Hi All,

I'm following the discussion about the availability of new Olympia Creminas with interest (see: Olympia Express in the USA) and wonder how the changes at Olympia will affect the price and market for their used machines. To keep the conversation simple, let's exclude the Maximatics and other early models and consider only the Cremina.

Doug and Barb (a.k.a. Orphanespresso), do you know anything yet about the promised availability of newly manufactured parts for old machines -- also servicing?

So, I wonder whether this will make used Creminas more available?

Would that tend to lower their resale price?

Would it raise the bar on the condition in which we might find them?

Might those values not change much as there's a limited stock out there?

Also, I wonder how it will affect the market for these old machines by having a new and improved version available?

Will the new pricing -- neither higher nor lower than before -- affect the value of used ones?

Or is this all hard to tell without seeing the market respond?

(I hope we do strike oil where we have mineral rights in North Dakota so these questions will be moot!)

Later add: With all the success at Orphan Espresso, maybe Doug and Barb can launch a reality show like The Apprentice where they hire gnomes to build new toys and service old ones!

Perhaps another way to think about this is to consider similar situations for other, high-quality items, like new and collectible motorcycles, cars, musical instruments or stereo equipment. What might those scenarios tell us about the Cremina as a collectible object?

One might make a case that nothing has changed except the vendor. New Creminas have been continuously available in the U.S. for several years, with a lapse of only a few months between Swiss Coffee Products ceasing to represent Olympia and Orphan Espresso's assumption of the franchise. Further, I believe the current pricing at Orphan Espresso's website is the same as it had been from Swiss Coffee Products.

Richard,

There is the promise of new parts and service availability. If those are fulfilled, how might those developments affect things? Many of us had expressed concerns that the lack of replacement parts for older machines were not only impeding our ability to keep our old machines running but also were a strategic mistake of the old Olympia Express owners. Now both the company and its older machines seem more viable.

drgary wrote:There is the promise of new parts and service availability. If those are fulfilled, how might those developments affect things?

While there's no point in my speculating about the future, again, there is the perspective that the only change is the vendor. Swiss Coffee was servicing machines and selling parts.

As for replacement parts for old machines, Orphan Espresso has long been the go-to source. So again, there is the perspective that little has changed.