Sr. Tech-
I'll pipe in a bit as this is a touchy subject with me as well. I do feel that sometimes I am simply selling my way out of business when I export a piece of used equipment. However business for myself in THIS country has increased dramatically in the past year and I don't feel quite the same about it now as I did a year ago. Things are turning around in the US, Canada and Mexico as requests for equipment from these countries is dominating versus Asia.
As far as pricing goes what Claude said is the simple truth...this is as pure a supply and demand business as you will ever see. We are simply in a business cycle when used equipment thrives the most and prices are near or at their peak. When the economy was at it's worst...in 2002 for example I couldn't give away a CP-6 or an MV2F ......AT ANY PRICE. I saw CP-6's for sale at $25K and CP643's for less than $100K. Remember these were machines that sold new for about $500K-$600K. Were those cheap prices realistic? No they were not. Was Cisco stock fairly valued at $9? I don't think so. It wasn't too many years ago that if you asked me to quote you a used CP-6 I would have quoted you $400K because that's what the market was paying for them back then. Today as the economy picks up steam and people need more equipment the prices will go up. Once the prices reach a certain point however, people will start to look at new machines again. We are getting close to that scenario now and will probably get to that point this year. Then of course the OEM's will raise their prices as well...but that's another story. The bottom line though...it's not Asia that's driving this price increase. If Asia was the only country buying you'd still see CP6's selling for $25K. Trust me on that one.
I'm sorry to say you've missed the boat on $25K CP-6's. We will return to those levels again some day but not for a while. So you have to pay $75K-$100K for it anyways? So instead of paying off the machine in a month at $25K you pay it off in 3 months. Remember.....YOU ARE USING THIS MACHINE TO MAKE MONEY. It's not a car. Every time you push the start button money magically appears in your pocket. You are getting a bargain even at $100K if you have the business to support it.
Rick- Fastek
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