It's more of a personal choice, few hundred vs a few thousand, than anything. Does the toro work without issue? Changing parts on the toro is not hard.

Edit: just priced out some parts. I'd definitely go the toro route provided the engine has been maintained. There are a couple golf courses around the seller location so it seems the seller is a course and they are replacing their fleet. Might want to call and ask for the equipment manager and see if they'd be willing to sell for 350 since ebay and paypal fees are like 50 bucks. If not, then you could still confirm nothing is wrong.

 

Figure thats about 300-400 when all is said and done.

Are you doing the work?

 

I would do the work. I don't have experience with the mower but im pretty handy so i think i could figure it out

 

Sorry for the late reply. I have an 11 blade reel on my GM1000 and I was cutting at 5/8" to 7/8" most of the summer. Sure, you're going to get some stragglers, but it will cut just fine.

If the Toro is in good shape otherwise, I'd go for it. Use it for a season and if you're unhappy with the quality of cut, you can always switch out the reel.

 

If the Toro is in good shape otherwise, I'd go for it. Use it for a season and if you're unhappy with the quality of cut, you can always switch out the reel.

This is really good advice! If you read enough on here, there are horror stories of new, reel mower owners running into concrete curbing and unknown objects in their lawn. Let the old reel take the abuse of the scalp and lowering your hoc and finding those unknown objects.

 

I currently use the GM 1000 with an 11 blade reel, and I maintain a HOC of 3/4 with no issues. My front yard even slopes a little. You should have no problems as long as everything is in good working order. And @Harts & @TulsaFan had some great advice. If you have never owned a greensmower before, there is a learning curve. My neighbors probably had a good laugh watching me from their windows as I tried to "tame the beast" for the first few mows.

 

I currently use the GM 1000 with an 11 blade reel, and I maintain a HOC of 3/4 with no issues.

The reel diameter and number of blades determine the height range that a given reel mower will handle. It's actually the distance between the adjacent blades in the reel that determine how tall the grass blades may be and still be cut. Less distance between blades means higher clip rate and finer cutting at a cost of ability to handle increasing lengths of blades, and correspondingly, greater distance between blades handles a wider range of heights but with a lower clip rate.

You choose the reel based on how much the grass will grow between cuts.

 

The Lawn Tools youtube channel is currently doing a restore and a blade change on a GM1000. Part 1 and 2 are up now.

https://youtu.be/nv9WpWI35LA

 

I just ordered a new bedknife, 8 blade reel, bedknife screws, bearings and seals for the reel from R&R Products and the total with shipping and tax was just under $400. tax and shipping were $80. Removing the reel was easier than I thought it was going to be.