Second-Hand Lathes

We have 2 lathes that belonged to my dad and are looking to find new homes where they will be fully utilised.

The first is a Union, smaller lathe - pictures available.

The second is an ex university workshop Harrison lathe, again pictures attached.

Can anyone advise me of how to make contacts and look to sell these items and possible value.

Any advise much appreciated.

First, don't go to a machine tool dealer, they will be looking to get the kind of price you are hoping for so you will get a lot less.

If you can locate a model engineer or club reasonably locally (maybe one your father know?), someone could probably advise on condition and how to maximise their value (cleaning them up, making sure all the accessories are together etc).

It's a sad fact that the best prices often come from eBay, though they charge quite a lot, as the maximum number of prospective buyers will see them. It would be worth browsing eBay to see what price similar tools have been attracting. You could also advertise on here and in the ME magazines.

Yes eBay do charge but offers coverage to many potential buyers, to avoid some fees ask for cash on collection. Facebook marketplace doesn't charge fees.

Tony

lathes.co.uk. Phone and speak to Tony Griffiths . Tony will advise and you can advertise on his site.

It will cost but in my view well worth it.

Tony's website and his knowledge are world renowned, Tony is an absolute gentleman and a pleasure to deal with.

No connection other than I have sold a lathe on his site.

I put a lot of advice and context around the practical considerations of selling a lathe like the Harrison second hand in this thread which may be of use to you.

In a nutshell, the price you get will be shaped as much (if not more) by how easy or hard it is for the buyer to collect/have collected (both moving the machine and where you are in the country), as it is by the machine itself.

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IMO listing it on eBay as a buy it now and slowly reducing the price is the best method to recover the value in full...

If you're located centrally in the country and would be willing to get a quote from a suitable transport firm for delivery within a certain radius so you can offer a price delivered then you can charge a price premium on the machine as well.

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Two cautionary notes on eBay selling for large items:

1. if you don't want the buyer to pay by PayPal ensure you remove it as an option on the listing when you're setting it up, and
2. If you do choose to accept PayPal ensure you tell the buyer to bring a collection code with them, and refuse to let them start loading until they give you/show you the collection code, this will prevent them trying to reverse the charges later (a common scam).

eBay has not used PayPal to process payments for quite some time, paying with cash will not avoid any fees.

Paying with Paypal on ebay hasn't stopped neither has the option to use it if you are selling, It's just that Paypal and Fleabay became totally seperate businesses (allegedly). So you still use Paypal but it's treated like any other credit/debit card transaction.

A seller on eBay will pay a listing fee [often waived] & a final value fee if the buyer pays with cash on collection, there will be a PayPal fee also if that is used for payment. I will only pay for items with PayPal and it has to be offered as an option on eBay.

Tony

On eBay it's the seller who pays the fees not the buyer, ebay now processes the transaction, PayPal is now purely a payment option for the buyer along with debit cards etc, the seller pays no fees to PayPal.

This new system is ultimately a good thing, it has simplified the selling process and fee paying process.

It also removes the ability for people selling mint desirable machinery located in the north of Scotland from sellers with zero seller feedback to suggest paying by bank transfer to avoid PayPal fees, because PayPal fees do not exist anymore.

You can find this article at the BBC if you wish to read about it.

Edited By Pete. on 07/02/2023 17:48:50

Sellers can choose to disable PayPal or credit/debit card payment options for a listing as they choose.... But they cannot insist on "cash on collection" only and must offer at least one form of "approved electronic payment".

Interestingly though, direct bank transfer is acceptable as an electronic payment method payment for certain categories of listing only... Including Vehicles and (of particular interest to us) "Business Office and Industrial", in recognition that people sell some really very expensive things on there and theres a decent amount of B2B selling activity where card payment isn't a practical option.

(A business I worked with on a project once bought a second-hand warehouse on eBay and got a subby steel erector to collect and catalogue it, then bring it back and put it up on a concrete pad, try putting that through on your expenses!)

I would second the recommendation to use Lathes.co.uk. I sold my Harrison L5 through an advert on the site last summer, and continue to have enquiries about it, one last week in fact (Tony may not be overly prompt at marking adverts as sold...).