wrwoolley

Thanks for the advice. I understand why people want to pay as little as possible, but I hate haggling. If someone doesn't want to buy something for the price I'm asking, they can find it somewhere else. I try very hard to be reasonable with pricing things. And LOL... I hope you're able to resist the "more tools" temptation. Unless, of course, you have some reason to treat yourself! Happy leatherworking!

Solid suggestion. I'll probably do that, as well as try to put out a plea locally through NextDoor.com.

I sincerely appreciate that sensitive attempt to get me to think twice. My craft of choice, however, is writing, which consumes my spare retirement time.

This was very helpful in identifying the age of the stamps: THE HISTORY OF CRAFTOOLS: The earliest name and date we have heard mentioned in regard to Craftool is Dick McGahen who began to make tools for leather carvers in California in the 1940’s. According to Ellis Barnes (deceased), he had many different tool makers that created tools for him including Ellis, Ken Griffin and others. The tools that were made by them probably had no numbers on them and may or may not have been stamped with the Craftool name. When you see this type of tool, it was likely made around 1950 or before. Once the numbering of tools began, they were marked with “Craftool Co” and just a number. This type of marking was consistent up through 1962. In 1963, they started adding a letter prefix to the number. From 1963 until around 1969 they were marked with “Craftool Co.” and a number with a letter before it to identify the type of tool it was. Around 1969, they began marking the tools with “Craftool Co. USA” plus the number and the letter prefix. This continued until the later years of the company. They eventually changed to marking them with “Craftool USA” and the number with the letter prefix. This continued to be the practice until they closed their manufacturing plant in 1999. This was the last time Craftools were made in the USA. Looks like I'm going to have to do a complete inventory, one stamp at a time. Hoo boy, this project could take a while!

Yup, as my sweetheart always reminds me, "Anything is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it." In other words, people can list items for any price they want to, but if no one buys it at that price, the actual value is $0.00.

I just checked out a video of someone using the Tippmann "BOSS" stitcher. That's one serious piece of equipment! On the Tippmann website, it looks like they sell refurbs, so maybe it's worth shipping it to them in Indiana. My education continues...!

Thanks! By my preliminary count there are 353 stamps and nearly all of them say "CRAFTOOL," "CRAFTOOL CO.," or "CRAFTOOL CO. U.S.A." on them. I'll definitely check out BruceJohnsonLeather.com.

Thanks so much for these recommendations. It seems like tackling this task thoroughly will take me well into the winter. I wish the leather-working items were the only ones I have to deal with. I'm just going to have to dig in and be deliberate. Once I sort everything out, I might take a couple hundred photos and post them on some sort of online album, with a link I can provide here. Maybe a video would also work. I'm going to cross my fingers that I can find a forum member who lives in my area of northern New Jersey. Someone with experience—and that big heart you mentioned—might be able to make a decent appraisal of everything and I can take it from there.

I've volunteered to help my sweetheart's elderly mother clean out her home and prepare to sell it. The woman's husband had begun leather working in 2009 and bought tools, patterns, leather, decorations, dyes, threads and equipment (some pictured). He died, unexpectedly, a year later. His leather-working shop takes up an entire corner of the basement and I have to dispose of it responsibly. Here's the rub: I know nothing at all about the craft, yet I need to place a value on everything, find potential buyers, make arrangements to sell it all and get it out of the house. Should I try to find someone to come and appraise the entire collection? If so, should then post it for sale here, and/or anywhere else? Any suggestions or recommendations will be greatly appreciated!