How much is a Used Star worth?

[MikeS]

MikeS when I saw that one on Ebay, I knew it was going to be a project. That can definitely be fixed, would have been easier to re-inforce it before it broke.

It is always a crapshoot buying used stuff...even knowing about it's faults before so.

I think you may have a hard time getting a refund , if you do, pm me. I may take the project off your hands.

Hope you have good luck on the refund, though.

I will be buying up dies for mine, and a air feed setup .

It looks like the Phelps sizer I bought is back on eBay now. This time he's selling it for parts, and I'm just glad that he didn't mention my ebay username, as he's trying to blame me for stuff that was already wrong with the sizer before I got it. He says the handle is bent 20 degrees, and that he doesn't know how anyone can do that. I agree with him, I have no idea how somebody bends a handle on a Star by sizing boolits, I had assumed that the previous owner had bent it to give him more clearance, that's how I had the handle set, so it was sticking out to the right more.

He makes it sound like replacing that part is a 5 minute job, not one that requires complete disassembly of the sizer! It just gets me mad when somebody isn't man enough to own up to the fact that it was a broken piece of junk when I bought it, not because I bought it!

[BossHoss]

Lol. The sizer from hell is back on the block.

Sure, Mike. You cranked umpteen gazzilon lbs on that handle and bent it.....lol. And with so much force that the cracked casting "that was still strong enough to size bullets", broke. lol.

That guy probably cranked down on it , cold as could be, with congealed gunk in it, and broke it himself, and he still put it up for sale.


Makes you wonder what else he has pawned off as "ok".

I bought an old San Diego from a member here, because it was a package deal with a lot of dies, and haven't used it yet. I am waffling on selling it, waiting to see if I need two sizers with different lube.

My newer Magma is doing fine...

[MikeS]

Well, buying on eBay can be an interesting experience. As can selling. I've learned that there are some key words to lookout for. If a seller says something like "I'm not familiar with this type of thing, so it's untested" that usually means that it's broken! Even more so if the item is electronic in nature. I love the people selling moulds bright red in caked on rust, and they say "has a nice patina, should work fine", or when people really have no clue what they have, so they make up what they think it's supposed to do. One time I saw a Lyman 450 and the seller was selling it as a machine to water proof your ammo, and it even comes with 2 extra sticks of a wax based sealant!

As for selling your extra machine, I would say to hang onto it unless you really need the money. You already have it, and it doesn't eat, or drink, so costs you nothing to hang on to it. If possible mount both of them on a removable mounting system, like either the Lee, or PatMarlin's RockDock. Then you could set one up for your most popular boolit / size, and the other with the next most popular one, and rather than having to pull dies, and reset everything, you can just swap machines, and be ready to go. Or you could setup one with one type of lube, and the other with another type of lube (assuming you use 2 different types of lube) A good example would be having one setup with smokeless lube, and the other with BP lube. While switching out lube can be done, it's really a PITA, so if you don't need to, you're miles ahead of the game. I might even do this with my Lyman 45 that I still have, maybe set it up with BP lube, and leave the Star with my normal lube. If I ever get another Star, I will set it up to do BP, as I already have a 54cal die for it, all I would need to get would be a .457 die to lube the BigLube 45 cal boolits I cast, then I would be all set for BP rifle or pistol.