Value of used Shopsmith

Have a neighbor that is trying to sell a Shopsmith that belonged to her husband who died a couple years back. Since I'm always in the driveway working on wood (at least until SWMBO gives the green light for a backyard garage) she asked me about it and how to sell it. Recommended the local Trading Post Mag but have no idea what to tell her to ask for it.

Looked at the machine and it appears to have all the standard accessories plus the bandsaw and jointer attachment. Her husband was the type that took good care of things so I'm sure it is in excellent condition.

Any body have an idea what she should ask/can get for it? Looked at a couple of Shopsmith auctions on Ebay but they weren't much help. Thanks.

Oswin

Reply to
oswin2461
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I do not know where you are from but the ability to sell one probably depends on the size of your classifieds marketplace. I know Shopsmith has a following of avid enthusiasts and if you find the right person she might sell it.

You might take a look at EBAY and note machines that have bids. I just took a quick look and found machines with bids run from $250 to around $650. There are also some in the $1,200 range without bids. There are also SS users groups including a Yahoo users group -

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Try googling some of these groups and see if there are users in your area.

RonB

Reply to
RonB

Click on the following link. This is an E-bay search of COMPLETED Shopsmith listings.This will give you a pretty good idea of current market value.

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luck, Chuck

Reply to
Chuck

Reply to
Wilson

If it's a fairly recent model (last 10-15 years?), I've seen similar go for $800-$900 at estate sales. I've seen newspaper ads in the $1000- $1500 range, but don't know if they sold for that.

If it's an older model (Shopsmith's been around a long time) it could go as low as $200-$300 even in great condition.

Reply to
lgb

Depending where you are I might be interested.

Reply to
danger

The following are the two Shopsmiths that I have purchased. Note that I had previously inheireted a Shopsmith from my Dad:

  1. A 1997 Shopsmith model 510 in good to excellent condition. It included a bandsaw, a jointer, a strip sander, a DC3300 Shopsmith dust collector, and all of the appropriate bits, blades, lathe tools, fences, arbors, 2 - 12" sanding disks and a Forrest WWII blade, etc. It also included a number of non-Shopsmith stuff such as a DeWalt ROS, a downdraft sanding table insert, a bunch of wooden wheels, plugs, dowels, etc. Total proce ,250. I then sold my 1982 Model 500 in excellent condition with a bandsaw and jointer along with appropriate bits, blades, arbors, fences and 1 - 12" sanding disk along with a spare saw table and fence for the same ,250.
  2. A 1988 Shopsmith Model 500 that clearly had not been used more than once or twice, probably only to play with it when it was initially set up. It came with a bandsaw that was still in the box, a belt sander that was still in the box, a jointer that was still in the box and a lathe duplicator that was still in the box. Unfortunately, this had been inheireted by a woman when her dad died and she had just kept it stored in her basement. She had apparently somehow lost some bits and pieces including the fence, the drill chuck and some others and it had some rust on the way tubes. Cleanable, but not excellent condition due to the rust, but otherwise very good shape and basically unused. All totaled 0. I spent about 0 getting all the needed bits and pieces that were missing. This was purchased for my brother so he ended up with a very nice and essentially new Shopsmith setup fopr 0. (I got to keep the Lathe Duplicator for my efforts).

Obviously, I was in no hurry to buy so I found a couple of good deals locally,(no shipping). I sold my 1982 model 500 to the first guy that answered the ad in the local PennySaver for the asking price with no haggling so I might have under-priced it.

Dave Hall

Reply to
Dave Hall

Maybe it's worth more as a tax write-off? See if the local high school or some nonprofit could use it. Need to ask an accountant how big the receipt for "market value" should be.

She might want to save that one till year's end, and try to sell the thing in the meantime. But if she just wants it gone in a hurry, donating it might be fastest.

Reply to
Dhakala

replying to oswin2461, Harv.sr wrote: I can offer $300.00 for it plus I will pay shipping.

Reply to
Harv.sr

replying to Harv.sr, Time Warp wrote: Do you think he still has it after 12 years? Probably best that you don't expose yourself to power tools if you're not bright enough to see that this dates back to August 2005!

Reply to
Time Warp

If he still has it by now he'd be happy to get 50 bucks for it.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

replying to Harv.sr, RedAce wrote: I have a Shopsmith I am looking to sell if you are still looking for one. I would have to get my husband to get some of the details about it.

Reply to
RedAce

replying to Harv.sr, RedAce wrote: I have a Shopsmith I am looking to sell if you are still looking for one. I would have to get my husband to get some of the details about it.

Reply to
RedAce

If they were such a "wonderful idea", someone would probably still me making them. When I saw them demo'ed at the woodworking shows when I was still too young to have a drivers license, I immediately thought "I've got to get one of those someday!". Turned out, I found alternate ways to to incur higher cost. ; ) Maybe it make more sense if someone is working out of a one car garage, and he or she doesn't have to worry about the value/cost of his or her time.

If there's a Shopsmith "cult" online, I would share the details of what you have to sell there.

Reply to
Bill

Somebody is.

Reply to
J. Clarke

My favorite feature:

"A new removable safety switch"

...because who needs a new safety switch when a old regular switch will work just fine. ;-)

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Actually, its seems like a pretty good product for Festool to get involved with.

Reply to
Bill

All in ones are a PIA.

Reply to
Leon

I'm guessing he means competition from other non Shopsmith manufacturers. Similar to the way Festool's tracksaw now has competition from Mafell, DeWa lt, Makita, and soon Bosch. Apparently ever company thinks track saws are wonderful. For the do everything Shopsmith market, you do have multi funct ion machines sold by MiniMax and Felder/Hammer. And maybe another European company too. But comparing a MiniMax or Felder/Hammer to a Shopsmith migh t get you clubbed in the head until dead by anyone who owns a MiniMax or Fe lder/Hammer. They aren't really comparable. There is some saying that goe s something like imitation is the best form of flattery. The fact that NO ONE copied Shopsmith kind of implies its not a good idea.

Reply to
russellseaton1

On 3/27/2018 3:11 PM, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote: ...

The were introduced in a different time, different environment and primarily for a specific type of clientele. Just having a limited market doesn't necessarily mean it isn't a good idea -- only that niche markets don't support mass production and high volume.

My uncle after the end of WW II started his interior decorating business and cabinet shop with nothing more than a Shopsmith and some Craftsman-type hand tools and succeeded to build the largest Armstrong dealership in the state with it as the only power tool for quite a number of years. He was still using it regularly albeit not for everything as initially when I was helping set tile on weekends to earn a few extra bucks while at university nearly 15 years later and it still had a place in the shop when he retired/sold the business after almost 40...

As production equipment for a large shop with the "veritable plethora" of imports and benchtops they're no longer as attractive; even for the casual weekender the mobile stuff is now small enough can actually do something with it to make room but back then that just was not an option.

Reply to
dpb

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