A deli about 45 minutes from my hometown is going out of business and selling their NS Aurelia Plus and NS grinder. They were asking 2k which I thought was a great price. Even if I just cleaned them up and sold them off, I can make some extra to put towards a different machine or use as a trade in.
Previous knowledge that I had before being in front of the machine. It is an '05 that was purchased in '06. They stated it was serviced regulary by an service company. Hooked up to a 3m water filtration system. The touch pads for each group had 2 and 3 buttons that didn't work on them.
So I get there and speak to the owner. Owner is a mid 30's Italian guy *acutual Italian, not Jersey Shore* that seemed pretty knowledgable about espresso and machines. He was very Italian style of espresso, which was really cool to listen to his view and interpetation of espresso. Hearing how he spoke about the machine was pretty reassuring, and he talked a good talk about keeping the machine in a good working order. The machine held good pressure during extraction and produced pleasant shots.
What concerns me and raised a feeling in my gut was the outer appearance of the machine. It was very dirty/stained with espresso, that wasn't just from a couple days of use. Also the screens on the group head looked like they hadn't been scrubbed or removed in quite some time, and definitely needed to be replaced. So the more I thought about it, the more I get wary about it. If you were the type of person to keep up on your espresso machine so that it continued to operate in a proper manner, wouldn't you be equally concerned about the outer appearance of the machine. Wouldn't you wipe down regularly the back wall, drip tray, and all around the group heads. If you loved your machine, wouldn't you keep your baby clean? Also the look of the screens and the shape they were in concerned me.
Was this guy just a good salesman? Even if it needed some work, should I or how much should I try to hassle them on the price because of the things that concern me. The price of 2k also included the NS grinder which I'm not really a fan of, but this was more of a flip than anything to put towards the purchase of other equipment.
Has the price of used NS Aurelia's dipped that much from when they were new? Example of an used machine on craigslist in Chicago. Fairly new seller and not really an auction I would bid on, but using it for price reference.
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