Yesterday a buddy sent me a link to a yard sale listed on Craigslist. Among the "stuff" listed was a "20 ga. shotgun loader and wads" and "swaging dies & punches". Needless to say I perked up and made plans to be there at opening time this morning.
Found the right table and sure enough there was a sorry looking MEC 600 Jr Mk (Something) and several boxes from Corbin. No prices on any of it so I looked it over and pretty much lost all interest.
Quite a lot of Corbin parts, most of it with some degree of rust. Only thing I think might have been complete was a die set for making jackets from 22 brass. I have no interest in getting into swaging so lost interest in that right away.
I have two MEC presses right now, a 650 that does all my 12 ga. target loads, and a 600 Jr. that gets swapped between 12 (field loads), 20 & 16 ga. duties. So I'm always on the lookout for another 600 Jr. to cut down on how often I have to change them over.
The press they had was coated with rust & dirt, had many parts missing, some in a bag sitting with it but a lot that I just couldn't find so had to assume were missing. In addition it is enough newer (plastic crimp die) that I wasn't sure I could use my existing conversion kits on it. There were two bags of wads sitting with it, maybe 100 pcs between both bags.
All that brought me to the conclusion that if I couldn't just about steal it it wasn't worth having. Off I went in search of someone who I could make an offer to. Finally found the right guy, first impression was kind of an obnoxious sort. I asked what he wanted and he grunted back "What's it worth to ya?"
So I offered him $10, all it was worth to me.
He countered with "$15 and I'll throw in the two bags of wads."
The rest was easy, "Nope"