Equipment Appraisal Blog | Understanding Machinery Appraisals

Mad Science: How a Laboratory Equipment Appraisal Helps You Upgrade

Posted by Equipment Appraisal Services on Tue, Dec 06, 2016 @ 12:30 PM

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When you're working in laboratory research, you know just how expensive precision equipment can be. How do you afford the upgrades that are needed for your next phase of research? How do you encourage investors to put their money in your facility if you're not sure you can get the job done for them? Fortunately, there's a better way of raising money for new equipment without having to sign away that spare kidney you haven't quite perfected on the 3D printer. Laboratory equipment appraisal helps you ensure you can make your upgrades at the right time, for the right amount of money. Here's how.

Mad Science: How laboratory equipment appraisal helps you upgrade

When your lab needs an upgrade, there's a couple ways to go. You can sit on the equipment for a long period of time, hoping that someone will get around to finding out a fair value while it loses value sitting in storage. You can sell it immediately for a low price, ensuring it's gone and you've got a little extra cash. Either way can lead to bad outcomes. 

We've all seen it on occasion - labs that are selling out their old equipment at rock-bottom prices. Maybe it's equipment that's so old, they'd be lucky to pay someone to haul it away. Maybe it's equipment that's been seriously undervalued and is flying out of the building as quickly as it can be sold. In either situation, the laboratory business loses. How can you ensure you're going to get a good price for your older equipment? 

Two words: equipment appraisals.

When you have a machinery valuation performed on your lab equipment, you know what it's actually worth. Instead of having Tony the Terrible Intern pricing out your equipment based on prices from last year's College of Science sale, you can set a fair price on the equipment. Instead of it sitting around, taking up space and losing value because you're scared to lose it for less than it's worth, you can sell it on very short order to another company and immediately turn that cash into better equipment for your research. But what's different about getting equipment values from a certified equipment appraiser and what do they have in common with your researchers?

A certified equipment appraiser spends their time using standardized methodologies, much like your researchers do. In both cases, you get a standardized process that provides uniform results at the end of the run. It also takes into account helpful information like how much longer the equipment will probably remain useful, allowing you to prioritize your equipment sales, as well as when it's going to lose value more quickly, so you can get it out of your facility while it's still worth something.

By keeping these tips in mind and monitoring your values through a laboratory equipment appraisal, you can ensure that you're going to be able to make those upgrades that your facility and investors are clamoring for. If you need to determine equipment values and aren't working with a certified equipment appraiser, you could be leaving money on the table. A certified machine appraiser has the knowledge and experience to give you an accurate machine appraisal report that will stand up to scrutiny because they use standardized methodologies in their process.

Tags: laboratory equipment appraisal