Due diligence, in order

The short version

Most people who lose money on used equipment lose it in one of four ways: they paid somebody who never had the equipment, they paid for a machine that did not work, they paid a fair price and then spent as much again getting it installed, or they bought something they are not allowed to plug in. Every check below exists to catch one of those.

1. Establish that the seller and the equipment are real

A closing practice has a name, an address and a phone number, and all three can be looked up in about two minutes. Ask for the practice name and the reason it is selling. Search it. Call the number listed for the practice rather than the number in the message.

• Ask for a photograph you specified. Not the photos already in the listing: a new one, of that machine, with the date written on a piece of paper beside it. Somebody who has the equipment can do that in a minute. Somebody who pulled the pictures off a dealer site cannot do it at all.
• Ask for the serial number and a photograph of the plate. It tells you the real age, and it gives you something to hand a service technician when you ask whether parts still exist for it.
• Be wary of urgency. Another buyer is coming, the truck leaves tomorrow, they need the deposit tonight. That is a technique, not a coincidence.
• Be wary of a story that explains why you cannot see it. They are out of the country, the practice is already locked, a relative is handling it.

2. See it run before you commit

In person is best. Where that is impossible, a live video call where you choose what gets switched on and where the camera points is worth more than any number of photographs. Watch the machine start from cold, run, and stop.

What to look at depends on the machine, and ChairsideSource has a guide for most of them. Start with the one for the category you are buying: the equipment library has a page per machine covering what it does, how it fails and what a realistic condition looks like.

3. Price the whole job, not the sticker

The listing price is one line of the real number. Before you decide anything, get a figure for removal, freight, installation and the parts the machine will want in its first year, plus any software licence that may not transfer with the hardware. A cheap chair that needs a control board is not a cheap chair.

• The costs people forget on used equipment
• What it actually takes to ship it
• How long each category tends to last
• What a used warranty is and is not worth

4. Find out what you are allowed to install

Imaging equipment is the one that catches people. Registration with a state radiation control program does not travel with the machine, inspection requirements differ everywhere, and some states have rules about who may install or move a unit at all. Find out before you buy, not after it is sitting in your hallway.

Board and radiation program links for all fifty states and what registration and inspection involve.

5. Pay in a way that can be undone

This is the check that decides whether a bad outcome costs you money or only costs you time. Wire transfers, cryptocurrency, gift cards and the friends-and-family option on a payment app all have one thing in common: once the money has gone, it has gone, and no amount of being right afterwards brings it back. A payment method with a dispute process behind it costs a little and buys you a way out.

The full guide to vetting a seller and paying safely goes through this properly, including what to do when a seller insists on a method that protects only them.

6. Write down what you agreed

Not a contract drafted by a lawyer. An email that says what is being sold, the serial number, the price, what is included, who is removing it, by when, and what happens if it does not work on arrival. Both of you reply to it. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between a disagreement and a dispute.