Buy new now or wait

[Mitch schiffer]

Clearly you don't really need it and if your finances are such that a broken truck is stretching them it may not be wise to have a lot of capital tied up in unnecessary equipment.

Also, in a year your business will change in an unpredictable way. That might not even be the machinery you need then. Leave your money in the bank.

You could say I don't need it now but I'm trying to be proactive. The finances could support them however the truck repair bill may be north of 10k as last time I had a similar issue with this truck it cost me 13k to fix.

[Jared Sankovich]

If we manage to crash like 07/08 then sure. Stuff will be cheaper(ish) mostly from the surge of used stuff as companies fail though. There also will be no demand for things you would sell for a few years so there's that..

[Charles Coolidge]

Meh, I got stuff to do before I die. Ordered Tuesday, shipped Wednesday, arrived today!

jointer.jpg

[Justin Rapp]

I think the top brands will stay high. Look at sawstop, they are the most expensive, are raising their prices, and stores are stuffed with their saws.

Budget brands may find they can't push their stuff at the higher prices. I saw a lot of Laguna stuff piled up at the store today. I'd be surprised if they can hold their premium prices with the lack of matching quality and customer service.

I am not sure why everyone says sawstop is the highest price. Look at the prices of Jet and Powermatic. Jets 3hp with a lesser fence is $25 cheaper than the 3hp SawStop. Powermatic - there prices are $1000 over SS.

[Mitch schiffer]

Meh, I got stuff to do before I die. Ordered Tuesday, shipped Wednesday, arrived today!

jointer.jpg

Nice glad to see your machine was in stock. I am waiting in several machines since November 1 of them since July

[Charles Coolidge]

Nice glad to see your machine was in stock. I am waiting in several machines since November 1 of them since July

Slim pickings out there. I waited months and months for other machines about this time last year.

[Paul J Kelly]

Albert,

Amen brother. Life is too short to lament what could have been when you can no longer use it. "Get busy living, or get busy dying" - Shawshank...

PK

[Geoff Barry]

This is the saw I ordered back in May; canceled it in october cuz the delivery kept getting pushed back and I had to have a saw so I bought a smaller 14" jet Rockler had in stock. I haven't looked but ill bet you can't buy that saw for the same money today. btw, I see china ports are struggling with covid outbreaks again. Rikon 10-347 bandsaw 18 inch Pro 4 HP motor × 1 $2,560.00

Subtotal $2,560.00 Shipping $0.00 Taxes $179.20 Total $2,739.20 USD

Dang, timing really IS everything . . . I ordered my 10-347 in July, and it was already $3200 by then. It was delivered on December 24th . . . it killed me to order it after it had just gone up $600+ (the Laguna 18bx and Grizzly 19" had gone up around $500 and $400 at the time, iirc), but it seemed unlikely that it was going to get cheaper, and I had some projects in mind that called for a larger bandsaw. It's frustrating, but you can't let that interfere with a rational decision. There doesn't seem like there are many good reasons to think that the larger tools will be coming down in price anytime soon, and some decent reasons to suspect that they will continue to go up in price a bit before they stabilize. Which is a bummer.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

. . . I ordered my 10-347 in July, and it was already $3200 by then. It was delivered on December 24th . .

You got your saw on Christmas Eve!!.....So Santa is really really real? .......I'm gonna call my buddy Joe and tell him he was right!

[Ezra Wheeler]

Reviving this thread based on new information folks might have to add. I own a design+build construction company in the bay area and in light of all the tech layoffs and stock market volatility we are seeing a dramatic decline in new work requests and some existing clients putting their projects on hold. My subs are all seeing the same thing and there is the very real chance that a recession has already begun...at least in my industry. I am an architect and a GC and the nature of our business is such that clients come to me with a new project that need design, engineering and permitting that often take up to a year before a hammer is swung. So the current work load that the construction side of my company as well as all of the subs are taking on is based on work my design office produced up to 3 years ago when the economy and especially the residential construction industry was still booming. When we finish these existing projects, things are going to slow down...a lot. The dearth of new client requests portends a substantial slow down in work and this is consistent with the structural engineering firm my wife works at. For reference we generally work with around a 1-2 year wait period before we can began new client projects and this has been the case for us for as long as we have been in business. Currently that lead time is down to about half of that for major projects and minor ones we are available to mobilize in a much shorter period than we have in the last 15 years. I am not alone in this regard as many others in my industry are saying the same thing. So this will affect all of our sub contractors, custom cabinet shops and architectural millwork companies as well. Some of which will go under. I simply do not see how the pricing of these machines can stay at their level. $6500 for a new MM16 equivalent is bonkers to me. I don't see the price dropping to half that or thereabouts as it was a few years ago but their current 5% off for this machine is not going to move the needle in our current economic climate.

Having said that, we are still revamping our shop and replacing the TS and dust collection, moving the milling machine and adding a J/P and a bandsaw. This was a long delayed project and we have time for it now so I just ordered a Hammer A3/41 and although my machine was not available to pick up immediately, and won't be here for a couple of months, my rep was able to knock the price down considerably from current posted price on the Felder site. I contacted SCM and the comparable J/P unit was astronomically higher in price so that was not an option. I am still looking for a BS and so far nothing has popped up on the used market in my area that would fit the bill... well aside from the 15+ year old MM16 on ebay for $5000 (LOL). Since the prices for the new SCM units are still in the stratosphere maybe a new Felder 510, Grizzly G0636 or a Laguna LT16 are on my horizon. I am content to wait out for better deals as I am certain they will be coming.

[Keegan Shields]

Same here. Housing market is cooling off, more big layoffs coming in the Austin tech sector.

I think it’s important to point out that prices are a lagging indicator - meaning they are the last to adjust after slowing demand creates high inventory. Many companies will hold on to their high prices until they are forced to when competitors adjust. And if companies don’t ever hit that overflow of inventory, they won’t reduce prices.

Mean while the used market has come back to reality in central Texas. If the housing/reno market keeps slowing that will fuel further price drops and increased used inventory. I’ve also seen quite a few ads from Covid woodworkers figuring out they really don’t have time for it.

I got my $$$ ready

[Myk Rian]

Do you think prices will ever come back down?

Have they ever? Nope.

[Michael Burnside]

I'm waiting for Powermatic's next 10-15% off sale that usually happens in late February, so I can get the 8" parallelogram jointer with helical head. Getting "sales" prices is about the only way you'll get lower prices as I doubt the base price will ever come back down.

[Bob Borzelleri]

Market changing events are like red meat for manufacturers/suppliers. As soon as something like a broad based shortage of materials occurs with understandable increases in pricing, the door is suddenly opened to establish a new baseline. When the shortage passes, buyers are very often already accepting of the increases.

[Justin Rapp]

Market changing events are like red meat for manufacturers/suppliers. As soon as something like a broad based shortage of materials occurs with understandable increases in pricing, the door is suddenly opened to establish a new baseline. When the shortage passes, buyers are very often already accepting of the increases.

Inflation at it's finest.