...guy wants 2 grand for it, I haven't looked at the actual machine. If I could get him down to 1500 I'd probably load it up.
Prices seem to fly all over the place. A pretty nice looking 8250 sold on eBay last month for $1075 with some tooling, and eBay is not known for cheap deals (check item number 300899302460). OTOH, I recall a Rockwell on eBay that went for almost $5k not too long ago, but it was fully restored by someone with a good reputation. The seller *might* be able to get $2k for the 8250, but I think the overall market for manual mills has actually faded some.
If a machine is really good shape, a $500 premium is not out of line. Of course extra tooling changes the picture as well.
I my opinion, the Asian Clausing cousins are not even close. I owned one (Grizzly) and it did the job, but every time I got inside it, there was always something disappointing. The way surfaces that were in view looked fine, but the bottom of the saddle looked like it was scraped with an ax - maybe three points of contact. Also huge backlash in the spindle fine feed. Very loose splines in the spindle. There's lot on the web about tuning these machines up, but I figured if I was going to put that kind of effort in a reconditioning job, I rather do that on an old American machine. I never did that however because I found the "like new" Enco 100-1525.
One thing I noticed on Rockwell vs Clausing is that the Rockwell has tapered gibs, adjusted with one screw, vs. Clausing's row of gib screws on the table. I suppose you rarely touch them so it's probably a minor point as I've never heard a Clausing owner whine about that. As mentioned before, condition trumps almost everything else when making your choice.