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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2020
    Location
    Brisbane
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    Default Looking for a lathe

    This is more of a whinge than anything else.
    I'm still searching for an older lathe to learn on for under $1500.

    Saw one advertised locally on gumtree yesterday. Called within the hour, missed out, there was already someone lined up to take a look.
    One day later, the new "owner" is advertising it for 275% of the first guy !!!
    It's still on the trailer, they haven't even wiped it with a rag.
    What a rort.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    Willowbank QLD
    Posts
    518

    Default

    That was a nice lathe at a very good price. I to was in the queue to buy.
    There are people that will profiteer out of anything. My only hope is Karma takes over.
    It is the same in every hobby, some are driven more by making money and making everything dearer.

    I thought about still buying at the higher price but am not sure if I would always have a bad taste in my mouth.
    I guess I will have to sleep on it.

    Steve

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2020
    Location
    Brisbane
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    19

    Default

    It's the straight up BS that annoys me.
    I wondered if he had a story to go with the massive price rise and he did.
    Apparently he's had it for years, it belonged to his granddad etc etc. (Wonder what the old man would be thinking)

    Is it so hard to have some integrity? "I picked it up recently for a song, don't know much of it's history but looks to be in good nick so i'm moving it on for $xxxx".

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Murray Bridge S Aust.
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    71
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    5,945

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Lever View Post
    Saw one advertised locally on gumtree yesterday. Called within the hour, missed out, there was already someone lined up to take a look.
    Even though someone's lined up to take a look, if it's close by, and you have the folding stuff ready, go around there, and make an offer/payment. How many times has someone said "I'll take it", gone around there to pick it up and is gone!!! It's happened to me that many times, I cringe at the drive there, to find out it's gone!!! Not even the decency to give you a call to say "Sorry it's gone".
    I hope the scumbag has it sitting on his trailer for some time, before he can offload it!!!!
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2020
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    Willowbank QLD
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    518

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by KBs PensNmore View Post
    Even though someone's lined up to take a look, if it's close by, and you have the folding stuff ready, go around there, and make an offer/payment. How many times has someone said "I'll take it", gone around there to pick it up and is gone!!! It's happened to me that many times, I cringe at the drive there, to find out it's gone!!! Not even the decency to give you a call to say "Sorry it's gone".
    I hope the scumbag has it sitting on his trailer for some time, before he can offload it!!!!
    Kryn

    Kryn, your comment can be read two different ways, I am assuming it is to be read the respectable way and not advising to queue jump and turn up early with cash. When I sell something I will not give the address to the next person in the queue until the other person has not shown up at the allotted time and has not contacted me to say he has been held up. I have had people offer extra over the phone to try and get in early. I too have driven an hour to look at stuff and turned up at the agreed time only to be told it was sold early that morning or late last night.

    The lathe in question would have been the buy of the year in my opinion. To be honest I think it will sell quick at the new price.
    https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/loga...the/1291717186

    Everyone has the right to buy and sell what they want. What really annoys me is is when dishonesty comes into it. If you got it at a bargain just be honest. If you get it home and find you miss measured and it wont fit, just be honest.

    What I don't like personally and it is only my opinion. That is don't try and make money out of everything. That just drives up the price of everything for everyone. It may be our right but I personally thing this excessive consumerism will destroy us.

    I said to my wife when I was in the queue is, if I miss out I hope the lathe goes to a really deserving person. I have a lathe and wanted to upgrade. My new lathe may still be out there getting used buy some old bloke. When I go to buy it I want to here about the hours of enjoyment he got out of it and pay him an amount he is happy with.

    As I said earlier I was half thinking about looking at this at the higher price but I would not enjoy walking into the shed and remembering the story.

    I nearly wrote what I think I would like to happen to the new seller, but I realised to even think what I was thinking is not nice and made me worse than the seller. I have no right to be annoyed, it was never mine and what I should be thinking is I hope the new owner gets a great lathe and gives it the home it deserves.

    Steve

  6. #6
    Join Date
    May 2011
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    Murray Bridge S Aust.
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    71
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    Default

    Sorry Steve I won't answer that question. You are ONE of the very few people that are honest about the sale, not giving your address till after the given time etc.
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2021
    Location
    Western Sydney
    Posts
    262

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Lever View Post
    This is more of a whinge than anything else.
    I'm still searching for an older lathe to learn on for under $1500.

    Saw one advertised locally on gumtree yesterday. Called within the hour, missed out, there was already someone lined up to take a look.
    One day later, the new "owner" is advertising it for 275% of the first guy !!!
    It's still on the trailer, they haven't even wiped it with a rag.
    What a rort.
    I understand your frustration, morally it might seem a bit rude , maybe tall poppy syndrome ? Imo nothing wrong with buying something cheap and flipping it , i've been doing it for 30 years. Profits are good, it means you can do other things with the extra money that you couldn't do otherwise. As an example when the kids were young we had no spare money so i started buying filing cabinets and associated stuff , In the old days i'd get the trading post at 4am Thursday morning and start ringing people selling cheap office furniture '' hey mate you still got those filing cabinets for sale'' lol. I'd race over there , sometimes 50km across the city , pick em up , fix the locks and then advertise them with delivery and make some $$. At one point i had over 120 filing cabinets stashed around the house , in the driveway , in the yard , in the hallway . I used the extra money for family holidays , new shoes for kids , pub meals , ect

    I'll give you a tip , next time you see something cheap and you really want it , offer the seller $100 more than he's selling it for , works most of the time. Set your phone up with alerts so as soon as someone advertises you will get notified straight away. An hour is way too long these days if its really cheap and a popular item. Good luck with the search.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
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    3,228

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reidy41 View Post
    When I sell something I will not give the address to the next person in the queue until the other person has not shown up at the allotted time and has not contacted me to say he has been held up.
    Not me. That's a recipe for frustration. You owe a potential buyer nothing, except the courtesy of a call to say "sorry someone else bought it". I sold a 4WD a couple of years ago. It was priced to sell quickly. First bloke rings me at 8AM and says he'll be at my place at 4PM to look at it. I had six other calls that day. No way was I going to turn away six other potential buyers for a bloke who might not show up. Ended up selling it to a young bloke with cash. I rang the first bloke and told him it was sold. He was super annoyed. Bad luck, if he wanted it that badly he should have come earlier. Or sent his wife. Or a mate.
    Chris

  9. #9
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Perth
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    Unless it's a higher cost item, or difficult piece of shiiyte to get rid off, I usually ignore any sort of" first to call" as an order of selling.
    Most of the first responders are (professional or private) resellers and my take on this is, why should they benefit over someone who a) might actually use it or b) could really use it.

    Even for giveaways or really cheap stuff I collect up a list of prospective donors/buyers and then either select someone from the end of the list or make a decision based on who I think should get it. I then make an arrangement with the selected person about purchasing timing. I'm particularly sympathetic to people who don't have a vehicle they can immediately jump into and appear on my door step, or people from the country/regions. Usually it's 24 hours or it goes to another person on the list, but sometimes it's days. Only once over the last few years did my selected person fail to show up.

    Last year we advertised an "antique" bathroom vanity for $100 and got about 10 messages for it within 24 hours when I pulled the add.
    It was the sort of thing that would easily have ended up for sale in an antiques store for maybe 5x the price I was selling it for.
    Sure enough I back checked several of the first responders phone numbers on google and they were for fancy antique shops in expensive parts of the city.
    I selected a prospective buyer from the country, a young family living in a 120 year old shearers hut they were restoring. The Dad was a FIFO worker and they could not pick it up for 9 days. When they picked it up they gave me a big box of fresh home grown veggies for holding the sale.

    Another time I was giving away the deceased FILs fishing gear. After 40 messages within about 4 hours I pulled the add and chose the 36th message who turned out to be around the corner from our place and the full time carer dad of an autistic kid. I didn't care if it was BS but it turned out to be the case as the dad and kid came around to pick it up and the kid was well and truly that way. I've subsequently given quite a bit of other stuff to that family.

    Another time I was giving away an old McCulloch chainsaw. A dozen messages in an hour. I chose a pensioner from the country. He came right away but it still took him about 3 hours to get to my place

    I realize that some people have other things to do with their life but for me I dont really care about the money (mostly I give stuff away) and I get much more satisfaction out of doing things this way.

    [EDIT]
    I have in the past left freebies on the verge with a "Free, Help yourself" sign on it. Sometimes I also put an add on gumtree saying first in best dressed and no correspondence will be responded to. This of course didn't stop them, "can I hold it, I'll be right over", "can you tell me if its still there", etc. Of course I didn't respond but some would turn up after said item had gone and then knock on my door to express disappointment for the item not being there. One suspicious looking fella opened the side gate and came into my back yard which set the dogs off so I came out for a look. Said he was looking for the free item on gum tree. Side gate is now locked although that's nit much of a deterrent these days.
    I also got a "tch, tch, tch" from the council ranger for leaving stuff on the verge even though it usually went within a few hours, which is I don't do this anymore. I pretty sure I know the neighbour who dobbed me in.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    Southern Flinders Ranges
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    Default

    The listed price of $1650 is still reasonably priced at the cheaper end of the market, granted it’s not bargain basement, but it’s still cheap for a complete machine of that size with what appears to be all it’s accessories. Go buy it.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jan 2020
    Location
    Brisbane
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    19

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Iron triangle View Post
    I understand your frustration, morally it might seem a bit rude , maybe tall poppy syndrome ? Imo nothing wrong with buying something cheap and flipping it , i've been doing it for 30 years. Profits are good, it means you can do other things with the extra money that you couldn't do otherwise. As an example when the kids were young we had no spare money so i started buying filing cabinets and associated stuff , In the old days i'd get the trading post at 4am Thursday morning and start ringing people selling cheap office furniture '' hey mate you still got those filing cabinets for sale'' lol. I'd race over there , sometimes 50km across the city , pick em up , fix the locks and then advertise them with delivery and make some $$. At one point i had over 120 filing cabinets stashed around the house , in the driveway , in the yard , in the hallway . I used the extra money for family holidays , new shoes for kids , pub meals , ect

    I'll give you a tip , next time you see something cheap and you really want it , offer the seller $100 more than he's selling it for , works most of the time. Set your phone up with alerts so as soon as someone advertises you will get notified straight away. An hour is way too long these days if its really cheap and a popular item. Good luck with the search.
    Not against people flipping things for profit, but like i said in one of the other replies, do it without the BS.
    Thanks for the tips - I do have alerts set up, but for instance with gumtree, by the time i get the alert, i check the ad and it's already had about 20 or 30 views. So, gotta be lucky to be at the front of the line i guess.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    May 2020
    Location
    Willowbank QLD
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    518

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    Quote Originally Posted by racingtadpole View Post
    The listed price of $1650 is still reasonably priced at the cheaper end of the market, granted it’s not bargain basement, but it’s still cheap for a complete machine of that size with what appears to be all it’s accessories. Go buy it.

    Since I am in a similar situation as the original poster I thought about buying this at the higher price. I could justify some of the price increase if he was willing to deliver as it is still on the trailer. If I saw it advertised at that price I would have been happy to pay.

    I decided not to buy for two reasons and did not get as far as physically looking. The first was the lack of honesty. I just don't like dealing with dishonest people. If he said he got it for a bargain and was looking to make money on the deal that is honest. His story was not.

    The second and even less logical is that I remember where I got most if not all of the items in my shed. Certainly the large things. For me part of the ownership is not just using, but more that is hard to explain. I knew in my own heart if I put that lathe in my shed it would always be in the back of my mind the purchasing experience.

    To explain this a bit better, I recently purchased a mill that required some work. I required two components. One that I got from a member here. From time to time when I look at the mill it reminds me of the nice people in the world that helped it to be a working mill in my shed. For me my shed is a place of enjoyment, sometimes frustration, sometimes hard work, sometimes things go wrong, but still a place I go for me.

    Steve

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Adelaide
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    837

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    Quote Originally Posted by Reidy41 View Post

    To explain this a bit better, I recently purchased a mill that required some work. I required two components. One that I got from a member here. From time to time when I look at the mill it reminds me of the nice people in the world that helped it to be a working mill in my shed. For me my shed is a place of enjoyment, sometimes frustration, sometimes hard work, sometimes things go wrong, but still a place I go for me.

    Steve
    My mill needed work when I got it and a forum member machined the parts I needed made and fixed. Now every time I use it I remember how it came to be.

    Eric

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