What used commercial kitchen equipment is really worth, backed by what it actually sold for, not a guess.
The problem
Forty percent apart. Somebody overpaid by a thousand dollars, or somebody got a thousand-dollar bargain. At the time, neither of them knew which.
It happens on every walkthrough. Two coolers look the same and one is worth three times the other. A Hobart averages nearly four times what a comparable-looking unit brings. The knowledge exists. It just lives in the heads of people who've been doing this for thirty years, and it doesn't scale past one person.
What Hammerbook does
Photograph the unit and its data plate. Hammerbook reads the make, model and year.
A value range built from what comparable units actually sold for, with the comps shown, so you can check the work.
Walk a whole kitchen in one session. Leave with a list your client can read.
Three numbers, not one: fair market, orderly liquidation, and forced liquidation. What a piece is worth depends on whether you have ninety days or until Friday.
Where we are
Hammerbook is early. We're talking to auctioneers, liquidators and equipment dealers about how pricing actually works before writing the software, because a valuation tool built by someone who's never walked a closing kitchen would be worth exactly nothing.
Starting with commercial refrigeration, then cooking equipment. If you price used kitchen equipment for a living, we'd like fifteen minutes of your time, and we'll share what we learn either way.
Tell us how you price a kitchen today, and what it costs when you get one wrong.
jakerobinson@gethammerbook.comHammerbook is built by Jake Robinson in St. Louis, Missouri.