G'day Norm,
I had no luck on Gumtree advertising Free catchers ,I had at least 50 late model Victa catchers with no damage and after
a couple weeks I took the ad down ,I drove to a couple mower shops and they didn't want any .I have been told market
place can be better for ads but there was a guy not far from me with about a hundred catchers for $5. each and he has
had them advertised for a long time on market place.
I just think it's my location not many people here are interested in older mowers but I do see a few people around your area Norm
advertising serviced / repaired mowers.
Usually when I drive past someone mowing the lawn it seems about 50 percent of the time they have an electric mower.
About 5 years ago I could sell 50 mowers in a couple months but lately if it wasn't summer the only way to get them sold
quickly was at $50. each but was still taking over a month to sell one so I haven't collected many mowers for the past 5 years as
they would just pile up and the last lot of 200 catchers I burnt a lot ,cut up a lot and threw a lot on hard rubbish.
I did advertise a free trailer load of mowers that got picked up quickly, with cutting up catchers and putting them in the bin
I didn't like using the grinder as you get covered in plastic as it was a little messy but found the jigsaw was virtually just
as quick as the grinder but was a lot less messy.
One problem was the vintage catchers that were advertised for a few dollars each ,I only had interest from people who wanted
them posted interstate and were happy to pay the $50 to $60 for postage but I made it clear that I could not post them as it
would take a couple hours to box one and drop it off to the post office and the selling price did not even cover the fuel cost
of getting to the post office and back let alone the time wasted .I've had that a few times listing larger new old stock items
for $10. and all I get are people wanting it posted but expect you to work a couple hours for nothing.
I had two old hand mowers a Pope and an Ogden with a catcher in very good condition and put $20. on the lot ,had no interest so thew them out but kept the wheels and catcher and advertised the wheels and catcher for $20 and it sold straight away.There was a good
Ogden mower at the side of the road here the other day and I was surprised someone picked it up.
At one stage I could buy a new ex demo mower for $100 that had a sprint 3.75 hp motor and use the mower for 10 years then
still get a $100. when I sold it.
Most of the stories I get from people that go to mower shops is they just want to sell them new equipment and tell the
customer that their mower etc isn't worth repairing or parts are no longer available or worse still when they charge
the customer $60 to dismantle the mower etc then tell them they need to buy a new one.
When someone leaves old fuel in a mower and the carby gets gummed up ages ago mower shops would charge $100.
just to clean the fuel system out (carby, tank, fuel line, filter) but I've never had anyone willing to spend $100 on a service
that included a fuel system clean out. People around here just throw the mower out.
Cheers
Max.
