Buying equipment at auction?

[Madelaine]

As most of you are well aware, starting a coffee business can be an expensive process. To help cut down on some of the costs, I've been looking at local restaurant and grocery store equipment auctions to see if I can pick up certain things (3 compartment sink, customer bean grinder, etc) at a discount. Has anyone done this before, and are there any things to watch for, apart from the obvious cautions such as being aware of the conditions of used gear, planning on replacing burrs immediately on used grinders, etc? Has anyone had exceptionally good or bad experience with specific auction companies? Recommendations for shippers to send bigger pieces of equipment when they're too far away for a leisurely drive?

Thanks!

 

[namballe]

i buy my equipment locally so i can go there and test it myself. you also might want to try an appliance repair facility, as they also repair coffee equipment, and in many cases repair them for a customer, who in turn cannot afford the repairs, then the repair facility puts it on the market to recoup costs.

 

[Musicphan]

I've bought a few things used... its a mixed bag and you always have to prepare for the worse. Grinders, I have a Mazzer Major & Super Jolly which I had to swap burr's immediately. The Linea I bought I just dumped $2K into upgrade/rebuild .. granted some of it I wanted to do (its now fully PID temp controlled)... some I had to do. Non mechanical things (3 compartment sink) - if they look OK and don't leak, and fit your location they can be great buys.