Welcome to the Forum, have a read of this by clicking the bold text, it's an article about disposal of workshop contents.

J

Some one mentioned a company that will buy or sell loco's on commission who reckoned that they were fair. That may be a more sensible method than a private sale. Not my field but given the prices of completed ones and even castings these days they can be worth a lot of money.

It's usually possible to get some idea of the value of equipment by searching for it on ebay and also by using the completed listing option. That will show items that have actually sold. Lots of equipment is sold on homeworkshop.org. Model Engineer seems to vary, some items go quickly. My impression is that some dealers use it. They also use all of the other usual places to advertise as well. Some people have bought the wrong thing and expect near new prices too. Many people expect a decent saving even if the equipment has hardly been used. I also think about what I would get for it if at some point I wanted to sell it. I mostly buy used equipment sometimes just to try it out and if not what I want sell it again.

There are also several companies around that mostly sell used items to private buyers. One thing I think is missing on this site is a page of links but I can understand why they use companies that pay for advertising. Some model engineering clubs around the country may have links but of late for instance the one local to me in B'ham has none at all. It did have lots of useful ones.

One thing I have noticed, to my own benefit actually is that when something like a fully kitted out lathe is sold on ebay people may bid a bit more than the usual prices for the lathe but not enough really to cover what is being sold. My current lathe was bought like this. The seller listed it with bids and a reserve price. I was the only person that placed a bid over the reserve price. The others were well short. He would have done better if he had just stated a price as I would have paid more. If I had thought that price was too much I would have contacted him to negotiate.

Dealers will buy private sales if the price is right. They generally have to be more expensive than private sellers due to VAT and the fact that the equipment may hang around for a long time. When they are offered items to buy the prices they offer are usually extremely low. Some of my equipment came of some one who had tried that. At the time the local Bargain Pages was a good place to advertise. He did and sold the items for similar prices to what the dealer offered him – these were way too low really but the dealer had annoyed him. The dealers mark up would have been amazingly high on some items because they might take a long time to sell. Couple of hundred % at least on some.

John

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Hi Dave – I have sent you a private message, with a possible contact email for you.

When you log in, on this web forum, near the top, in the green banner, you should have a message in your inbox.

(I hope!)

John A. Stewart.

Slightly O/T but many years ago, I was sent to work in the Middle East for a few years and I was in a similar position, although I didn't want to dispose of my workshop, I did at least want to see the lathe and mill in use whilst I was away.

I thought about lending them to aspiring model engineers who were without such facilities in my club, but choosing the right recipients was a daunting prospect to say the least. Eventually I gave the task to the club committee and let them choose and administer the loans whilst I was away.

I did have certain reservations as to whether I had made a foolish mistake, but I was very gratified on my return to find that both machines had been very well looked after and in fact the lathe (an old ML2) had been upgraded from flat to V – belt drive.

Phil

Hi dave if you got any surplus tooling and stuff subtitle for small type lathe like for myford 7 size. I could be intrested in anything that you have,im currently restoring a vintage grayson lathe and i need a few things as this lathe came with nothing, no dead centres, no toolpost or holders, no tooling etc

One picture per ad, I'm afraid.

I suggest a separate ad for each item, you can copy and paste in the same contact details to make life a little easier.

Neil

put some of them in an album on the main site. Probably some instructions around somewhere.