I have a real issue...and it isnt healthy!

[clovis97]

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Hey clovis97,

Everyone has some sort of issues and you have already passed the first test ... you realize that you may have a problem. I love buying and selling like the next guy, but my goal is to stuff my bank account, not my garage.

If you start listing stuff on Craigslist and the good stuff on eBay, then open a separate banking account for the selling and buying garage/yard sale finds. Your goal can be turn over the items as fast as you can to fatten up that new banking account.
You will get addicted to selling, instead of hoarding, and you will have plenty of cash for new toys.

The last thing you want to do is end up with a barn full of stuff for your family to have deal with when your gone.

I hope that you realize that some of what I said was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, and some of it in truth.

Like I said, cheap tools get sold in a flash. But when I run across something that I don't have, in a good name, or sometimes, if I just deem it cool, I just want to keep it.

The rest of the story is that some of this stuff doesn't have much resale value, especially while the economy is down.

A few years ago, you couldn't hardly give away a Craftsman ratchet wrench on ebay, not even $10. The flea market was even worse, and I sometimes get frustrated with ultra-cheap buyers who want to pay $3 for the same wrench. Just a few weeks ago, a guy offered $4 for a pitchfork that I had marked $25. Sometimes we deal with those jokers.

Sometimes I find myself hovered over my latest auction finds, and I think to myself, "why on earth would I want to list that for $10 or watch it collect dust in a booth at $5, when I can just keep it myself?"

My real passion is postwar Lionel, but I don't hoard those...and really, I don't hoard anything else. Nothing. When you've been doing this for 10 years, you realize that it is all just stuff, and stuff that I can replace anytime.

But tools...I have a serious soft spot for better tools. If nothing else, it is all neatly organized, and there should be one heck of an auction someday when I am dead and gone.

 

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[naturegirl08]

Between my MTG cards (about 8 shoeboxes full), thrift store/garage/estate sale finds, dug up bottles and other relics, I fear I am turning into quite the hoarder. I have a gorgeous Franciscanware collection that I gave to my mom because I simply have nowhere to store it. And I'm only 19! I think I may be in trouble...

 

[AndyE89]

Tools are the type of antique or collectible you personally enjoy, nothing wrong with that. The problem is when you start storing such a mass collection of them that you cannot even move in your shop, THEN you can worry. As for selling the cheap ones, why not look to see how many doubles you have, choose the one you want to keep (maybe the better conditioned one) and sell the other for a quick little profit.

Another question, as a collector, have you found your "White whale"? If not the money from sales of smaller stuff always helps in the pursuit of that.

Oh, just noticed above. I want in on those MTG cards. 8 shoe boxes full seems like a great time digging.

 

[RustyGold]

I too have several hundred prepped ukulele and guitar tonewood sets! I thought i was going to retire making acoustic instruments but Id rather sell than hoard if I'm not going to turn them into instruments.

 

[NHBandit]

I've been actively buying and selling for the past 10 years, and have focused heavily on tools when I can get them bought.

The beauty of buying and selling tools is that I generally keep any tool that I don't already have. And, generally speaking, most of what I buy at estate sales is old stuff, often run of the mill, with nothing spectacular, but it has been fun to buy a box of tools and keep a healthy handful for my own boxes.

The upside is that I own more hand tools than you could use in a lifetime. Need a file? I've probably got 40 of them, all top names, in all cuts, sizes and shapes. Need a clamp? I've got those too, at least 35 of them. Deep or shallow? Armstrong, Williams or Craftsman? Furniture clamps? Banded, or pipe? Wood? Got those too. The drawer that I keep adjustable wrenches in is getting so full that I can't hardly close it. Name a good brand, it is in there, except Snap-On, and name your size too. I've got it.

Punches? Chisels? Check. Screwdrivers? Check. Torx? Check. Wrenches? Check, and crazy amounts too.

In fact, I have two roll around boxes, both of them large, with bottom cabinets, and large top boxes. One has an intermediate box. I also have a giant top box. It is as full as the others. Then I've got totes. Yes, plastic totes full of antique wrenches that I thought were cool. Those are semi-hidden from the wife.

Then, last week, I bought two more boxes at an estate sale for $25 each. Both are nice totes, and brimming to the top with Craftsman tools. I bought them with the exclusive thought of reselling them at one of our various flea market or antique mall booths.

I already own multiples of these tools, but cannot bring myself to sell them. Even though I think I could piece out the two boxes for a $150 to $200 profit, I just want to carry them to my shop and find places for them in my already-full boxes.

I make my living buying and selling, but I am out of control with the tools. Cheap stuff gets sold at a bat of the eye, but anything nice, Craftsman or better...I just can't let it go.

I'm afraid that some camera crews are going to show up someday wanting to feature me and my tools on a hoarder show.

Who else is like me? What do you keep? Do you ever look at those crazy hoarders on American Pickers and completely understand where they are coming from?

Guilty as charged.. Are you a member over here.. If not you should be.. The Garage Journal Here's how bad it can be. I have a 1/2" drive ratchet & 3 sockets marked "Firestone" that were probably made in the 50s. I have been looking for Firestone marked stuff ever since. I bought 1 Plomb open end wrench a few weeks ago at a flea market that's got "WF" on it. Doing research I found out that there was a complete set of well over 100 tools made for the military during WWII to be used at Wright Field (hence the WF). I now consider my ONE wrench to be the start of a new collection. I'm a retired auto mechanic with 40 years worth of tools already. Probably enough to put 5 guys to work. But I have a passion for US made top quality tools so I buy them. Craftsman is now outsourcing most of their hand tools from China so I am also hoarding US made Craftsman stuff when I find it cheap. Automotive tools that came in factory tool kits ? Yep got some. Here's my Model A Ford stuff. I am only lacking the jack, the tire pump, the hammer & the screw driver. I also have other car manufacturer marked wrenches as well as Triumph & Indian marked motorcycle tools.

 

[MT_Joe]

Guilty as charged.. Are you a member over here.. If not you should be.. The Garage Journal

Great site! Thanks for sharing.

 

[batcap]

Clovis97, with me it's speakers. Bargains, every pair. I've got Klipsch Forte II, Infinity Qb, The original Large Advent, Onkyo 25A and Advent Prodigy pairs surrounding me in the living room, some stacked as if a sculpture or still life. My dining room has a pair of empty JBL Signature Series C38 cabinets (each as big as a console TV), a pair of DCM 25A (no relation to the Onkyos) and most recently a pair of a pair of Bose 301 series II. I can profit handsomely from every single pair except for the Large Advents, which I had professionally refoamed. I couldn't bear to sell them without knowing how they were supposed to sound, and ended up upside-down on market value. Short of the house burning down I can't lose money on the rest, but the house is turning into a maze. That's not to say I've never sold speakers - I've made thousands of dollars buying and selling speakers. Don't imagine it's easy - try mailing a piece of furniture, then double the effort. I bought all of these with the intention of turning a quick profit, but I fell in love with them instead. That is my disease. I think that it's the effort of learning - trying to become an expert to spot objects and make money from them - that makes us appreciate our finds. At that point we've already cocked the gun and pointed it at our foot. I can't offer a solution on taking our fingers off the trigger.

 

[pat-tekker-cat]

CLOVIS, I think you may LOVE this! NHB put it up today/yest on the everything else section. This guy found some really great ideas to do, with all his tools!

Stories, etc.: REPURPOSING OLD WRENCHES

 

[clovis97]

Guilty as charged.. Are you a member over here.. If not you should be.. The Garage Journal Here's how bad it can be. I have a 1/2" drive ratchet & 3 sockets marked "Firestone" that were probably made in the 50s. I have been looking for Firestone marked stuff ever since. I bought 1 Plomb open end wrench a few weeks ago at a flea market that's got "WF" on it. Doing research I found out that there was a complete set of well over 100 tools made for the military during WWII to be used at Wright Field (hence the WF). I now consider my ONE wrench to be the start of a new collection. I'm a retired auto mechanic with 40 years worth of tools already. Probably enough to put 5 guys to work. But I have a passion for US made top quality tools so I buy them. Craftsman is now outsourcing most of their hand tools from China so I am also hoarding US made Craftsman stuff when I find it cheap. Automotive tools that came in factory tool kits ? Yep got some. Here's my Model A Ford stuff. I am only lacking the jack, the tire pump, the hammer & the screw driver. I also have other car manufacturer marked wrenches as well as Triumph & Indian marked motorcycle tools.

You and I could be fast friends.

My favorite tools are older Craftsman, with the C underline logo.

In another life, I'd collect all auto tools, Ford, Cadillac, etc.

 

[clovis97]

CLOVIS, I think you may LOVE this! NHB put it up today/yest on the everything else section. This guy found some really great ideas to do, with all his tools!

Stories, etc.: REPURPOSING OLD WRENCHES

I'm not sure whether I should be in awe...or in shock.

The sculpture is beautiful, but using old wrenches? I'm kinda feeling sick...

Anyway, someone at a tool show built a really cool wrench bench like that guy did. I was told that the wrench bench sold for almost $4,000, partially because of the collectible wrenches that were used in it's construction.