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Jim Mackell
07-12-2012, 5:07 PM
I've bought and sold tools on Craig's list. Been happy with what I bought and received a fair price for what I've sold.

Recently it seems there are more and more idiots trying to sell junk for astronomical prices. At first it was funny. Now it's just aggravating to see the same junk relisted week after week with no change in pricing.

Current examples - a rust encrusted 50 year old Sears 4 inch jointer for $150. (been listed for 5 or 6 months)
a collection of rusty taps with "some broken threads" for $100. (also many months)

What's the tool listing like in your area?

Kevin Bourque
07-12-2012, 5:26 PM
I saw a General brand table saw for sale a few days ago. It was an older model and it didn't look like anything special. The ad claimed it was purchased for $16,000 new and they were asking $12,000.
2 days ago someone was selling a Craftsman 6" jointer in mint condition for $875.

My favorites are the people selling power washers with busted pumps. "all it needs is a pump and it will be as good as new!!!", they say. Of course the pump will cost more than a complete new power washer.

Van Huskey
07-12-2012, 5:29 PM
I found a new search engine for-sale-alert.com after searchtempest went wonky. You can have it show the pictures in the search and I run through hundreds of auctions by only running through the pictures, I never even look to the right to see the prices unless I see something I am actually interested in. It is easy to run past a picture when the entire picture is rust colored...

Paul McGaha
07-12-2012, 5:39 PM
I live in Ashburn, VA. A suburb of Washington DC. We have a pretty good craigslist here I think.

There are some tool re-sellers out there, with their high pricing, and I wont reply to those ads.

There seems to be lot's of bargains on tools and other items though. Seems to be just people selling used stuff. Good bargains.

I follow a few rules and it seems to help a craigslist purchase be fun--Buy only from owners, ads must have pictures, price should be in the ballpark from the start, only buy tools in very good condition or better.

PHM

Bruce Darrow
07-12-2012, 8:54 PM
Then there are just the ignorant.......in today's local listing: Bosch "radio arm saw" w/ pic. Never seen or heard of a Bosch RAS, and although I'm not in the market for a RAS, I'm curious, so I click. Pictured is a serviceable single tilt CMS - same model as the one I own - at a reasonable price, considering its stated usage history.......but I mean really! And the number of "planners" "joiners" etc. that one sees on a regular basis. Sheesh! Caveat emptor.

Brian Kent
07-12-2012, 9:11 PM
It's supposed to say "radio alarm saw." Don't they know anything?

Brian Elfert
07-12-2012, 10:49 PM
It isn't just tools. I see people posting all kinds of stuff at almost new prices. Why would I drive across town to buy your used item when I can drive a mile down the road and buy it new for hardly any more?

Bruce Page
07-12-2012, 11:11 PM
We have a guy selling 2 Wilton bullet vise’s (great vise). One is well used for $225 and the other has a fresh coat of blue Krylon, including the jaws for $350. He’s rather proud of the paint job.

Rich Engelhardt
07-13-2012, 5:31 AM
Why would I drive across town to buy your used item when I can drive a mile down the road and buy it new for hardly any more?

More or half price?
This moron is asking $50.00 for an Evolv compressor and $50.00 for an Evolv nail gun.


I bought that same compressor for $49.00 on sale & got the nail gun free with it.
I just walked into Sears, picked it up and paid for it w/out having to go through any haggling.

Over the last 4 years or so that I've been looking @ CL, I've come to the conclusion that it's simply a huge waste of time.
Even the grin and giggle factor that I used to get seeing these idiots trying to scam people into paying retail plus for their filthy, broken and just plain useless junk has turned into "who cares?".

David Weaver
07-13-2012, 8:24 AM
Mostly idiots here, too. A lot of $79 tablesaws (the tiny benchtop type with generic names) for $150, and a lot of ads where people are trying to sell an entire workshop of otherwise worthless tools a relative used 40 years ago for several thousand dollars.

That mixed in with the above comment of HF and other cheap ticket items for double what they cost to get at the store.

At least the number of Titan generators seems to have slowed down. For a couple of years it seems, there were gobs of them supposedly selling new and unused for 1/3rd of the new price, and neither of the numbers made sense. That must've been some sort of MLM thing.

John Coloccia
07-13-2012, 8:28 AM
Craigslist would be better if there was a way to comment on posts. For example, I went out to see a Grizzly bandsaw....drove over an hour....cash in hand. I just wanted the thing. The guy said it was in great shape and only used a couple of times. When I got there, it was stored in a barn and was a rust bucket. I tried to negotiate. He said, nope. I just walked out. Then a day or two later, I find the same model, for the same price, with a riser block. I snatched it right up.

It's very inconsistent. I wish I could have put a note on rust bucket man's saw so that people didn't have to waste their time. I wish I could put little notes when something is a complete ripoff. It would very quickly weed out the morons that are pretty much ruining it and turning it into a waste of time.

David Weaver
07-13-2012, 8:35 AM
Feedback in general about the sellers would be worthwhile, I think, but I don't know how they'd organize it so that it could only come from buyers since the transaction doesn't come through there. I'm sure they've thought about it, given who their owner is.

I did get my tormek through CL - nearly unused for $300. Tough to beat that. I paid the guy who had it through paypal before I went to get it, to make sure it would still be there. Between when I paid and when I got there, 7 other people offered him more money to try to get him to back out of the sale. But he never tried to use that as leverage, and instead threw in a few more free things when I got there.

I have spent a lot of hours browsing CL for that and a couple of other small deals, though, and I don't go there any longer.

Brian Elfert
07-13-2012, 8:44 AM
I still find enough value in Craigslist to search it regularly when I am looking for something. I need some wire right now and I've found folks selling leftover bits for less than half of the new cost.

Dick Strauss
07-13-2012, 12:29 PM
Lots of new imported stuff at higher than HF prices that get relisted every couple of days.

CL now has for sale by "Dealer" and for sale by "Owner". We've got one local company that goes in and buys used machines from factories and stores them in a warehouse. They then resell many of the the items on CL. They repost 10-20 ads every couple of days for months on end. CL doesn't make them take the ads down even though they are obviously commercial in nature (460V/3ph and often $10,000+ asking prices). And, to top things off, they refuse to list things in the new "Dealer" subsection of Tools area.

A few people not following the rules are really ruining CL IMO.

Dave Lehnert
07-13-2012, 1:16 PM
There was a local guy who posted a hard hat every few days for $10. I bet that thing was advertised for well over a year.

I also think it would be a benefit to make people have an account with feedback. The idea of being able to leave comments in a post is good.

I like the ads for stuff that need a title. (Boats, cars, etc...) "I have no title, but one is easy for you to get from the DMV" If it's so easy, why don't they go get it before they sell the boat.

Kenneth Speed
07-13-2012, 1:48 PM
Well, you have to take the good with the bad. I've bought some great stuff from CL and met some really nice people doing it. I got a really wonderful Richardson Brothers saw for peanuts along with another one that I sold on Ebay for a few bucks. The one I sold was a good value too, not sexy but a perfectly fine crosscut saw and I'd have kept it but I have a really sweet Atkins that fills that slot in my saw arsenal. I also got a very good and HEAVY backed Disston 1940's era backsaw along with Keystone back saw for about $50.00 bucks which may not have been a steal but was good value even if I throw the Keystone away!

I enjoy the misspellings and I've even corrected a few people who had no idea what they had. Someone thought an old cabbage slicer was a plane of some kind!



Ken

Steve Peterson
07-13-2012, 1:54 PM
I've been watching an old Rockwell lathe that posted every week for $1000. Probably worth at most $200-300 considering the condition. About 6 months ago, the price went up to $1500. It is now up to $2000. Maybe someone should grab it as an invetment.

Another guy is trying to sell a HF welded steel lathe for $550. The non-sale new price is $150 plus the stand for another $40.

Steve

Brian Elfert
07-15-2012, 9:02 PM
I see new Harbor Freight tools on Ebay and Craigslist all the time priced above what the item sells for directly from Harbor Freight. I guess there are enough buyers who don't check prices to keep them in business.

Bruce Page
07-15-2012, 9:19 PM
Folks, Craigslist links are not allowed in our open forums. Craigslist links are only allowed in the Deals & Discounts forum.

Gary Hodgin
07-15-2012, 11:20 PM
I've noticed the same thing. Different from 2 or 3 years ago when I first started looking on CL. Lots of good deals at that time. Good deals are few now and some of the prices are outrageous, not just tools either.

Greg Peterson
07-16-2012, 1:02 AM
I think the tools in our area are pretty much picked over. Most of what is available these days are HF stuff, contractor tools and Craftsman. Pretty unusual to find a decent wood working tool on CL.

Brian Kerley
07-16-2012, 8:58 PM
Yeah, our CL is pretty hit or miss too. I think what a lot of people do is go buy HF stuff with a 20% off coupon then try reselling it on CL. I see good deals from time to time (like the grizzly bandsaw today that looked impeccable for 60% of the new price). But most other items are like the guy that was listing a gold powermatic 14" bandsaw for $800 for over year.

Most of it is just over priced. I'm not going to touch used tools for more than 60-70% of the new price. Exceptions would be LV, LN or Festool (of which none of those three are ever up there). It's not just tools though. Everyone seems to think their junk is worth more than it actually is. Maybe I have more money than sense, but when I sell stuff on CL, I put it at a price in the interest of getting it out of my house. I'm not trying to maximize what I'm getting for my stuff, just trying to get rid of it. Granted, I'm not going to give it away, but I usually start at 60% of a new price.

Jim Mackell
07-17-2012, 5:31 AM
Everyone seems to think their junk is worth more than it actually is.

I think that summarizes it quite well. After all, if I paid $500. for it 10 years ago and it been well used, it must still be worth $495. Right?

I take the same approach you do Brian. When it's time to move a tool out, out it goes.

John Aspinall
07-17-2012, 10:46 AM
I still buy and sell, occasionally, on CL. But the noise level (speaking metaphorically) is very high, as others have pointed out.

I don't browse, much. I go straight to the search bar. So I won't even see the "radio arm saw", the "wood turning lath", or the "oxy setalene torche".
Think of it as a small economic penalty for not learning to spell: you just reduced your market.
(Incidentally, you can bookmark, and even edit your search URL. Skip the entry page entirely.)

Now and then, spelling mistakes can work in your favor. I got a bargain on a blacksmithing anvil, and I have a suspicion that a lot of people searching for an anvil
missed this one. He was selling an "anvul", you see.

Joe Kieve
07-17-2012, 1:35 PM
This cracked me up!...I just had to see what a "hitchie 24 ft. chop saw" looked like.



hitchie 24' chop saw, midor box - $70 (mcdonough,ga)


great saw, works great,
can cut 4x4's
2x12'
2x4's....
call Mike

http://images.craigslist.org/5Ge5W45Ff3kb3Me3H7c7hd633edbb6d7b1600.jpg

Myk Rian
07-19-2012, 7:38 AM
This is advertised as an ANTIQUE.
Brand New never been used in perfect condition.

237220

Peter Kelly
07-23-2012, 3:16 PM
I've been re-arranging my shop and have recently sold almost $1,500 worth of tools on CL. Everything went very smoothly and all the buyers I've met have been great and hassle-free. The one low spot I've had was selling a nail gun on Ebay to a buyer that received the item, claimed it was broken and previously used (it was not) and opened a dispute without contacting me first. I sent him a return label and upon receiving the item back, I discover that he'd inserted the wrong type of nails into the gun and jammed it. In the end, this idiot cost me $50 listing, transaction and shipping fees.


As many others have done, I'll be closing my Ebay account soon.