Kelly Blue Book for Welding Machines??

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Does anyone know of a way to find out what used welders are worth?I have a collection of stuff from old 300Powcons to the Dynasty 300DX and the Lincoln 350 with assorted guns and torches.Trying to find a way to value them is a real work out!  I've gone online to eBay and printed page after page but there's not a single uniform method I can find?Any suggestions welcomed and any links offered will be followed.thanks, Kevin Morin
Reply:Hi Kevin.Are you finished boat building? I have sold all my 2 year old Miller welders for what I paid for them. One wire feed  machine even sold for 100 more than I paid for it new, as well as paying for itself time and again. I would think a good rule of thumb for any welder under 5 years old would be about 80 percent of new price. 5 to 10 years 65 to 75 percent, and over 10 years, I would be happy to get 50 percent of what it cost new. Its no scientific method, just a ball park.UA Local 598
Reply:Considering your location, any results from elsewhere would be irrelevant.Craigslist plus Ebay plus forums is probably the best way.If you aren't in a hurry, sell one at a time locally so you don't suddenly saturate the market.
Reply:Farmall & WHughes, thanks.Nope, I'm not selling the machines- just getting comp. value for a valuation of the company that I'm leaving; in fact I'm gearing up to build boats -again! (finished boat building? my attitude is ; if I'm still breathin' I'm still building boats!)I guess its an addiction and character flaw I can't deny, the blasted stuff (aluminum) is just to much fun to work with and I'm moving back to it full time; for a while.To do that I'm moving machines from one company to another and I either strike an agreement for their fair value or buy new.  I can't find anyone in Alaska selling this series of machines I've got to value, so I'm casting a "wider net".thanks for the heads-up and anyone else who has ideas??? I sure will listen closely.Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Well, if there is a paper, web site or magazine that concentrates on used welder values, it has been one elusive source.I've looked, called, asked, written and whined but I have not found one single source that provides 'market value' for used welding machines.One decent method is to use Criag's list and eBay but while eBay has global search Craig's list is trash for wide searches.There are surplus houses that buy and sell used power supplies but they don't even approach any conformity of price or even evaluation of the equipment!I guess its just get out the darts, paste up some numbers on the wall and let everyone have a few tosses and go from there?Cheers,Kevin Morin
Reply:Kevin - try an Ebay "Completed listing" search.  You'll have to go to advanced search to find this search option, and won't be able to search descriptions (titles only.)Then when you get some results, scan through and only pay attention to ones that actually sold, which will have their prices listed in green (not red.)For example, here are the recent "Miller dynasty" ebay sales that came up that I found using this technique:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_500wt_1138http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...2BZOnGx3w%253DUnfortunately, heavy welding machines may not sell is very much on e-bay due to high shipping cost, so you may not find a whole lot of hits.  I think there is a limited period of time that the "completed listing" search goes back (perhaps a couple months.)For broad craigslist searches, there are some websites available that can search multiple craigslist markets for you all at once.  Search Tempest is one such site that comes to mind that you might want to try to see what people are asking for used welders on Cragslist in various locations:  http://www.searchtempest.com/For example, here is a dynasty 350 I found after a few minutes of craigslist searching using this technique:http://phoenix.craigslist.org/wvl/tls/2157949985.htmlBeware of scams when researching craigslist.  (If something seems too good to be true, it may very well be!)