Thanks guys....sounds like the shoreline dig could work...will keep you updated.
@FireIsHot: My brother owned a backhoe in Colorado so he knows a little bit about them, although far from an expert. He's been watching on-line auctions, contacting sellers on e-Bay, Craigslist, & area re-sellers.
Darr Equipment in Irving will run basically a "background check" on these machines from the VIN# and you can find out lots of good history. The guys at Darr pretty much knew we weren't gonna buy from them, but they were still very helpful.
My brother tends to beat people down on everything he buys, so I am pretty sure he got a good deal. He bought it at some re-seller place near Tyler, Texas. He took in copies of on-line auctions and the guy came down to what we wanted to pay. Since it's close, delivery will be free as opposed to shipping costs from out of state from some e-bay seller, and the guy helped him fill out some AG paperwork where we saved like $1600 on sales tax. So hopefully we got a good machine...we'll see.
