GLOWFORGE for sale or trade - basic - $1900 + shipping (to anywhere)

Everything Else
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Thats fine with me. good model. Even if GF offered me as little as 30% of the value as trade in or 10% buyback, bluebook, or X based on the number of hours on the Tube. All good.

Can I get an “amen” or “yes, that is a good model, GF should do that because their competitors do”

Consider this DEMOGRAPHIC:
I am one of the people who was in the market for an Epilog or boss, then GF started to advertize on AdWords and Youtube. I got sucked in with videos like this:

(pleanty more on their channel)

I resonably concluded:
“oh, ok, I can slowly pull my jobs in house with this machine and build a business”

My conclusion was false for many reasons. I own that.
(technical things like head alignment and performance aside, which I also feel burned by)

So, here we are, 2 years later, perfect condition GF with less than 500 hours on the tube. I am ready to “scale my business” but I am starting to see that this machine MIGHT BE a depreciated asset that had a value of $0 the day after I bought it.

Based on that, here are the possible outcomes:

1- Best outcome - GF does a buyback or trade in.
2- It sells on eBay, holding some value
3- It gets given away as a donation to a local school
4- worst outcome: no one wants it, ends up in a landfill

From there 2 more possible outcomes:
A: After being taken care of properly as a cutomer I put up some great videos and reviews showing how GF really does work to scale up a business just like it’s implied online.
-OR-
B: After being treated like sucker I switch companies and A still happnes, but with some other companies machine, feeling burned by my first Laser I remeber to always take shots that the company who burned me when I was starting out.

Now, do that to 100,000 people and what kind of “Brand” do you think forms in the mind of a consumer?

I am on that line.

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22

You chose the wrong machine.

GF’s business model is not ideal for businesses relying on their laser to be a mission critical tool. A business needs the ability to get help now, not 3 days or more from now. They need to have multiple sources for supplies, parts and repairs so they’re not reliant on a single provider who may not have the capacity to engage as quickly as needed to keep a mission critical machine on the line. They can’t be dependent on a cloud based solution unless they have backup pathways and an SLA in the event of failure.

A Trotec, Epilog or ULS would have been a better solution (I’d not recommend a BOSS laser based on the issues someone I know has had over the past year with hardware reliability & downtime waiting for parts). At least with these you’d be able to find local service, parts replacement (even if only temporary) from a myriad of other suppliers and local control of your files.

To use your analogy - there is a robust used market, just post your GF to Craigslist and buy one of the others. Or while you’re on CL, look for a used Epilog or Trotec.

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23

I would agree. I did. but its because according to GF… “I can start my business with this”

Read the post above, read thier marketing materials and watch their offical youtube videos. According to them, I chose “the right machine”.

But maybe you are right… I choose poorly? At least… that’s how i feel.
which, leads me back to my post above: I was mislead AND I made a mistake.
Thats a 50.50 blame game

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

And countless more. Seen the one with the Jewelry guy, the little AdOp documentary?

So… what happens to this machine now?

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People can start businesses using it, it’s just not the proper tool (IMO) for any business relying on it to be available on demand. Lots of people are making a go of it. But just like the Z3 can get my kid to school, it’s not really the right tool for her to do that regardless of how alluring BMW’s commercials are.

There’s a decent aftermarket for GFs. Posted on here most people seem to be getting 50-75% of their money back on resale. Not sure what you’ll get on CL or eBay but the market exists - all people are giving up is a 6 month warranty.

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James, are you reading this thread, lol, or just jumping in here?

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Many I have seen here bought a second machine and use the old one as a back up. If you have older technology there are folks who can repair them and enough machines to make a market. As Glowforge has only existed in any volume for a bit over a year there is no such volume of used machines for a market.

In those cases E-bay or Craig’s List IS that market

27

So… lets try this. I see WIIOs laws in effect. Communication is not successful.

#1- Purpose of this post: Sell glowforge
Are you replying because you are interested? (scroll to top)

An on the side… evansd2 - decided to take this into far far left field for no apparent reason I can conclude other than Trolling, or Debate (both are fine by me)

As for my other questions: those are RHETORICAL, to evansd2
I know exactly whats going to happen to this GF

1- Best outcome - GF does a buyback or trade in. (lol)
2- It sells on eBay, holding some value (probable)
3- It gets given away as a donation to a local school (possible)
4- worst outcome: no one wants it, ends up in a landfill (hope not, but might happen)

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to be fair, toyota doesn’t buy anything. dealerships, who buy cars from toyota and sell them as franchisees, do. but even then, those dealers buy pretty much any car and resell them. this really is apples and oranges.

btw, i don’t know that other laser manufacturers buy back their own machines. some of their independent dealers may buy and sell used lasers, but i don’t know that Universal or Epilog themselves do.

recouping the value is up to you, not up to GF. if you buy a $2000 TV from Sony, they don’t generally have a trade in program.

and to be fair, it’s not like they gave you an expectation that they would buy back their used machine from you. lots of larger equipment is really only sold used on the secondary market, not trade ins with the manufacturer.

you obviously are unhappy with the way GF does business. it sounds like they’re not really the right company for you to work with.

(and no, i don’t work for the company. and yes, i use it as a hobby (although I do use a Universal at work for business)).

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I’m really just flummoxed by the whole “they won’t buy it back from me” complaint. I own a lot of techy stuff that cost over $2000, and it would never even have occurred to me to expect that sort of thing from any of the manufacturers. (I do also have a Toyota, but for all the reasons listed above, that’s not a logical comparison.)

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I’ve read it. I was hoping to provide some clarity back to the original issue - you have a tool that doesn’t meet your needs and you want the manufacturer to give you some trade-in so you can get another machine.

It is the wrong machine for you for a lot of reasons. You’ll not get a trade-in from GF no matter what your personal view of the appropriateness of that is. Your only option is the aftermarket. Like it or not, those are the facts.

Everything else in this thread is philosophy.

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LOL. I would agree… a lot of philosophy here.
smh. also backs up your point. This is NOT the place for me

I am used to the Epilog policy on buying back lasers
I am used to professionalism of their forums,
The positive attitudes of the users
and that was the first machine I used.

I figured I could go: GF Basic, GF Pro, Epilog/Boss as my path to “business success”
Not the case.

It is a nice story though eh? To be like “I bought my first machine at GlowForge and I worked my way up to a Fiber Laser from Epilog.” alas… that will not be my story. I will instead remember this.

33

For the record I don’t troll and find it an offensive label.

Here’s an example of a troll just so you know what it looks like: You’re confusing being mistaken with being trolled.

Anyway. You’ve got a position and it sounds like you understand your options. Good luck.

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FORUM Trolling is replying to someone solely for the purpose of evoking an emotional response which in no way resolves their original Post, or, contributes to the solution being sought by the original poster.

Your FIRST response to me “where are you located for shipping” is NOT trolling, its appropriate, it contributes to the conversation, and “possibly” provides a resolution to the purpose of the post, (ie: the poster wants to sell)

From there, its was mostly debate… but slowly… lol… very slowly… started to look like “this guy just wants to evoke an emotional response from me because he does not agree with my opinion”

So, see how that could be confusing.

Anyway, you want to buy it? I mean, that’s why we are here on this post right?
For you, (and only you) I will cover the shipping.

But… if you had NO intention to buy, and still asked that question… I feel like that subjects your motive to scrutiny. Which I find very interesting, and candidly, I suspect you have “similar” feelings about your unit. But, that’s like… “just like an opinion maaaaan”

35

I love Epilogs, just couldn’t justify the cost of putting one in my basement :slightly_smiling_face: Great work machine though and really pretty easy to use. The very first thing that struck me about the GF was how slow it was in comparison to machines like the Epi. Didn’t matter for me but it surely does cut down on throughput potential.

I’d really really like one of their dual source Fusion machines - fiber & CO2 in the same box. But then I’d have to start a business that needs one. My wife isn’t that tolerant :slightly_smiling_face:

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You’re right! My motives were inscrutible.

The intention was to help you make the post more clear, because you’ll have more luck with selling it if you include that sort of information, from what I’ve seen here on the forum. I was trying to help you find a buyer.

Further, on top of that, I have a buddy who is vaguely interested in a GF, but cost and shipping are his biggest concerns. Your price is right, but he would prefer to drive to get it. If you were local to us, I would have passed your info along to him, but you aren’t, so I didn’t.

37

Thank You. That is a major point. I can also trade in my copier but the manufacturer doesn’t buy it back it’s the dealer that re-sells it if it has value.

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I don’t think you read what I wrote as I intended it. I meant that it would have never occurred to me to expect the company to buy back a product I decided I didn’t want any more.

And no, I don’t want to buy it. One each of my expensive hobby toys is enough for me. :slight_smile:

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So - is this laser still for sale or what? :smiley:

I have been thinking about buying another basic machine so I am interested

I am in Columbus Ohio oh, so we could probably do it without any shipping.

Please let me know.
Jason

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40

Hi Christian! I followed the thread below - I’m flattered your Basic is treating you so well that you would even consider upgrading to a Pro, regardless of your final decision.

I would love to do this. We’ve looked at it a few times over the years, but there are a host of factors working against us:

  • Shipping cost
  • The size of our company (big for a startup, but less than 1% the size of, say, Garmin)
  • The current workload (delivering to international customers, delivering air filters, scaling manufacturing to meet demand, and so much more)

Etc. We realized that any unit we take back from the field will, once we prioritize our commitments, sit in a warehouse. In short, until we get a lot more broken/defective/returned units, we don’t have the scale to justify turning our attention away from everything else to invest in creating value with them (e.g. opening a refurb sale program).

That will change in time as we grow, but I’m sorry to say that, right now, we have no way to do anything useful with used units, so we don’t have any program to take them back.

And for what it’s worth, in the “would you bet your business” on a Glowforge question - I’m clearly biased. If it was me, I’d start by recognizing that every tool has downtime. A nice feature about doing production on a Glowforge Pro is that you can use a Basic for backup to ensure you have zero down time - and in the interim, run them in parallel for faster throughput.

Just my $0.02 - regardless, thank you for being a customer.

–dan

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