Thinking about selling

[Nathan Talbert]

Grandpa said that good tools are a good investment because they pay in "usefullness dividends" for the rest of your life. Finances are tight. Will i regret selling tools to come up with $200? Anyone ever have to make this decision? Did you regret selling? Is it just as easy to buy them down the road when you know you'll use them more often and you aren't so strapped for cash?

[Gaz Palmer]

I'd tend to keep hold of them until selling proves absolutely necessary. Tools are easily replaced, but it's no good selling if you make your living using them and - for future reference - you'll need to bear in mind the fact buying costs seldom reduce. I recall selling a few of my Record shoulder planes a few years ago for very little and their replacement cost far exceeded what I'd originally paid for them, or received from their sale.

Short term gain sometimes proves to be more expense in the long run.

[David Weaver]

I've only had to sell tools to come up with cash to please my wife, but my answer about whether or not you'll regret it is whether or not you're using the tools. If not, then you may not miss them. Just don't spend the money you get foolishly

[Bill Houghton]

If they're redundant, or tools for specialties that you just can't imagine ever ever ever getting involved with (be careful here - the younger you are, the less you should make that assumption), sell them.

If they're tools you expect to use when times get better, hang onto them unless the alternative is starving or living on the street.

[Deane Allinson]

Stuff Happens. Sell what you don't use or any tool that isn't something you really wanted anyway. You can always buy more. I was a better judge at quality and value my second go around anyway. I didn't sell my best, just the "collector" and rare stuff that I seldom used anyway.
Deane

[Jonathan McCullough]

I read somewhere about a guy who got a divorce, and to spend the time in the evenings he built a tool box/coffee table/sea chest/bench. He had the barest minimum of stuff. Sometimes clearing out a bunch of stuff you don't want, need, have room for etc. is best. Now that I'm more familiar with what I've got, what's good, what's not, I'm going to be clearing out a bunch of stuff myself, but partially because I don't want "things" to own or define me. People keep bringing me bench planes and old saws though.

Times are tough and prices for used tools seem to be going down, too. I can't see prices going back up soon. There's nothing wrong in doing what you have to do.

[James Taglienti]

Selling tools really doesn't bother me unless I have some kind of emotional attachment to them. Other than that, I sell lots of tools. Most of the ones I have are the result of "natural selection" in the shop. I'm on my third #289 just because I keep buying them, and keeping whichever one works better. I rarely "tune" my planes though...

I sold a perfectly good dewalt router a few months ago. I bought it because I only had one other one with a 1/2" collet and I figured it would be nice to keep dedicated bits in a few of them, like they do in the magazines. I realized that I don't really have a dedicated bit. So out the door it went.

I've got some "ancestral" tools that I wouldn't part with though. Grand dad's mallet, dad's circular saw, etc. But I figure the rest are fair game. Sometimes I will even rob parts off of them to complete other planes to sell! My best Stanley smoother, a 604, is a total mutant, with a red painted handle, a union cutter, a no name lever cap, a pitted frog, etc, just from completing other planes or selling parts outright. But it works great.

[Jim Koepke]

I usually only sell tools that I know will not be needed or that are duplicates. Even then sometimes there is a little seller's remorse.

Most of my sales were of planes that I have a few of, like #4s or #5s. Currently I have 4 of #5s but there is not a desperate need for cash. Last time a lot of tools were sold, I wanted the money to buy a couple of other tools.

Currently I am working on making things that can be sold in the future. I would rather use the tools to make salable items than to sell the tools. I will buy tools that look to be candidates for cleaning up and tuning into resalable items. There is a lot of junk to wade through before finding good iron sometimes.

jtk

[Sam Takeuchi]

If the tool you are thinking about selling isn't rare, you'll be able to buy it again. I don't know what you need $200 for, if you have to have that to pay bills, that's the priority (unless you are a professional woodworker of some kind). If you need $200 for a date or something, sell TV instead.

As for what your grandfather said, that is true if you use the tool. If you aren't using it, it'll never ever become useful.

[john brenton]

As long as you don't sell yourself short you shouldn't have any regrets. Selling is hard though. You never really know whether to hold out for the price you want, or let them go at a price you can live with. With so many people around the world viewing the auction site, it's almost impossible to tell.

For example, I put up a couple of chisels on the auction site about a month ago. I put them up for $60 because that's what I wanted. Somebody offered me $30 for them and I thought about it. I told him I'd sleep on it and the next day I was contacted by another guy who needed them to complete a set and he paid the full $60.

I accepted an offer for $110 on a plane I had for sale...five minutes later I got an offer for $140. Ok, so I "lost" $30. Sucked.

I had a buyer contact me with an offer for $50 on a saw. I had a ton of "watchers" and wasn't yet sure what offers the saw would bring so I counter offered for $55. He thought better of it and declined (a wise decision in my opinion), and when I put it to auction I only got $25 or so. I wasn't broken up about it as I did make a profit...but still. It's tough.

Don't use the $0.99 auction unless you're sure you have a high profile item, or you have an item you just want to get rid of. If you're using the auction site, I find the best way is to put the "buy it now" price you want and see how many watchers you get. The "make offer" button can work, but most people feel weird about making you an offer. It's still worth the little fee they charge to make it an option. If you are getting a whole bunch of watchers and no buyers you may have your price too high, and may be better to put them at auction. For example, I recently put up an Addis gouge and within a 24 hour period I had about 60 views and 30 watchers. Nobody snatched it up so I figure there is enough people watching to let the market decide through auction.

You may find that by doing it this way that $200 isn't really too far away.

Those are just my thoughts on the matter.


Grandpa said that good tools are a good investment because they pay in "usefullness dividends" for the rest of your life. Finances are tight. Will i regret selling tools to come up with $200? Anyone ever have to make this decision? Did you regret selling? Is it just as easy to buy them down the road when you know you'll use them more often and you aren't so strapped for cash?

[Charles McKinley]

Hi Nathan,

I have sold my PM 66 and just sold a Lei Nielsen BU Jointer. You do what you need to do. I wasn't really using them so it didn't hurt too much.

Dave Ramsey says, "Live like no one else so you can live like no one else." Basically live on rice and beans and sell every thing you have to to get out of debt then start building stuff that you own rather than it owning you.

If you really want it back you could pawn it then go get it back. Or do you know someone that could buy them then sell them back to you later?

You also have to consider the cost of selling of some of the sites.

HTH

[Nathan Talbert]

Thanks for all the replies. My wife and I are doing all we can to downsize and budget ourselves now so we can "live like no one else" later like you said Charles. I would like to sell on the Sawmill Creek Classifieds but I can't figure out how to do it. When I try to post something it says I don't have permision to do it, or something like that. Any suggestions?

[george wilson]

Nathan,you have to be a contributor to access the classifieds,I think. I am very sorry to hear about your plight,and hope things get better for you.