[carbidecraters]

So to make a long story short we were working a deal with a new cnc dealer for a used mill. They found us a lathe that was local and we are getting to the last stages of our agreement. I saw the mill being offered on ebay TODAY by a used machinery company who will remain namelss but they are 7 states away from us! Is there a used machinery network where any company can sell a piece that another has?

[DSL PWR]

Yep there is. I was recently looking for a lathe, and I noticed that on a few machines the pictures were the same from several stealers, er um dealers... If you get asking you will also find the dealers get skittish when you start asking for serial numbers. There seems to be few boundries in this game, as one lathe was in Florida, and California at the same time!

[John_B]

Hah, that's funny! I recently bought a mill that I was looking at from one dealer, had seen the same machine at 2 others, but then finally saw it on e-bay listed by the actual equipment dealer for about a third less. It pays to look around a bit. Do a search of the machine brand and model several different ways on Google and such, and you will probably find several listings and maybe the original.

[davesnd]

My strategy with machinery dealers is to go there in person and wander through the warehouse. I have gotten more deals this way than I ever would online. The best way to get a deal is if you go to the same few dealers every so often you can identify the pieces that have sat there a long time, and those are the pieces they are willing to give you a good deal on. I recently bought a CNC milling machine which had sat at my local dealer for 4 years - it had a few problems which I have been able to correct and I got it for about one fourth of the original asking price. This strategy of going to the local dealer regularly also works great for finding cheap tooling like chucks, toolposts, and milling toolholders. A friend of mine got a lot of BT 50 holders, most with cutters in them, about 120 holders in all for a bargain price using this strategy. To make a long post short, there is no way a dealer can BS you about what he has for sale if you know what is in his warehouse. I don't blame the dealers for trying to make a buck off of people who are too stupid/lazy to do proper research before laying down their cash.
That's business.