Replacement cost, market value, liquidation value
Three different questions with three different answers. Most appraisals answer one and go in a drawer.
An appraisal is not a single number. It is an answer to a specific question, and the question determines the answer.
Replacement cost asks: what would it take to put the same capability back on the floor today? That is the question a property carrier is asking, because that is what it would have to fund after a loss. It is usually the highest of the three.
Market value asks: what would this equipment change hands for, between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither under compulsion? That is the question an appraisal district is asking, and the question a partner buying in is asking.
Liquidation value asks: what would it bring under time pressure, sold as a group, to a buyer who knows you have to sell? That is the question a lender asks when it is deciding what it would advance against.
The same machine can honestly carry three very different figures at the same moment. None of them is wrong. What is wrong is answering one question and filing the result against another — a replacement-cost report used to argue a county valuation, or a liquidation figure used to set an insurance limit.
This is why an engagement letter states the intended use before any work begins. The intended use selects the definition of value, and the definition of value selects the method.