinking around 75% too. We are going to get the VF2 up and running and see if it would pay to have the Tormach for a second op type thing. Space is really running out fast here though. Thanks for the input!