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Going out of business

jarrettbailey

Plastic
Joined
Nov 1, 2010
Location
Campti, LA
Closing my little job shop after 40 years of operation. My dad passed away a few years ago and I've been trying to operate the business from my full time job. It's just time to close out. My question is: Having only manual machines, where is the best place to try to sell for the most reasonable return? Never had any need for an auction house, but do they tend to sell well? Just trying to liquidate as soon as feasible while retaining SOME value of my machines.

Thanks
 
Closing my little job shop after 40 years of operation. My dad passed away a few years ago and I've been trying to operate the business from my full time job. It's just time to close out. My question is: Having only manual machines, where is the best place to try to sell for the most reasonable return? Never had any need for an auction house, but do they tend to sell well? Just trying to liquidate as soon as feasible while retaining SOME value of my machines.

Thanks

There are many factors to determine the price of the machines, the main one being buyers market. For instance, I bought a vertical mill and a lathe, both manual, about 7 years ago through an online auction, was able to view the machines before bidding, and at that time, apparently not many were looking for those machines, in this area anyway, so I was able to get them cheap, with the auction service having a low starting bid. At that time, in this area, the fees were not high, but that has changed now.

At that same auction, someone purchased a 400 ton straight side press, with the stock uncoiler (if that is the correct name), the stock straightener, feeder and all the other things that go with it, for $500, which was one heck of a steal. The starting bid was very low, as it was a plant closing of a working business.

This particular auction was the same story as in the movie 'Pretty Woman'....a big corp buys out a company, and sells off the pieces.

You could check with an auction service and ask their fees, and go from there.
 
If you get an auctioneer make sure it is one that has a good reputation selling machines, these guys end to have a following of guys that watch their auctions and things may go for more money since there are more interested buyers.
 
An auction will get it done quickly. If it's a well advertised auction with a good auctioneer, it should pay for itself. If not, better to sell on Ebay, Craigslist, MachineTools.com, or similar. It will take a lot more time to sell that way.
 
If the machines are relatively small (Bridgeport-sized), you may be better off selling though a well-written Craigslist add or through a local machine dealer. My impression is that unless you get lucky, a auction will bring in relatively low prices for manual equipment.

Post some pictures of the machines you'll be selling, you may find some buyers here.
 
You have to figure out what your time is worth. Ebay or similar would almost certainly bring the best price, each machine separately and every bit of tooling. Don't know how big your operation is but probably a losing deal when you count all the work. If you have stuff that would appeal to home shop guys you can get a premium. Big ole monster machines less. I have a feeling a well recommended auction house and an honest emotional separation from the iron will bring you the least grief. You'll get some money the stuff is gone and move on.
 
Well, nothing is too big. I have a 21x108 Clausing lathe and a big Bradford lathe that probably is 48"x120" but it was modified with headstock/tailstock risers to get that swing. That's the biggest equipment. I've got a Swedish machine that was made in '53 that's a beast and I REALLY wish I had a place to keep it because it's just a great machine. I think it's about a 19"x50ish" machine. Jet 1440, Vectrax 1660, Jet 10x54 mill, ENCO 9x49 mill, small ironworker, Kelly Shaper, big ole Yoder horizontal mill, and tooling out the wazoo - drills, files, bearings, flanges, and on and on and on. And yeah, I don't want to linger if I don't gotta. I hate to lose a lot of money, but I think it's more important to get done than get top dollar. Any auction houses you guys would/could reccoment? I'm kinda flying in the dark.
 
Still have a little backlog to catch up on, so the machines are in use. As soon as I get everything cleaned up decently, I'll try to post some pics of everything.
 
From a buyers prospective, whether you use an auctioneer or sell craigs/ebay, if you want real money you have to provide loading service, nothing makes me shy from a sale like "you move and load", unless the price is give-away cheap.
 
My question is: Having only manual machines, where is the best place to try to sell for the most reasonable return?
Sorry to hear about the situation.

I think you should take a good picture of each machine and go around to the local / semi local shops and tell them what you have. I've wanted a manual lathe for my shop for years, but never felt like looking for one. If you came by my place and had a NICE manual lathe for sale, I'd probably buy it on the spot, pending inspection.
 
And is there any 'business' to sell? If you go away, local competitors divvy it up for free. Any chance one of them would like to buy it, and the gear?

Even if you don't have standing POs, etc. if you have repeat customers with associated jigs and tooling, (like the modified lathe) that may be worth more as a group than not. Include introduction/hand-off to new 'owner' of that segment of business.
 
That list of machinery will be sold in under 1 hour.
As far as loads of tooling, they get sold by the pallet, not the piece.

How many 3' sq. pallets heaped with tooling do you have ?

I don't think you'll get a good auctioneer interested.
 
You wont get a small onsite auction unless you pay upfront.............if you engage an auctioneer ,they will want to sell the stuff online,collect the money,leave you to sort out deliveries,.....the alternative they may offer is to deliver the machines to their yard.....if they fail to sell ,storage charges will then kick in..Comissions and charges will be more than half the take..........now if you had a shed crammed full of collectables and interesting junk,they would be fighting over it.
 
I've seen a few smallish shops sell well by local auctioneers that are not specific to any industry, just good general auctioneers. Advertising and preparation of the site seems to be the key to success and a good one can do that for any type of goods. Call every one in your area and see if you can tell who are the crooked ones and who are the honest ones and which of each are the effective ones.

Another possibility is to sell it all to a machinery dealer as a single deal and let them piece it out, I see that done in my area.
 
Thieves ...well i never.......funny,a local auctioneer went upmarket from clearances into art ..........then did time for "australias biggest art fraud".....even as a chattel auctioneer doing factory clearances ,lots of stuff would be missing at settlement time.Then there was Wal Boardman.........took off with a 17 yr old office girl,and the trust account.He was 75......Nowdays auctioneers just rip you off legally.
 
I would think the big interesting machines would be worth something to the right person

who is that?

who knows?

IF you are going out of business, ask your customers who your competition for their work is. Then ask those companies if they are interested in the equipment.
 
The other gotcha is consignment sale machines are notorious for having hidden problems that someone is trying to get rid of. Machines at complete shop closures tend to be a much better risk. Of course you have to always beware of auctioneers and sellers who add bad machines to shop closure sales/auctions.
 
Boy, a stand alone auction with your list of equipment..............I think most would go way too cheap...............local place up here does multi-shop auctions every month or so. Basically a bunch of smaller shops and big shops' surplus all at one time. Gets a lot more attention with more items and more variety.
 








 
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