equipment for sale a GREAT PRICE or a scam?

[rockriver]

i was looking for a piece of equipment and of course i wanted it to be a good price. found it. and they had other
items that i would want as soon as finances allowed.
a great price. it was at a dealership selling used equipment/tractors/construction trucks. dealer was out-of-state.
i started writing emails and calling. all comms went slowly on their side... strange.
salesman didn't talk like he "was from around here." and his phone showed a town that was 100's of miles from dealer.

• The delivery process takes between 10-14 days they say. .... strange
• We offer free delivery for the first 1,000 miles. they say... this is great!! but very unusual.

so, i write and say that my trailer can handle the item i want. then explain where i live and how delivery will be expensive for them. and ask "what kind of discount do i get for doing my own delivery?"

and i get no response!

this was a surprise... i could not think of anyone that could go check the item that lived near the dealer, so i was planning to go.
then decided to call a govt office and hopefully get a good recommendation of the dealer.

i did make the call and nice lady advised that i not deal further with that dealer as they have gotten other calls of money taken and no product delivered. !!
i tried to deal with dealer a month? ago... maybe they sold the item i wanted and that would explain their not responding.

nope... item i wanted is still for sale.

y'all be careful...

[Lowdown3]

As far as equipment goes, I've had decent luck at auctions. Oddly enough this was usually at items I had NOT investigated very much or had on my radar.

Stayed at one till late night waiting on some beat up old excavator. I had written a cap of $15K, I kept bidding up to 18K, it went for just over 20K. I was going to hang around a few more minutes.

A newly painted (that's a clue with heavy equipment) big old excavator a lot larger than the ones I was looking at came through. I paid it no mind, figured it would start about $40K. It did, no bids, dropped down to $20K. I bid a time then ran out into the night looking the thing over quickly (it's a drive through type of thing), looked at the operator and made a turn motion and a curl motion. He did that with the machine- nothing spurting out, not odd sounds. Still though, it's dark, looks new with the paint (used to hide age) but I bid.

Got it for $26K out the door. They parked it, a looked at it briefly. Didn't have to pay yet thank God. Drove back first thing in the morning. Needs a new key start but got it cranked, hydraulics seemed good, raised most of the big old girl off the ground with the bucket, tracks seemed tight. Found a big maxi pad looking deal near the radiator, it was sopping up leaking fluid. Oil cooler for hydraulic had/has a leak.

7-8 years later, I add a bucket of hydraulic when I go to use it and plan my use so that I get a lot done before parking it. Outside of normal small stuff, it was a great buy IMO.

Had the oil cooler removed and "brazed" at one point but it evidently didn't work. New ones run about $12K In the future I may try to get it done again.

Was a very risky move, I prayed a lot of last minute "God don't let me do something really stupid here" prayers, they seemed to work out.

Worst purchase was a dealer in another state. I drove there to buy, ended up really short on time (my phone never stops ringing some days). A couple minor issues on this backhoe, mention it to the guy "we will fix it, that's what we do." They did but that was just the tip of the iceberg. I had traveled "all that way" and invested time and... I bought the damn thing. Dropped another $5K in it over the course of the next two years, then sold it for $7K less. Dealer had a bit of a shyster feel to him, tried to get every last drop out of me, I should have known better.