What’s It Worth?

What we have here is an Ipsen bottom load vacuum furnace built in 1978 with working dimensions of 48″ X 48″, new controls, installed and apparently in quite good condition. So how saleable is it and what is it worth? The biggest issue for this furnace is that very few captive or commercial heat treaters have a need for a bottom load unit. As an example if lets say 200 new vacuum furnaces a years are sold in North America (we are talking heat treating, brazing and tempering only) probably only 10 of those would be bottom loaders. Effectively this means that unless somebody has an immediate need for a bottom loader the value is pretty well zero unless the vendor can afford to wait until there is a demand. In this particular case the vendor would like the space but does not need it immediately. Consequently they set an aggressive price asking price of $99,000 USD on the basis that they would like to sell the furnace but are not prepared to give it away. Our prediction is that it will sell within a few months at this price.