Welder Dave
Senior Member
I was looking at potentially buying an older Champion grader and was wondering what is a reasonable mark up for used equipment dealers? One dealer has 2 graders that were purchased at auction and I searched and found out what they sold for. One was purchased last June for $7750 and the other was purchased last Sep. for $11500. I have no problem paying more to not have to go through the auction process but the dealer is asking $17,900 and $18,300 for these machines a year later. I think I have a bit of an advantage (negotiating) knowing what they sold for but I'm not paying over double or close to double. I'm thinking maybe 30-35% markup not over 100%. Delivery, service, etc. could maybe be part of a deal. What would be a good starting offer? Should I mention I know there's some similar machines coming up at auction and could go that route? I could play dumb too and ask about service records and other stuff and see what kind of story I get. Sometimes it's easy to see when a sales person is full of BS. I discovered this when looking at the dump truck I ended up buying at auction. They would have made more money on my offer than selling it at auction. I haven't talked to this place with the graders yet but just looking for negotiating advice. Maybe walking in with cash is the way to go if the machine(s) checks out OK. There is another outfit here that specializes in Champion graders that will do an inspection but I'm not sure what that costs? Might be worth seeing what an inspection costs or at least get the basics on what to check.