Need help PLEASE! MIller Starfire 2e

[micheleb25]

Hi. I need help pricing a Miller Starfire 2E welder for sale. It was my dads and he passed away. My mom had just enough life insurance to pay for the funeral but needs a lot of home repairs and can't afford them so we need to sell some of his stuff. He has a miller starfire 2E welder that I need to sell. I don't know anything about them or even how much it is worth but I know it works. In fact he had used it the week before he died. Can someone please take a look at the pictures and tell me what its worth so I can sell it??? Any help you can give me would be appreciated.....

The welder is pic 4 and 5...
http://balserforsale.shutterfly.com/

Thank you so much!

Michele

[Desertrider33]

I would price it at $600 and be willing to make a deal.

[aametalmaster]

The welder has been on my wish list for a long time. Where are you located?. The metal lathe is kind of unique any name brand on it? The bandsaw also catches my eye...Bob

[7A749]

I would price it at $600 and be willing to make a deal.

Yeah, that sounds good. $500 would be my bottom line. If it runs & welds well, don't take any less.

[micheleb25]

Thanks for all of the responses. You guys are lifesavers. My brother tested it and to me it seems to work perfectly fine. He fired it up and did some test welding last week to make sure it didn't need any repairs before I list it. I am located in MD just outside Washington, DC (about 30 mins North of DC). My dad has a garage that could fit 2 tractor trailers in it full of stuff. I am trying to sell what I can but 1/2 the stuff I don't even know what they are called. He has everything. He owned a construction company, and did alot of car repair work.

[Desertrider33]

On the machines that you don't know what they are, just take good pics of them and describe them as best you can, make a post about it here and someone here will know what it is. Between all of us on the forum, we've probly worked with, seen, know about, or have owned just about every manufacturing/metalworking machine type made.

[Tryagn5]

I think if you can get 400 for that welder you will be lucky. Price it at 500, then see how many hits you get. If you dont know what something is worth, check ebay for completed auctions, it will give a base line for you.
Kevin

[7A749]

I think if you can get 400 for that welder you will be lucky. Price it at 500, then see how many hits you get. If you dont know what something is worth, check ebay for completed auctions, it will give a base line for you.
Kevin

I have seen that machine sell upwards of $700+. Realistically, $500 in this market is average. I have sold Roughneck 2E machines for a little more when the market was better a few years back. I sure wouldn't sell it for less. Of course, AEAD 200LE's can be had for that too, but that's not an everyday happening.

Ebay, although helpful to a degree can give an inaccurate impression of an item's value due to shill bidding, bid wars, etc. It's evolved in to quite a menagere of games, scams & all around total BS to a degree. They have practically eliminated the ability to research completed auctions beyond a couple weeks at the maximum. In the past, that was quite helpful. Now, you don't know much of anything about anyone doing anything anymore.

Still, deals can be found there if a buyer knows what to look for.

I like it when someone who clearly knows nothing of an item's value tell me how high they sell for on ebay like they're an authority on the subject. Makes for a nice laugh. After 10+ years in the buy & sell business, I've seen just about everything.

For future referrence, I would suggest calling a few of the industrial rental resale outfits such as Mitrowski's, Stumpf's, Applied or Affiliated & ask for a quote on an item in question or flat out ask what a good purchase price would be. Take their resale price & subtract about 1/4 to 1/3 the total & you'll have a realistic private owner sale price. Subtract half & that's a good rough idea what to pay for something. If I can't turn 100% on a machine after overhead, it's not generally worth it.

Of course, this is not written in stone, but a good place to start. Supply & demand can have drastic effects on the price of an item, regardless of it's actual practical value.

Even tho a retail resaler's price will usually be top tier Industrial Retail Resale, a knowlegable service tech or sales person (one who actually knows the business & not a cash register operator at Airgas) will be able to give you a real number & maybe in some cases, some insight as to how the market is faring with a particular item in question.

Just something to consider. Earnest questions usually receive earnest answers. Larry at Applied Equipment is one of the nicest guys to ask for some information. Him & John Bray at Affiliated have been very nice to do business with.

I can shoot phone #'s to anyone who may have an interest. Of course, you can look them up on Google too. Having good resources to draw from is always useful.

Best of luck on it.

[Tryagn5]

I also buy a sell welders. I do a lot of welding, and many of my customers sell there machines to me, or have me resale them. Let me tell you how the market is now.....LOW...a used older starfire, likely that welder is early 90's possible 80's would be lucky to fetch 500 now. More likely it is going to go lower. First that is a hard welder to sell, to small for most welders, to old for most people, finally small gen set. Basically fence shops, small hobby/repair welders, and maybe some sign shops might spring for it. Likely the age will be the biggest factor.
So what would I do, list it on CL and ebay, put a reserve on it for 400, but include a phone number. I would likely list it as pick up only and hope to make a deal before the auction ends. I use ebay as an advertising service now. Who knows maybe you might get 500-600, but I think its going to hit 400 mark.
Kevin

[7A749]

I also buy a sell welders. I do a lot of welding, and many of my customers sell there machines to me, or have me resale them. Let me tell you how the market is now.....LOW...a used older starfire, likely that welder is early 90's possible 80's would be lucky to fetch 500 now. More likely it is going to go lower. First that is a hard welder to sell, to small for most welders, to old for most people, finally small gen set. Basically fence shops, small hobby/repair welders, and maybe some sign shops might spring for it. Likely the age will be the biggest factor.
So what would I do, list it on CL and ebay, put a reserve on it for 400, but include a phone number. I would likely list it as pick up only and hope to make a deal before the auction ends. I use ebay as an advertising service now. Who knows maybe you might get 500-600, but I think its going to hit 400 mark.
Kevin

Yeah, you hit it on the head. The market is bottomed out right now. One thing I have seen tho is that engine drive machines in good running condition seem to bring solid money, regardless of the market. Being the machine is AC only decreases it's value, but I wouldn't give it away. I had a very nice TB 250, mid 90's, low hours machine I took in on trade earlier this year. It took a while to sell it but I seen $2400 for it warranteed & that was the number I was shooting for.

I have gotten to the point where I avoid C's List for sales. It only generally attracts bottom feeder type customers that want to haggle &/or tell you how much they know about machines & welding. Ebay isn't much better anymore. Used to be a gold mine. At the end of the day, I would rather forego a potential sale with a haggling, chiseling blowhard & hold on to my merchandise.

From a wealth of experience dealing with cheapskates, I can say for fact the hassle of dealing with a customer like that is never usually worth the misery generated by it.

Hard to say what will come of his machine sale, but one thing is certain.

The timeframe you want to sell an item in & the ability to ship it someplace where more attractive buyers are to be found will greatly determine the bottom line.

Need to sell it locally, no way to ship: Don't expect much. Especially if you live in the Midwest.

Got some time to wait, the ability to ship it & shop a good buyer: Better the chance you will see a good to very good target number.

Just my take on it.