Opinions On A Tool Purchase

[RiahJ]

I found a gentleman who has some leather tools for sale. He sent me three pictures of what he has available and asked me to make an offer. I havent dealt with a purchase of this size, and I dont know what to offer honestly. The tools look to be mostly Tandy-Type. He did say there are a couple of books not pictured as well that will go. If anyone could give me any input, I would greatly appreciate it. Would hate to insult the man with a too low offer, but, still trying to get a good deal

[steve hansl]

Tell him you don't want to insult him by offering too low of a price and ask what is the price he will take.Usually most people have a figure they won't go below.If the price seems too high then you can low ball him and work from there.

[TwinOaks]

It'd take some time, but you could look at the average price of the tools @ Tandy x the number of tools, and work out a "used" price.

[WyomingSlick]

Hi, I have bought and sold thousands of leather tools on eBay and other venues. My final answer on what I see in the pictures is around $350.00 . perhaps up to $400 depending on how many, and what books he is adding.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

It gets down to what can you afford to pay, and can you use what you are getting?

No offense to WySlick, but in all of my dealings on purchases like that I pay around $1 per item, sometimes far less. My last purchase had well over 300 tools alone, and filled the back of my Saturn wagon with books, piles of leather, patterns, DVD's, granite slabs, tack hardware by the bulk bag, and more. Total price was $300. Another tool purchase that came with a stack of old Doodle Pages was $45, and had maybe half as many tools as those shown. It also included a nice wood carrying case, and some misc items. I made my purchases in N.CA, and here in Las Vegas. With a lot of items location plays a role in pricing. I also do blacksmithing, and I have averaged $1 a pound for all 6 of my anvils. In other parts of the country $2-$3 a pound is more common. It is that old law of supply, and demand.

With any negotiations that I have done in the past I like to talk with the seller some. In a lot of cases once they find out that you will be using the items instead of reselling them they may cut you a better price. I was also involved with the Boy Scouts, and some folks discounted , or donated tools, so that I would have extras for the MB classes. I purchased $6,000 worth of machinist tools from a gentleman that was retiring. He sold me the works for $550, and told me that it was because I was going to use them. Those are the tools that I currently have where I work. I have the gift of gab, so talking to people has always been easy for me , except when it comes to asking a gal out, then I am all tongue tied .

Have ca$h with you when you go to look at them. Greenbacks can seal a deal, and show that you are serious.

Again it depends on what YOU can afford to spend. If you can only afford $50 then that is what you offer. If you can afford more then do so. What are they worth to YOU? Don't be afraid to walk away from them , there are plenty more out there. Newspaper ads, garage sales, Craigslist, and word of mouth is how I found all of my tools.

Just an aside, since I probably have everything that is in the pictures already I would probably offer around $100 tops. If I got them, they would become trading material. Don't forget that there are tons of these out there. That is one reason I got the machinist tools as inexpensively as I did. There are gobs of machine shops auctions in the area I grew up in, and tools average 10 cents on the dollar. I have a 5'x10' CNC cutting torch/plasma combo that runs $27,000 that I got for $2,700. Simple supply, and demand. Times are rough for some folks, and they are dumping tools to pay the bills. I am not suggesting that you take advantage of someone, just that there are people dumping tools at bargain prices. The big $300 purchase I made last summer was someone leaving the state, and wanted to reduce their load. I went to look at the tools only, and he said "How about $300, and you can have everything that I have left minus the machinery?" Couple of weeks later I ended up with an Adler patcher that he had for $400. He set the price on that too,and I didn't argue with him.

To find tools start talking to everyone that you know, and let them know what you are interested in. Someone may have a relative that has some old tools stashed away that they would like see go to a good home. Every garage sale i went to I asked if they had any hunting, or shooting supplies. I got quite a bit of stuff that had not been set out, or advertised. Watch Craigslist, the newspaper ads, garage sale ads, let the folks at the local thrift stores know that you are looking for leather stuff, and pretty much tell everyone that you know. I bet in a relatively short time it will produce results. Example , a friend just told me that he wants to get set up for blacksmithing. I went to a garage sale up by where I work, and asked if they had any smithing stuff. Sure enough I turned up a forge blower, some tongs, and 3-1/4 barrels of coal.

Good luck in your treasure hunting.......