Ever go looking for a machine just to find out its advertised from different dealers? Ever wonder why that is? I mean who really owns it and who should you talk to to get the best deal? Here we break down the mystery surrounding the internal workings of selling used machinery, the types of sales that are advertised and the partnerships that occur. All these lead to finding out why you might find it advertised by two or more companies.
Brokering?
First off machinery you see advertised for sale may or may not be owned by the company offering it. Needless to say, that shouldn’t alarm you at all, as many machines are offered directly from an end user’s floor through an experienced machinery dealer, like Southern Fab for resale. These types of sales are coined with the term “Brokering” although that's not technically correct, the term has stuck. Nevertheless, a quality dealer knows the market, values, challenges with logistics, and can provide financing to make any machine sale happen quickly and smoothly for the seller WHILE netting the seller a higher return then if the equipment was purchased outright and moved to the dealers warehouse.
“Brokering” Machinery also offers the buyer a chance to see the machine in its ‘natural environment’ (i.e. where it's been operating and cared for most of its life). Here a buyer can easily see how clean the facility is and if they have a preventative maintenance program in place as well as many other factors. Often a potential buyer can talk directly with the machine operator asking questions on operation, maintenance and if there are any known issues so these machinery purchases can actually be preferred by a buyer.
In some situations where a machine is sold from a user's floor they may have contacted one or more dealers to help them sell it quicker. In these cases the dealers are operating independently and likely on little margin while the seller holds all the cards (often raising the asking price while they are guessing at market values). This type of machinery sale is one that Southern Fab just won’t get involved in as it sets up a losing scenario for everyone, including the seller, from the very beginning. In our direct sales scenarios we operate under a contractual agreement with our seller just as a realtor might do. We throw our effort (and $$$'s) into it just as if we owned the machine on our floor. We agree on a sales price up front and work with any other dealers (a type of business joint venture) making the process much easier for the seller and buyer while protecting the interests of all parties. Here you may see both dealers advertising the same equipment.
A Joint Venture (or JV as dealers call it) is simply a business partnership on the equipment being offered or purchased. Joint Ventures can be a very tactfully sound way to either make the most of a brokered machine (see above) or partner in a single, multiple or whole plant purchase. These all can occur for a variety of reasons but some of the most common are:
In all these scenarios you will find multiple machinery dealers advertising the same machine for sale. So the basic questions become:
In the end a machinery purchase through a quality dealer like Southern Fabricating Machinery Sales, Inc. can be an easy and painless transaction. We follow the guidelines and ethical practices put forth by a network of used machinery dealers that have agreed to be bound to a higher standard. This group the MDNA (Machinery Dealers National Association) is another way of assuring your dealing with a quality company interested in getting every transaction right. Also when working with us, there are plenty of safety’s built into our process along with loads of information provided to you to provide for a comfortable and assured transaction. So if you see our machines advertised by another dealer, you can rest assured it's likely someone that meets the high standards that we set for ourselves and that we have had multiple successes with in the past.