Check a listing
Three checks before you make an offer.
Look up what the model has been asked for, read the seller’s data-plate photo against the record, and work through what a serious seller can show. Everything stays in your browser; the photo is read once and not stored.
- Published asking range by year
- Data-plate and control photo read
- 10-point evidence checklist
The value
What has this model been asked for?
Published asking prices by year, with the number of records behind each figure. Not completed sales, not an appraisal.
The photo
Read the plate, not the headline.
A data-plate or control-screen photo is the fastest way to confirm identity, generation and control.
On the explorer page for the model, and in the compare dialog, the Check a listing photo button reads a photo of the data plate or the control screen and compares what it finds with the record: make, model, serial format, control generation. It says what it could read and what it could not; it does not grade the machine.
The evidence
What a serious seller can show.
Ten things to ask for. Each one you cannot get is a question in your decision packet, not a reason to assume.
- Exact identity
Make, model, generation and serial number from the data plate, not from the headline. “VF-2” and “VF-2SS” are different machines; a photo of the plate settles it.
- Year and hours
Build year from the plate or the control, power-on and cutting hours from the control screen. A photo of the hours page is ordinary to ask for.
- Control and software
Control model and software version, and which options are licensed. Check the control against the control-support list before you price a retrofit.
- Options actually installed
Rotary, probing, through-spindle coolant, chip conveyor, tool capacity: each one in a photo or on the invoice, not “available”.
- Spindle and geometry evidence
Spindle runout, backlash or ball-bar results, a recent test cut, or the inspector’s report. Ask who measured and when.
- Service history
Maintenance records, repairs, spindle rebuilds, crash history. A machine with records is worth more than the same machine without them.
- Condition under power
Can you see it run, in person or on video, with the sound on? A machine that cannot be powered is priced as a project.
- Price basis
Compare the ask with the published range for the model and year. An ask above the range needs a reason you can verify; below it needs a question.
- What is included
Tooling, workholding, tool holders, manuals, software media and keys. The listing photo often shows more than the sale includes.
- Removal and logistics
Who disconnects, who rigs, who loads, and by when. The cheapest machine on the wrong floor is not cheap.
Asking prices are what sellers asked, not what buyers paid. The photo check reads text in a photo and compares it with published records; it is not an inspection, and it does not detect fraud. Evidence glossary · Evidence standard