Hi Peter,

Just a friendly warning about buying something like this from eBay (Yes, I'm making an assumption here). There are a lot of guys who buy discarded technology at auctions, usually by the pallet, who then get whatever they can for it, piece by piece, from the unsuspecting on eBay.

Before you buy anything like this on eBay, find out every possible pertinent detail before bidding. Don't be shy about asking the seller pointed and detailed questions. If they are selling something worth having they will be happy to brag about their item. They will probably tell you more than you wanted to know. But if they say something like, "I don't know nothing about this thing I'm selling, but it looks good...," run away as fast as you can while you still have your money in your pocket. They generally believe that they are somehow avoiding liability if they simply don't tell you anything.

Also contact the manufacturer to see if what you are buying is still supported. You will need software with this unit. Can you still get it, and if so how much will it cost? Sometimes manufacturers give software away as a free download, but in some cases they will require you buy a new software license which is 90% of the cost of a new system. And sometimes the necessary software is simply no longer availlable.

A few months ago I was looking to buy a PCB router. Someone put a T-Tech machine up on eBay. But the software it needed (which wasn't included in the auction) ran under DOS. The manufacturer didn't have a copy of the software to give away or sell. Somebody paid $1,800 for that T-Tech router, but unless they already had the old software to run it with, they were just out of luck. Oh yeah. If it had been a newer LPKF machine, one that was still supported, the software to make it work would have cost him another $8000, for the two (2) programs (not just one) that the machine needs.

You can save a boatload of money on good deals from eBay. But you absolutely must know everything there is to know about what you're buying. Otherwise, you're very likely to end up with something that you can't use.

Good luck.