Fair Prices for Equipment

Hello Briar press community,

I have the opportunity to buy a selection of great letterpress equipment right in my home town! (Yay! No shipping!) But I need to make an offer and I need to know what fair prices are. I’ve started looking online, but I also thought that I would ask the experts.

There is a Hamilton type cabinet (12 drawers) with an additional handmade 4 drawers. I have attached a photos. Cases are in the cabinet.

Composing sticks (a variety of sizes)

High speed quoins and keys (various sizes)

and a variety of old cuts (how much do these generally go for?

Any advice or costs you can provide would be much appreciated. I don’t want to undercut the guy who wants to sell this stuff to me, but I don’t want to get gouged either. Fair market value I suppose.

Thanks!

Michelle

Log in to reply   7 replies so far

You ask a hard question.
None of this stuff is currently made. The price is someplace between priceless and worthless.
You really need to answer the question of whether or not you will print with type and if there is type in the cases that is in decent condition and of the face and size you will use.
One composing stick and a pair of speed quoins will suit the average hobby printer. What would you do with more?
Are the cuts useful to you? Are they things you will use?
Has the seller stated a price, or is he looking for a best offer?

Sticks and quions about $25 each. Photo did not attach. In a batch the cuts probably no more than $50. Type is a tough one. I would say no more than $100 to $200 but that really depends on so many things. Full fonts could be as much as $50 each cabinet $100. Keys $10.

In all honesty it’s only worth what anyone is willing or can afford to pay.

I second Lammy’s comment, and add to that that it is also only worth more than as much as the seller is willing to accept, and with that restriction comes how much of a hassle it is for the seller to unload- IE, packing, shipping, willingness to go that route by the seller.

Sometimes great deals come to those who find the stuff in their back yard and are willing to do all the ‘heavy lifting’- and with such things as we are talking about, we all know there can be quite a bit of that!

hello

bought same sort of package
last summer
haul it away for 150 dollars

re the cuts
many are worthless
some may be worth from 9 to 25 dollars

on ebay
in good printing condition
a nice looking large book plate cut
can sometimes sell for more

Figure the scrap value of what you’re looking at. Lead alloys are running between $1.00 and $1.50 a pound to bullet casters (less at the scrapyard). Typecases tend to sell for $10.00 each.

Around here somebody has a Hamilton Double steel dustless and a wooden single (with type) for $1800. That sounds like a horrid lot, til you realize that that comes out to $30 a case, or $20 per font of type and $10 for the case.

Damned rare to come across a deal where you are paying $5.00 a case (with type), I lucked into such a deal, but such a price is not a realistic offer at all (shop was scrapping out).

So, in your case, if the type is serviceable, and the other bits help you have a better shop (vs being duplicates of what you have already), a fair price to the seller would be in the $200-$400 range. Remember, all of this (with exception of some type faces) is made of unobtanium, or has replacement values based on modern commercial use and investment ($$$$$).

Hope you and the seller can arrive at a mutually agreeable number. Hope you can also secure the stuff over some scrapper bozo. Best of luck!

An unusual aspect that would be more relevant, if a large quantity of type metal were involved, less relevant to a tiny amount but possibly worth keeping in mind for the future, type metal because of its composition is pro rata slightly different to pure lead by weight. And as we seem to have lost the ability to assay printers lead (and probably other composite metals) close examination, to establish whether it is of founders origin? or original Monotype, up to 14pt, was usually one grade, 18pt up to 72pt was normally slightly harder. But in any case if it is/was from way back it would almost certainly have been maintained to a good standard and therefore of more value to somebody still running Monotype. Like trade!? some good quality printers lead for some better quality new type. The scrappers can join the queue and the bullet makers will have less chance of blowing their own heads off, by packing their muzzle loaders with incorrect weight bullets for the charges they pack. Mick.