Help! Here's my story...

[wrwoolley]

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! 

[Tugadude]

First,  good on you for wanting to help.  I'm sure it is much appreciated.  I'll bet there's a forum contributor that lives in your general area that might be willing to come and help with an inventory.  Tools can be quite costly and there are also machines there, and they have good value.

After you see what is there, you can proceed a number of ways.  You could do one or any combination of the following:

1.  Decide on what you want for the whole shebang and list it here and see if anyone is interested.

2.  Sell the tools in groups.  You might want to sell the machines individually and then group the tools together in ways that make sense, for example, group all of the oblong punches together and then all of the round punches together, etc.  There seem to be a ton of stamping tools.  Those might be sold as an entire group, or divided up into groups such as basic tools, more intricate tools and specialty tools (like flags, animals, etc.)

3.  List each item individually.  This last one is difficult when there are so many.  To encourage folks to buy more than one item you might consider quantity discounts.  For example, $8.00 for a stamping tool but buy 3 or more and pay $7.00 each.  That might motivate people to buy more.  It isn't going to be profitable for yourself or anyone else to buy onesies, twosies.  especially if shipping is involved.

Hopefully somebody local with a big heart will offer to come look!

Good luck.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Tugadude

[buzzardbait]

Search "used leathercraft tools" on E-Bay. there are lots of used tools on there and you can get an idea of what they are selling for. those Tippman Boss stitchers consistently go for 800.00 up.  The value of the stamping tools will depend on the maker and when they were made. Check out Brucejohnsonleather.com. he deals in used tools.

[mike02130]

1 hour ago, buzzardbait said:

Search "used leathercraft tools" on E-Bay. there are lots of used tools on there and you can get an idea of what they are selling for. those Tippman Boss stitchers consistently go for 800.00 up.  The value of the stamping tools will depend on the maker and when they were made. Check out Brucejohnsonleather.com. he deals in used tools.

What he said.  Once you figure the tool's name, maker and model, search under "sold items".  That will give you a better idea of a price.

[mrwatch]

Of eBay, search closed auctions, to see what actually sold and for how much. Esp. the Tippman machine. many listing may not have a bid. Then figure how to price shipping. it would be best if someone local would give a fair price for all, as most only want the better stuff and leave the rest. 

[wrwoolley]

14 hours ago, Tugadude said:

First,  good on you for wanting to help.  I'm sure it is much appreciated.  I'll bet there's a forum contributor that lives in your general area that might be willing to come and help with an inventory.  Tools can be quite costly and there are also machines there, and they have good value.

After you see what is there, you can proceed a number of ways.  You could do one or any combination of the following:

1.  Decide on what you want for the whole shebang and list it here and see if anyone is interested.

2.  Sell the tools in groups.  You might want to sell the machines individually and then group the tools together in ways that make sense, for example, group all of the oblong punches together and then all of the round punches together, etc.  There seem to be a ton of stamping tools.  Those might be sold as an entire group, or divided up into groups such as basic tools, more intricate tools and specialty tools (like flags, animals, etc.)

3.  List each item individually.  This last one is difficult when there are so many.  To encourage folks to buy more than one item you might consider quantity discounts.  For example, $8.00 for a stamping tool but buy 3 or more and pay $7.00 each.  That might motivate people to buy more.  It isn't going to be profitable for yourself or anyone else to buy onesies, twosies.  especially if shipping is involved.

Hopefully somebody local with a big heart will offer to come look!

Good luck.

 

[wrwoolley]

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. 

[wrwoolley]

20 hours ago, buzzardbait said:

Search "used leathercraft tools" on E-Bay. there are lots of used tools on there and you can get an idea of what they are selling for. those Tippman Boss stitchers consistently go for 800.00 up.  The value of the stamping tools will depend on the maker and when they were made. Check out Brucejohnsonleather.com. he deals in used tools.

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.

Edited July 31, 2021 by wrwoolley
Additional info

[wrwoolley]

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...!

[wrwoolley]

18 hours ago, mike02130 said:

What he said.  Once you figure the tool's name, maker and model, search under "sold items".  That will give you a better idea of a price.

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. 

Edited July 31, 2021 by wrwoolley
typo