Used or new: what a second-hand scrap shear really costs

The purchase price is the smallest number in the deal

A used gantry shear at half the price of a new one looks like a decision that makes itself. It rarely is. The purchase price is one line in a five-line calculation, and the other four decide whether the machine earns money in year one or sits in the yard waiting for a seal kit from a factory that stopped making that model.

This is not an argument against used equipment. Plenty of good machines change hands every year and run for another decade. It is an argument for costing the whole thing before you transfer the deposit.

The four costs nobody puts in the quotation

• Refurbishment. Blades, seals, hoses, pump, cooler, paint, and the crane to move it. On a ten-year-old shear this routinely reaches a fifth to a third of the purchase price — and you tend to discover the pump after the machine has been paid for, not before.
• Spares availability. A model still in production means blades and seals off the shelf. A discontinued model means a machinist, a drawing, and a wait measured in weeks. Ask for the part numbers before you pay, then ask who actually stocks them.
• Downtime while you find out. A used machine arrives with no history. You do not know how it was loaded, whether it was run dry, or why it was sold. The first month is an inspection you did not plan for.
• Resale. A new machine has a predictable resale value five years out. A used machine that was already ten years old when you bought it has almost none — you are the last owner.

What a new machine costs you instead

The premium you pay for new buys four things that are hard to put on an invoice:

• Known specification. The chamber, the blade gap and the hydraulic rating are what the drawing says, not what a surveyor estimates.
• A warranty that someone will honour. Twelve months from the bill of lading is the standard we work to, executed by the factory and coordinated by the supplier.
• Spares in production. Blades, seals and cylinders keep being made while the model is current.
• No surprises on arrival. You inspect a new machine before the balance is due, not after it lands.

When used is the right answer

Used equipment earns its place in three situations, and only three:

1. You need capacity now and the capital is fixed. A used machine that works this month beats a new machine that arrives in four.
2. The machine is current, not discontinued. Same model still in production means the spares problem disappears — the main risk of used equipment.
3. You can inspect it in person, or pay someone who can. A used machine bought on photographs is a gamble dressed as a bargain.

New or used — the honest comparison

The three questions that kill most used-machine deals

1. “What is the model number, and is it still in production?” If the answer is no, the spares question is the whole deal.
2. “Can I see it running, on video, with a timestamp?” A machine that cannot be filmed running is a machine nobody has run recently.
3. “What is the blade condition, photographed with a ruler against it?” Blades are the single most expensive consumable, and the hardest thing to judge from a distance.

Frequently asked questions

Can you supply used equipment?

Our model is new equipment from partner factories, because that is what we can inspect, warrant and support. If you are set on used, the honest advice is to buy it where you can inspect it in person rather than to import it on faith.

Is a refurbished machine as good as new?

Sometimes. A machine rebuilt by the original factory to original specification is close. A machine rebuilt in a yard with non-standard parts is not, and the difference is invisible from the outside.

What is the biggest hidden cost?

Downtime during the first months of ownership, when faults that the seller knew about surface one at a time.

Should I buy new or used for my first machine?

New, if the budget allows. The first machine teaches you how the equipment behaves; you do not want to be learning the supplier at the same time.