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Here is an idea to help people put a monetary value on machine tools.

TorontoBuilder

TorontoBuilder

Ultra Member
So the idea goes like this.

Create a thread "Price evaluation requests"

All owners or their representatives with a machine/tool they wish to obtain a price evaluation for must submit the following information at a minimum to the forum:

A photo of the entire machine and a close up showing the make and model number, and
other close up photos of details and accessories if available, and
the geographic location (city) the machine is located, and
the machine's location on the property (shed, garage, basement, second floor bedroom), and
they must submit their contact information to the moderators and agree to binding agreement to provide the ultimate sales price in order to use the service.

Now, here is where it gets both interesting and actually becomes a potentially valuable tool people will want to use rather than a bunch of posts saying "well in timbucktu this would be 1 million dollars." with zero evidence to back such a statement up.

Only forum members can reply, and
a fee shall be paid in order to submit a guess.
members can ONLY reply with an Exact price to the penny that they think the machine/tool should/would/will sell for, and
suggested fee is between 5-10% of the value guessed by the member.

Example, with 5% fee. A person posts a photo of a late model 7x12 lathe. A member wishes to advise the seller the value is $1000.00, and must pay $5.00 in order to provide the answer. WAIT WUT??

Who will do that?

People who want to 'earn" the pot of money once the machine is sold. The person whose evaluation was closest to the sale price earns the "fee" for services rendered.

Why this scenario will work, but wont ever happen here because of the billing required.

People like to gamble, and they like to win. Lotteries and sports betting has made a number of addicts who will eat such a system up...

Most members here think they know everything especially prices. They even know regional prices and will adjust their evaluations based on regional price differences, location and accessibility issues in order to try to win

The evaluations given will be more thoughtful, accurate and useful to the sellers. But the sellers are not bound in any way to sell for a certain price. They are given the best guidance possible and can do with the information as they please.

Now if people need more information questions may be submitted via the moderator.

I believe this system will yield the most useful guidance to sellers without having to track every sale over the last 10 years which is impossible... I know, I try. It weeds out low value comments and comments from people who are just wandering by without a clue.

It also eliminates posts saying give me a price for my car, but I wont tell you the age, the mileage or accident history, unless well you actually like such posts and the discussions they bring... like I had that same car back in 1968 and I paid 6K for it
 
I think you mean 1/2 % or 0.005 - when I evaluated some equipment for a member I roughly was given a thank you gift of that value.

I guess it could be more if member has to come in physically and evaluate the machine.
 
So you want people to pay to answer someones question?

I'm guessing that the answers to the threads about the Colchester earlier today triggered this. I think everyone offered reasonable opinions to a question that was asked. Are you upset because you were interested in buying it? Does that make our opinions invalid?
 
To be honest, lets be fair, while I have no problems in making a profit (even huge profit) on someone, this honestly goes against my ethics.

I find that that this is form of usery.

If we are going to give suggestions, lets do it in good will for the group. I am on the group to share and be shared with. I am not here to make a profit of members new or old.

I'm sure that most of the well respected members likely feel the same.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
So the idea goes like this.
Click to expand...

Ideas like this sometimes lead to others and who knows what it might evolve into. Sometimes they bomb too. Regardless of that, there is no stomach amongst the admin staff for doing this here on Canadian Metal Workers. It's hard enough to monitor and delete all the spam and garbage our forum attracts and do all the maintenance that makes the forum run smoothly. But handling money, keeping track of who said what first, managing and policing the data submissions, etc etc is quite a bit more than we want to take on.

However, nothing would prevent you from setting up a dedicated forum of your own to do this kind of thing. You never know where that might lead.

I'd bet that you already know that managing a web site and a forum is a whole nuther skill set from being a machinist. But I'd also be willing to bet its well within your abilities. You can start by looking into buying a domain and hosting service. Many hosting services even come with add-on forum software as well as e-commerce tools to support the monetary aspects of your idea. Just for starters, I'd suggest looking into whc.com (web hosting Canada). This service supports all of the above.

Disclaimer - I use whc myself for the websites I manage but I am not affiliated with them and make no commission from recommending them.
 
What would it take to start a machinery appraisal business? One shop where I worked offered me tool insurance as an incentive. Insurance company wanted an appraisal, but I was unable to find one. They accepted photo's, videos, and receipts as replacement value in the end.
 
Darren said:
What would it take to start a machinery appraisal business? One shop where I worked offered me tool insurance as an incentive. Insurance company wanted an appraisal, but I was unable to find one. They accepted photo's, videos, and receipts as replacement value in the end.
Click to expand...

Sorta what I was thinking. It's a missing business niche that might evolve. Who knows? We live in a world where a garage book store can evolve into Amazon.......
 
Degen said:
To be honest, lets be fair, while I have no problems in making a profit (even huge profit) on someone, this honestly goes against my ethics.

I find that that this is form of usery.

If we are going to give suggestions, lets do it in good will for the group. I am on the group to share and be shared with. I am not here to make a profit of members new or old.

I'm sure that most of the well respected members likely feel the same.
Click to expand...
I'll pass your worries along to the appraisal industry...

ps the people getting the appraisal dont pay a thing... the people guessing do and it is voluntary to guess.
 
Darren said:
What would it take to start a machinery appraisal business? One shop where I worked offered me tool insurance as an incentive. Insurance company wanted an appraisal, but I was unable to find one. They accepted photo's, videos, and receipts as replacement value in the end.
Click to expand...
They have appraisal services especially for machine tools. Usually associated with auction houses.

The problem is most people dont know how to access such services. I offered to refer the seller to both an appraiser and two different auction houses that specialize in machine tool auctions if they wanted to go that route too...
 
Degen said:
To be honest, lets be fair, while I have no problems in making a profit (even huge profit) on someone, this honestly goes against my ethics.

I find that that this is form of usery.

If we are going to give suggestions, lets do it in good will for the group. I am on the group to share and be shared with. I am not here to make a profit of members new or old.

I'm sure that most of the well respected members likely feel the same.
Click to expand...
usuary eh, please do explain how this idea takes advantage or uses anyone,

That's the second person here that implied im immoral and try to cheat people... and yet I get censored for pointing it out...

I remember why I left the first time.
 
TorontoBuilder said:
So the idea goes like this.

Create a thread "Price evaluation requests"

All owners or their representatives with a machine/tool they wish to obtain a price evaluation for must submit the following information at a minimum to the forum:

A photo of the entire machine and a close up showing the make and model number, and
other close up photos of details and accessories if available, and
the geographic location (city) the machine is located, and
the machine's location on the property (shed, garage, basement, second floor bedroom), and
they must submit their contact information to the moderators and agree to binding agreement to provide the ultimate sales price in order to use the service.

Now, here is where it gets both interesting and actually becomes a potentially valuable tool people will want to use rather than a bunch of posts saying "well in timbucktu this would be 1 million dollars." with zero evidence to back such a statement up.

Only forum members can reply, and
a fee shall be paid in order to submit a guess.
members can ONLY reply with an Exact price to the penny that they think the machine/tool should/would/will sell for, and
suggested fee is between 5-10% of the value guessed by the member.

Example, with 5% fee. A person posts a photo of a late model 7x12 lathe. A member wishes to advise the seller the value is $1000.00, and must pay $5.00 in order to provide the answer. WAIT WUT??

Who will do that?

People who want to 'earn" the pot of money once the machine is sold. The person whose evaluation was closest to the sale price earns the "fee" for services rendered.

Why this scenario will work, but wont ever happen here because of the billing required.

People like to gamble, and they like to win. Lotteries and sports betting has made a number of addicts who will eat such a system up...

Most members here think they know everything especially prices. They even know regional prices and will adjust their evaluations based on regional price differences, location and accessibility issues in order to try to win

The evaluations given will be more thoughtful, accurate and useful to the sellers. But the sellers are not bound in any way to sell for a certain price. They are given the best guidance possible and can do with the information as they please.

Now if people need more information questions may be submitted via the moderator.

I believe this system will yield the most useful guidance to sellers without having to track every sale over the last 10 years which is impossible... I know, I try. It weeds out low value comments and comments from people who are just wandering by without a clue.

It also eliminates posts saying give me a price for my car, but I wont tell you the age, the mileage or accident history, unless well you actually like such posts and the discussions they bring... like I had that same car back in 1968 and I paid 6K for it
Click to expand...
yeah bad math... that should read $50 bucks.
 
@TorontoBuilder

I found your lathe, great price but you have to give $50.00 to get the info ;):cool:, just kidding did't want to get your hopes up, but this is the same as the idea you suggest.

Does this seem right you got to pay for help from members?

I make part of my money making certain products (I own the patents) approach me to get one you pay (this is why I don't fully state what I do, though a few members privately do), approach for help on the site, non business related, I do what I can freely.

So its not about money per say, just the why where and how.

Do it as a business, no problem, its business.

Do it on the site, its not.
 
Degen said:
@TorontoBuilder

I found your lathe, great price but you have to give $50.00 to get the info ;):cool:, just kidding did't want to get your hopes up, but this is the same as the idea you suggest.

Does this seem right you got to pay for help from members?

I make part of my money making certain products (I own the patents) approach me to get one you pay (this is why I don't fully state what I do, though a few members privately do), approach for help on the site, non business related, I do what I can freely.

So its not about money per say, just the why where and how.

Do it as a business, no problem, its business.

Do it on the site, its not.
Click to expand...
you clearly don't understand the concept... maybe reread my post a few times? ;):cool: and no one said on these forums. In fact the idea is copyrighted and being pursued elsewhere.
 
Last edited:
The concept sounds kinda a cool. It has aspects of the game show, "The Price is Right", where the contestants try to guess the price of the object on display, and the one that gets closest to it, wins. The contestant probably has to pay to get into the studio, with the hopes of winning. In your scenario, the winner (person who has the most accurate evaluation) gets a kick back. The owner of the machine gets an accurate value of what it should sell for.
 
I have have dim view of this idea. I give my opinions to people, both buying and selling, for free. I've been buying and selling machine tools for well over 30 years. I have a fair network of friends that have also bought and sold used machines, and also help people out.

Everyone can have an opinion as to value; a more accurate one can be had by an in-person evaluation.

I like offer my help to people on this forum. I also help friends outside the forum. But few others.
 
If I can help someone by saying what I paid for a machine, I am more than happy to do that. I have gained a way more from this forum than I have contributed. I did not read the entire proposal but not sure how pricing of a piece of equipment in one party of the country compares to the same equipment in my area. We don't get many options in my area so I would pay more if I did not have to drive 2 days to get it.
The best price or valuation of a piece of equipment is what both parties feel good about.

Just my 2 cents.
 
You just put way more thought into this that 99% of sellers who are not going to make any effort to figure out what the value is. 3% are too low, 96% too high. I lie prone in weeds, ,cash hand, waiting for the 3%.

The market is a shadow of its former self. Ten years ago it seemed every week you could buy a full to the brim roller box for $400 - $500. Did bought many times to build my shop up and sold the duplicates. Nowadays it seems everyone expects to be able to retire off of Gramp's tools.
 
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