[Portlyinohio]

I've developed a relationship with a rather good customer . Such a good relationship that he wants me to take on more work and wants to finance my ability to do so with a real vmc .

I have a rather small shop , so that means my 770 And at least three other machines will have to go .
The 770 is the only one that's realy worth anything .

So how do you guys come to a decision on what to ask for a machine . It's just over a year old , I've been pretty meticulous about taking care of it . The first Six months it might have gotten 10-15 hours a week of use , the last 7 months , 25-30 hours a week average .
I'd realy like to keep it but opportunity knocks and unlike my 440 it doesn't fit real well in my extra bedroom closet .

[CL_MotoTech]

There is a Tormach Users Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook group that machines regularly get posted on. Perhaps browse there and see what they are going for?

I don't see a lot of 770's for sale there, but a lot of 1100's are going for like $8k to $20k depending on features, age, condition, tooling, and obviously what they paid to purchase it.

[Portlyinohio]

I don't use Facebook or any of the social media .

I didn't get fancy with my 770 , machine , stand , chip tray and power draw bar .
I'm keeping all the tool holders I have for the 440 , but I have a tormach 5" vise that will go with it .

I was thinking something around $7500-8000 , I'm a lot better at hoarding machines then selling them hence the 440 in my bedroom closet .

But I've already got a couple guys clamoring away wanting to buy it , and I need to cut a giant hole in my ceiling and get ready for a new doosan

[Dozer56]

With machines being out of stock it may help with used prices but I’d say starting asking at 80% of new price would be fair, you could always drop some if no one grabs it up.. sounds like what your selling is around $11k new so 8500-8800 is in the range.
Good luck

[metalmayhem]

I've never sold any mills to give a dollar value because I horde them instead , but I see it from different angles .

I'm going to state the obvious on these points Depreciation value on a hobby machine is going to based on overall appearance , hours of use , and it's probably no longer under warranty which has a dollar value of sorts . I'd think of mine as fair market at 2/3 - 3/4 of original cost if they were only used for hobby on a short term . I'd want at least the new machine value minus the value in parts that I made if the machine was mint

Depreciation on a machine thats been making money has a lot of factors . Lots of run time , appearance likely not so appealing to a new buyer , money earned vs original machine cost etc . The biggest one for me would be the fact that I would not want someone in my shop who could see what I make and may want to copy what I do . That factor alone would put my mills into the driveway to be flogged "as is" for $1000 or dropped at the scrapper . This is why I never sold my old mills ever though they are in perfect working order .

I suppose the price depends on how fast you need to get rid of the old .

[Portlyinohio]

I've never been a fan of people in my shop , just cause I don't like people . What I've been making is so obscure and specialized that there's virtually no worries about someone stealing my ideas .

I'm also in a different situation at the moment , I've got a guy who is quite frankly doing everything in his power to hand me a sack full of $100 bills because he can't find a company to make his parts on his schedule .
I don't run a multi million dollar business so I still haven't figured this out , but it's somehow going to be cheaper for him to finance me along with throw copious amounts of cash into my pocket then to find , hire , train and pay labor .

[jwatte]

Because these machines are somewhat of a rare-event purchase, the price is very variable. Not just in cosmetic condition, but also based on whether you can find a buyer with ants in their pants, and whether you yourself can wait for selling. 80% of new-equivalent might possibly be achievable with a very motivated buyer if you have a lot of patience waiting for said buyer. On the other hand, if you need it to go now-ish, you may be in the weak position here -- maybe you can find a buyer for 50%, or maybe you can't find a buyer at all. Some hobby buyers buy straight from Tormach simply because they expect some amount of "factory support" (although clearly, they won't be getting techs coming out to their site...)

According to what I've seen, and assuming it's in good but not as-new condition, if you get 80%, you're a very, very, lucky seller. If you have to go to 50%, that's not unheard of, to make it move in the next month, rather than the next year. Then again, I'm in a different part of the country -- your local market may be different!

[GLCarlson]

I agree with Dozer56. I've had a Tormach for a while, but watch the used market. 80% of current new (assuming a meticulously maintained machine with light non-production use) is a pretty good opening target, and 65-75% of current new is probably more typical. Also depends on how fast you want to move it, and how objective you can be about the condition. I don't recall, but if the 770 uses the same VFD as the 1100, there is an hour meter register that can be read for spindle run time.

You can post on E-bay, and there are (or were) some other forums that avoid the facetwit problems (yahoo had a group, for example, craigslist & reddit too). There are a bunch of other hobby forums though some are distinctly insular and outright unwelcoming in my experience. Let Tormach know, too.

[mountaindew]

Sounds like you have recovered your money spent on the machine, If time constrained let it go to best offer. As for price, that is subjective. I have a 4 drawer tool box of modest quality metrology tools that have a combined cost more than the mill easy!