My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

On 2005-02-05 20:25:21 -0500, "David Yoder" said:

My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "tools." Are we talking a
tool box with some stuff that looks like rulers, pointed instruments,
and a few watch-like devices, or are we talking a garage full of heavy
iron that says "South Bend," "Hardinge" or "Myford" on it?
The short answer here is to get yourself on ebay and start trying
to find stuff that looks like what you have. How much does it sell for?
You might also pick up a copy of "Home Shop Machinist" magazine
at your local book seller and glance at it. I would advise extreme
caution at this point, however. There is a slight chance that you
would become infected with the strange and insane desire to make things
and see a job done right. You might spend a great deal of time better
understanding the past and how we got where we did and why. Next thing
you know, you'll be reading "Trustee from the Toolroom," and "Atlas
Shrugged" and hand-scrapping shaper rams or learning to gas-weld
aluminum airplane frames from the Tinman.
My great-great grandfather was a pattern-maker for the West Point
Foundry in Cold Spring, New York, and like a fool, I opted to keep his
toolbox...
Yes, I believe I would advise extreme caution. Your decision to
contact this group, indeed, your humble success in finding us belies a
dangerous latent enthusiasm for a kind of techno-bonsai that leads
straight through the looking glass. It might be best to tie yourself to
the mast.

Charles Morrill

David Yoder wrote:
My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

I suggest you price about 15% below current ebay pricing -- this will make
demand nice and snappy. If it were me I'd sell the more expensive items on
ebay and put the rest in one batch on craigslist.org - GWE

Somehow you need to size up the collection. I recently bought a smaller
Logan lathe from an estate. After talking to the two sons dealing with
things, I'd estimate that the total value of all the tools, equipment,
and supplies in the house and garage was something like $1000 with the
lathe about 1/3 of that. Pretty small deal. I've also seen a shop that
is currently almost completely idle since the old man only shows up on
an occasional morning. I'd guess it will be up for sale fairly soon.
Complete setup for a 3 man shop with mills, lathes, grinders, tool
chests, etc etc. Perhaps $25,000 as a wild guess?

See if you can match some of the bigger items to recent e-bay sales.
Keep in mind that those sales are "one at a time" items so drop the
price you actually get by at least a third.

You really need someone to take a look at what is there. If you could
find someone your father used to work with, the local vo tech machinist,
someone from this NG, etc to have a look, it would be worthwhile. The
local machine tool dealer will offer you 10% of what it is worth.

You might want to dig around in the collection, take a look at the 10
items YOU think are the most valuable, get a description, post it here.
If you have some way to post some pictures, you will get a better response.

This is likely to take a while. Good luck!!

David Yoder wrote:
My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

In article et,
RoyJ wrote:
Somehow you need to size up the collection. I recently bought a smaller

[ ... ]

You really need someone to take a look at what is there. If you could
find someone your father used to work with, the local vo tech machinist,
someone from this NG, etc to have a look, it would be worthwhile. The
local machine tool dealer will offer you 10% of what it is worth.

You might want to dig around in the collection, take a look at the 10
items YOU think are the most valuable, get a description, post it here.
If you have some way to post some pictures, you will get a better response.

Note that while it is *technically* possible to post the
pictures to the newsgroup, it is against the guidelines for discussion
groups on usenet, and may be sufficient to lose you your account if
someone complains.

So -- if you have a web site with your account -- put the images
there, and then post the URL here. (Having the images on a web site
will be helpful when it comes time to put the items on eBay -- if you
decide to do that.)

If you *don't* have a web site, or don't have the time to figure
out how to use it, an alternative would be to check into the dropbox

http://www.metalworking.com/

Visit there, and click on the "about the dropbox" bar to get information
on how to post there, and the guidelines (e.g. include a .txt file to
tell what they are and why they are there, and avoid certain thing which
make the filenames more of a pain on some systems -- e.g. *please* no
spaces in the filenames, though I understand that those are
automatically corrected these days). Best to keep to mixed case
letters, numbers, '.', and '_' (in place of spaces). Other characters
may be a problem on some system or another.

Best of luck,
DoN.


P.S. Another suggestion is to look for a metalworking club in your
area. That would provide both people who could tell you what
you have, and people who would probably like to buy a lot of it.


I know that I have added to my own tool collection at estate
sales. (Though I would *really* have liked to know the owners before
they passed away.)

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Will eBay kill all the good deals??

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
David Yoder wrote:
My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She
lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

I suggest you price about 15% below current ebay pricing -- this will make
demand nice and snappy. If it were me I'd sell the more expensive items on
ebay and put the rest in one batch on craigslist.org - GWE

"David Yoder" wrote in message
...
My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.



If you want to make money, sell it on ebay. If you just want to get rid of
it, look on ebay and see what it is worth, start at that price, and sell it
locally.

Steve

No question ebay has had a profound influence on shaping the world of personal
selling. If you take an intro economics class you are quickly taught that all
economic theory is based on the assumption of an ideal marketplace i.e. one
in which if anyone anywhere offers a good or service at a price then everyone
everywhere knows all about it. Well, for many years many businesses ran and
made a fat living just on the fact that marketplaces WEREN'T ideal. If a kid
in North Seattle wanted a used Fender Stratocaster he could buy one out of
the paper, look in the pawnshops, or look at a used guitar store. Did any of
those places give him an idea of how much such an instrument would cost if
he bought one in Los Angeles? No. Result was the pawnshops and used guitar
stores could mark their Strats way up and the market artificially inflated.
Then along came ebay and suddenly most of the used guitar stores are gone
and pawn shops are back to gold watches and ghetto Peavey guitars again. And
they bitch like crazy, saying "ebay wrecked the musical instrument market".
Not from where I sit, it didn't! It just cut out a whole ****load of middlemen,
and lets buyers get more and sellers pay less.

Ideally, anyway ..

GWE

Waynemak wrote:

Will eBay kill all the good deals??

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...

David Yoder wrote:

My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She
lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

I suggest you price about 15% below current ebay pricing -- this will make
demand nice and snappy. If it were me I'd sell the more expensive items on
ebay and put the rest in one batch on craigslist.org - GWE

"SteveB" wrote in message
news:HQrNd.37138$mt.12066@fed1read03...

"David Yoder" wrote in message
...
My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She
lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.



If you want to make money, sell it on ebay. If you just want to get rid
of it, look on ebay and see what it is worth, start at that price, and
sell it locally.

Steve


If you just want to get rid of it I just live a couple of hours southwest of
you.
Randy

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 07:47:21 -0500, "Waynemak"
wrote:

Will eBay kill all the good deals??

eBay broadens the market enormously. This has two effects. One is to
drive prices toward a single point nationwide. The other is to make
stuff much more widely available.

On the whole, I'll take it.

--RC

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...
David Yoder wrote:
My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She
lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

I suggest you price about 15% below current ebay pricing -- this will make
demand nice and snappy. If it were me I'd sell the more expensive items on
ebay and put the rest in one batch on craigslist.org - GWE


Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit;
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad

-- Suzie B

wrote:

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 07:47:21 -0500, "Waynemak"
wrote:


Will eBay kill all the good deals??


eBay broadens the market enormously. This has two effects. One is to
drive prices toward a single point nationwide. The other is to make
stuff much more widely available.

On the whole, I'll take it.

Me too. The biggest downside is that everyone
at the flea market thinks they are entitled to
ebay prices. I don't quite see it that way and
will stop going to them if the trend continues.

David Yoder wrote:
My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.


I would check the closest vocational tech school. Either post on the
bulletin board or talk to a shop instructor. I'd be inclined to sell the
whole package to a deserving student, on an payment plan if necessary.

And you might want to consider donating part or all to an education
institution. You may be able to claim a tax deduction that will be worth
more than you could get from a casual sale.

Have you considered an auction house? The ones around here do estate
sales all the time.

David Yoder wrote:

My father was a machinist his whole life and passed away a few years ago.
My mother wants to sell his tools but she's not sure where to start, and
neither am I. Can anyone give me some ideas on how to proceed? She
lives
near Fort Wayne, IN if that's any help.

Used to be one could cruise around and find bargains in junkstores,
salvage houses, and auctions. Now everyone in those businesses lives and
breathes ebay. The most obscure junk dealer knows exactly the ebay value
of everything he/she has. Getting so a guy can't hardly stumble onto a
treasure.

Jim Stewart wrote:
wrote:

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 07:47:21 -0500, "Waynemak"
wrote:


Will eBay kill all the good deals??



eBay broadens the market enormously. This has two effects. One is to
drive prices toward a single point nationwide. The other is to make
stuff much more widely available.

On the whole, I'll take it.


Me too. The biggest downside is that everyone
at the flea market thinks they are entitled to
ebay prices. I don't quite see it that way and
will stop going to them if the trend continues.

Rex B wrote:

Used to be one could cruise around and find bargains in junkstores,
salvage houses, and auctions. Now everyone in those businesses lives and
breathes ebay. The most obscure junk dealer knows exactly the ebay value
of everything he/she has. Getting so a guy can't hardly stumble onto a
treasure.

What you've really been taking advantage of is sellers' ignorance of pricing.
It's still available at garage sales and estate sales. Yesterday I was
following up an ad for a basket-case Shopsmith (always nice to swap better
parts for my old ones) from the estate of a grandpa type. I got most of an
old Shopsmith (including several parts I needed) plus an entire Shopsmith
jigsaw and an intact Dumore CarvIt, which is a carving duplicator tool. Also
got a nice carpenter's bevel square, a nice handheld vise and a name-brand
10" Vise-Grips plus a couple of monkey wrenches. Total cost $60. It'll take
me a couple of days work to part out the Shopsmith to get my money back and
the rest will be gravy.

GWE

"Rex B" wrote in message
...
Used to be one could cruise around and find bargains in junkstores,
salvage houses, and auctions. Now everyone in those businesses lives and
breathes ebay. The most obscure junk dealer knows exactly the ebay value
of everything he/she has. Getting so a guy can't hardly stumble onto a
treasure.


Eau contraire, bon ami.

Good deals are out there. You just have to get up early and work a little
harder. You have to educate yourself as to what is selling, and what it is
worth.

There is a new supply every day that is brought out of people's garages,
attics, basements, storage, wherever.

Trick is to know you have it sold before you buy it.

Steve

In article PqONd.44780$mt.29076@fed1read03,
says...
Eau contraire, bon ami. =
Opposite water, mildly abrasive household cleaner.

I agree that garage sales and estate sales are still mostly good places
to look. Also the far back edge of the flea markets, where people show
up late to unload all the stuff they cleaned out of the garage last week.
What is lost is the freight salvage and other 'fringe' businesses
that would have things they didn't know much about and so could be
bought at bargain prices.

SteveB wrote:
"Rex B" wrote in message
...

Used to be one could cruise around and find bargains in junkstores,
salvage houses, and auctions. Now everyone in those businesses lives and
breathes ebay. The most obscure junk dealer knows exactly the ebay value
of everything he/she has. Getting so a guy can't hardly stumble onto a
treasure.



Eau contraire, bon ami.

Good deals are out there. You just have to get up early and work a little
harder. You have to educate yourself as to what is selling, and what it is
worth.

There is a new supply every day that is brought out of people's garages,
attics, basements, storage, wherever.

Trick is to know you have it sold before you buy it.

Steve