I travelled in Mexico once upon a time. The seller of any product would inflate the cost of something 4x it’s value so if an inexperienced gringo talked him down to half the asking price, he would be ahead. Guess who the inexperienced on was?
Based on that experience, and knowing the condition is poor, starting at less than half for the pair is not out of line. And if he is not ok with it, he should counter offer. I would not worry about offending him. Unless he is stupid.
I’ve just given away hundreds if dollars of stuff because I needed to in a short timeframe. The value of the space it was in was higher than the cost, so I ate it and parted. Unless you know his motivation, start low. $1000-1250 would be my opener, for what it’s worth.
I’d start with the scrap value of stainless steel and tell the guy that you will not charge him for hauling them away.
My guess is this guy does not know the value of what he has, and is hoping for the best. He just wants to make some money off of something that’s collecting dust and taking up space.
Hell, he may take $100 for the pair and think he got over on you.
If you get them for scrap price, and they turn out to be useless, you will still be able to recoup your investment.
He asked you to make an offer. Don’t be in a hurry to give money away unnecessarily.
Restaurant equipment typically sells for as low as 5-10% of its original price at liquidation. Start at 5% and go from there. Good luck. Ultimately you may have to meet what he can get from someone else, but without another bidder, he can’t be sure he can get any more for them.
He knows what they are and what they are worth. He originally came to me, and I think I’ll just play it cool, and let him bring it up again and see where that leads us…
Thanks for all the advice guys. Quite a range of proposals to consider.
One last thought - Northern Brewer isn’t necessarily the cheapest vendor, so price it around, including EBay or other auction sites. Good luck - with that capacity, you won’t need to brew often!