Estate Sale find of the year!

[Samuel Green]

Hi woodworkers,

My name is Sam and I am a hobby woodworker just getting started. I hate to come on here and gloat about a good find but from reading the boards I know this group likes a good estate sale find story.

2 months ago I had been looking for some hand tools to get the essentials to be able to do some projects as well as teach myself how to properly use things like chisels and hand planes. I had found a few old stanley planes at a second hand store and was happy as can be to start messing with them and learning to restore them. I reached out to an instagrammer who sells vintage tools for advice on how to restore and where to look for good vintage tools for cheap. He suggested estate sales so I took a look. Luckily there was a woodworkers estate sale 3 days away about 10 minutes from my house. Needless to say I went and was 3rd in line of about 30 ppl. I headed straight for the hand planes/chisels cabinet and asked the guy running it for a price. He said he would sell me both the hand planes and chisels for $250. I quickly say a rack of Bessey clamps and asked the price, $175. YES TO BOTH! I loaded those in my car and came back in for more, bought some hand saws (new) router bits and odds and ends woodworking tools for another $50. I skipped over loads of items i could have used just because my adrenaline was so high from my big score. I went to a meeting for work and the next day stopped back in to see what was left. To my surprise there was a band saw sitting there still. I made the guy an offer of $250 and he took it. It's a Rikon 18in 10-345 in nearly perfect condition! Now for the good part, all in all I ended up with about 35 different planes (Lie Nielsen, Veritas and Clifton) and 100 chisels of various brands (all high end) This guy was a serious craftsman and only bought the best. I am just happy I get to be the one to use his tools. Overall I spent $700 but should have spent about $3000. Now I need to teach myself how to use them! Again, sorry to gloat but I figured this was the group that would appreciate the story!
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[Chris Hachet]

You got the deal of the century....now have fun making sawdust!

[Chris Hachet]

Also, the two jointer planes, the large wooden one and the low angle one should both prove to be extremely useful tools.

[Adam Herman]

:eek:

and welcome. I can't believe you bought the band saw for $250... I wont believe it.

half the threads here are gloats, the other half are vailed gloats:D

[Samuel Green]

Thanks Guys! I did an itemized list of retail prices of each item and almost started crying (tears of joy)

[James Zhu]

Wow, unbelievable!

Clearly, the guy running the sale did not have a single clue of the real value of those high quality planes and chisels.

[Samuel Green]

Unfortunately he passed away and an estate sale company was running the sale, apparently they weren't aware of the value either...😏

[Prashun Patel]

Congratulations. Those tools appear to be going into the hands of someone who appreciates them.

[Andy Giddings]

Great finds, Samuel. Would like to know the name of the company that ran the Estate Sale so that I can leave a note in my will about never using them :-)

[Samuel Green]

This was the real life version of that old joke about how when the woodworker dies he hopes his wife doesn't sell his tools for what he told her he paid for them!

[Matt Day]

A dream estate sale! Great scores.

[Mike Manning]

Congrats Sam! We all dream of hitting a sale like this!

[Andrew Hughes]

That's why my tools are going in the hole with me.
I don't like seeing gloats like this.
Its going to be a big hole.:p

[Dave Stuve]

Estate sales are a great place to find things cheap - they're priced to sell that weekend, because the estate sales folks earn a commission on what they sell, not what's left over.

[Malcolm McLeod]

I cannot stand these threads!! They are just hate-filled and oozing with excre ....Oh, ahhhh, ...wait - that was just me. Never mind.

(Nice score!)

[Allen Jordan]

Holy crap, are those all Lie-Nielsen, ECE, Cliffton, or Veritas planes? This is one of the best scores I've ever seen. You'll love using those tools, congratulations. Now get a good sharpening setup and learn how to use it well :) .

[Samuel Green]

Thanks everyone! Now if any of you have good plans for a hand tool cabinet that may be my next project so I have a good safe place to store/display these in my shop!

[Ole Anderson]

Sam, welcome to the Creek. As far at that steal, OMG!!! You be one lucky fellow.

[Nick Decker]

I'd like to know the name of the company, so I can attend any sales they're running in the future!

Wow, Sam, that's like winning the woodworking lottery. There's bound to be some duplication in all that stuff, or things you don't really need. Probably make your money back by selling those things on ebay or CL. Or here!


Great finds, Samuel. Would like to know the name of the company that ran the Estate Sale so that I can leave a note in my will about never using them :-)

[Samuel Green]

I wanted to get my investment back so I sold the #9 , 1 set of carving chisels and this big power planer that I didn't mention and got my money back plus $200! So basically everything you see in the photos was free to me!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I wanted to get my investment back so I sold the #9 , 1 set of carving chisels and this big power planer that I didn't mention and got my money back plus $200! So basically everything you see in the photos was free to me!

I was already hating you, and then you just had to rub that in. That hurt.

...but seriously, congrats on that score. That was the mother lode of all mother lodes! I misread at first that you bought the chisels alone for $250. Then I saw the pics, read again.... yikes!!!!! (Looks at pics again). Double yikes!!!! That set of Veritas rabbeting planes in the back... Those shoulder planes... Those chisels... I'm happy for you, if not also a bit jealous. Glad they found a good home.

P.S. Could you feel a small tremor when you made that purchase? That was the poor fellow rolling over in his grave.

[Jim Andrew]

If I were going to have to bury all my stuff with me, it would take half the cemetery!

[Chris Kiely]

**starts searching for estate sales**

[Van Huskey]

If I were going to have to bury all my stuff with me, it would take half the cemetery!

Yeah, thinking about my tools being sold at those price makes me want them all just pushed into the hole with me. On a tangent do estate "sellers" have no fiduciary duty to the estate?

To the OP, great find!

[Mark Gibney]

Unbelievable. My head is spinning. I've never seen an estate sale score like that. Unbelievable.

Have fun using all those toys!

[Phillip Mitchell]

Holy Sheets! You done good, friend.

[James Zhu]

well, maybe it is time for all the woodworkers to put a tag with a purchase price on the expensive tools, so when you are gone, such crazy estate sale would never happen again :)

[Roger Green]

Sam, Now that you have had all of the deserved pats-on-the-back, get out your oily rag and wipe down every one of those tools. You don't want things starting to rust. Next is temporarily storage as you think about what you are going to do for permanent storage. (And if you have storage issues.... ....I WILL HELP YOU OUT! Just send them to me! Ha, ha!)
Random ROG

[Dave Macy]

That's great congrats.

[Stan Calow]

No, there's no fiduciary responsibility. Their job is to clear the stuff out. Estate auctions are more likely to generate fair prices than estate sales, but that's the family's choice.

[Brian W Evans]

That is truly the greatest gloat I have seen anywhere! Usually, I am genuinely happy for the gloater, but right now I just feel a little sick.

Congratulations on the find of the decade!

[joel cervera]

Wow. wow. wow..

[Greg Works]

Wow. That's a once-in-a-lifetime score. Hopefully, I'll do that one day.

[Van Huskey]

No, there's no fiduciary responsibility. Their job is to clear the stuff out. Estate auctions are more likely to generate fair prices than estate sales, but that's the family's choice.

If estate sale "company" does not the executor of the estate certainly does and that certainly extends to properly liquidating the estate's property. This example would probably rise to the level of gross negligence on the executor's parts and unless they were the sole beneficiary (and the estate had the means to otherwise satisfy any monetary liabilities the estate might have) the executor would open themselves up to personal liability in some (most/all ?) states.

This has nothing to do with the OP, he paid a price set by the people he was dealing with.