Saw blade gloat and the ethics of flipping

[Zac wingert]

422836

I bought these six blades today for $25, local CL. The two Forrest blades of course made it well worth the $25. I don’t even have a machine that uses 12” blades. But I woulda bought the 10” woodworker II alone for $25 either way.

turns out, the 12” blades are bored out to 1” arbor. So, I can’t imagine I’d ever use them. I was thinking of saving them in case I ever get a 12” SCMS. I have a 9” RAS.

now the ten inch blades. Aside from the wwII, there is a systi matic combo blade and an delta 37-615 combo blades. Now, I don’t know what to do. Original plan was to keep them all, get them sharpened as needed. but, I’ve read the systi matic is a great blade and the delta looks decent. I should add I just got a tenryu gold medal combo and CMT ripping blade in the last year as my primary users on my old Rockwell contractor saw.

I could use the money, I am thinking about selling the two forest blades on the big auction site, for, I assume, a decent profit. That was not the plan and the man that sold me the blades was a nice guy. So two questions, what blades to keep and use for woodworking, and how do you feel about making money off a fellow woodworker?

[Lee Schierer]

You might want to offer them for sale here at SMC. There are lots of folks with larger industrial type machines.

[Mike Kees]

Those blades are yours to do what you want with. You paid him what he asked for them. As to which ones to keep,sharpen them and use them for a while see which ones end up on the saw the most then sell what you do not use. Good score by the way.

[Jim Becker]

I see zero issue with "flipping" things when there's an opportunity to pick up a "pile of stuff" for a reasonable fee that has something you want/need and other things your don't. Make them presentable and sell them off. And I agree with Lee...post the blades you don't want in the SMC classifieds. There's no costs to you like there is at the "big auction site" outside of a transaction fee from PayPal or whatever and you have a woodworking audience here. (And yes, many of us do use 12" blades)

[Tom Bain]

I know if it were me selling them, I would have zero issues with a buyer turning around and selling them for a profit. It's highly likely the seller just wanted to get rid of them in the simplest, most efficient way possible. So, feel free to generate some guilt-free profits!

[Matt Day]

You can also get a 1” to 5/8” reducer to use the 12” blade on a RAS, which is what I do with my 12” Delta.

Flipping is fine but I usually don’t try to get top dollar when I do so. Usually try to make it a good deal for the buyer too, just not gloat worthy like yours!

One thing about blades is you usually can use more. I’d keep the ones that could have use and sell the others. I have a systematic blade too and like it - picked up in a similar way BTW.

[Edwin Santos]

If re-selling something for a profit is unethical, then our society is doomed.

Edwin

[Phil Mueller]

And yet, sometimes folks just don’t know. I recall an American Pickers episode where they buy a number of circus signs, discover they are worth far more than they paid and return to the owner to give him a few bucks back. Ok, it’s TV. But if I made a huge profit from an unknowing seller, I would share in the profit with the seller. Let’s say a widower at an estate sale has a #1 Stanley plane and it’s marked at $25. Do you pay the $25 and run? Or do you tell her it’s worth upwards of $1000 and offer her something a bit less?

[Ben Rivel]

If re-selling something for a profit is unethical, then our society is doomed.

Edwin
Doomed and wouldn't even have been STARTED! Buying or building low and selling high is called business! The WORLD is founded on that practice. I always find it humorous when people have some kind of issue with that concept.

OP: Flip to your hearts content! And if you can find more to buy cheap and sell for a profit, DO IT!

[David Kreuzberg]

Zac, I'd be interested in the 12-inch Forrest if you decide to sell the blades.

[Patrick Kane]

Agreed, make as much as you can. Ive been in the seller's shoes before, where you just need to clear things out and forget about squeezing as much as you can out of the sale. Heck, im approaching that point now with about 700bdft of oak in my garage. Im not going to give it away for free, but id take $1.50 a board foot just to clear it out. 14-19" wide boards 12' long and FAS. Someone would walk away from that saying he stole the wood from me, but i would have my garage back for the heart of winter and make my wife not want to murder me.

You probably have $150ish in blades there. Maybe a smidgen more if they are in decent shape and dont need sharpened.

Oddly enough, ive had several people randomly call me out for reselling machines. Ive probably bought and resold two dozen machines over the years, and at one point i had very recognizable floors. I remember several emails to my craigslist posts along the lines of, "you greedy pig, you just purchased that machine three weeks ago for $200!". I am unsure who has that much time to sit around and police craigslist, but there you have it. I see nothing wrong with recognizing things are priced well under market value and capitalizing. Some purchases were very low with a lot of sweat equity to turn around and make a profit, and others were simply hitting them with the compressor and a rag before taking better photos.

[David Kumm]

I've bought blades that turned out to be a deal too but dilly dipping around selling and shipping stuff for $25 ( more if sharpened but you have travel time involved ) seemed like more work. I gave blades to friends who could use them and had the best of all worlds. Dave

[Darcy Warner]

And yet, sometimes folks just don’t know. I recall an American Pickers episode where they buy a number of circus signs, discover they are worth far more than they paid and return to the owner to give him a few bucks back. Ok, it’s TV. But if I made a huge profit from an unknowing seller, I would share in the profit with the seller. Let’s say a widower at an estate sale has a #1 Stanley plane and it’s marked at $25. Do you pay the $25 and run? Or do you tell her it’s worth upwards of $1000 and offer her something a bit less?

Wouldn't bother me, but that's close to how I feed my family.

[Marc Burt]

I see zero issue in flipping them. I have o my two caveats to that:
1. If somebody outright gives me something I think it’s poor form to make money on it and feel like it should be “paid forward” so I’ll just give it away also if I don’t need it.
2. The widow example above. My MIL got royally taken advantage of when my father in-law died so that’s a personal issue for me.

In this case it sounds like you bought it from somebody who knew what he had so I’d feel fine with it.

[johnny means]

It would be wrong to not sell for maximum profit.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Was in Habitat Restore today. They had several router bit sets. Craftsman, Skill, etc, and a set of CMT rail and stile bits. Sets were priced at $45, but rail and stile was priced at $25. I told clerk, the person doing pricing needs to look up price of CMT set, as it was under priced and other sets were over priced. All sets were NIB.

[Frederick Skelly]

Let’s say a widower at an estate sale has a #1 Stanley plane and it’s marked at $25. Do you pay the $25 and run? Or do you tell her it’s worth upwards of $1000 and offer her something a bit less?

It's a good question Phil. Personally, I'd give the seller more money. But that's just me.

[Darcy Warner]

I've bought blades that turned out to be a deal too but dilly dipping around selling and shipping stuff for $25 ( more if sharpened but you have travel time involved ) seemed like more work. I gave blades to friends who could use them and had the best of all worlds. Dave

I probably have 20k in weinig moulder parts I need to inventory and sell, but it always feels like I am wasting more time than it's worth sometimes. my wife is going to come help me a couple days a week dealing with all the parts and small stuff I have laying around.

Sometimes I feel like I am stepping over quarters to get to nickles.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Zac, I'd be interested in those 12" blades if you want to flip. I see David already said so to.

It's fair to resell for a profit because you have the opportunity to buy them at a price that the seller considers fair, and you have a buyer that considers you making a profit by providing me the opportunity to buy it a service worth that profit.

[Vince Shriver]

To expand a little on Matt's comment, I've used those reducer bushings. I got them from Ridge Carbide, but if I recall correctly I think Forrest also has them. BTW, they worked just fine.

[Zac wingert]

Thanks for the input everyone. I don’t know why I felt hesitant, with other things it wouldn’t be a second thought. I guess it might be because I have been fortunate and have received a bunch tools for free recently and didn’t want to feel greedy.

I’ll probably end up holding on to all 10” for now and use them for a bit until I decide which ones I want to keep. I actually haven’t ran a full kerf blade on my saw. I use the medium kerf .111 tenryu blade.

[Ben Helmich]

Nobody has mentioned the times where we overpay for something and can't sell it for a profit, or there IS no market and you have to discount it to get rid of it. Homeruns are ok to maximize profit on because it helps average out the times you strike out. Most of us are hobbyists and clearly have less money than when we started, so yeah, mark them up and sell them. BTW, I knocked my little 4" Delta jointer on the floor a little while ago and broke the casting. Lost money on that.

[Steve Demuth]

And yet, sometimes folks just don’t know. I recall an American Pickers episode where they buy a number of circus signs, discover they are worth far more than they paid and return to the owner to give him a few bucks back. Ok, it’s TV. But if I made a huge profit from an unknowing seller, I would share in the profit with the seller. Let’s say a widower at an estate sale has a #1 Stanley plane and it’s marked at $25. Do you pay the $25 and run? Or do you tell her it’s worth upwards of $1000 and offer her something a bit less?

My policy is that if someone is clearly underselling something specialized of their own (or a deceased family member's) due to lack of knowledge, or because they are financially desperate and simply have to move something, I offer them a fair market price. I had a case recently where I paid 4X what someone was asking for some machinists tools. It was to a fine young woman working hard to make a go of a farm, living on a pittance. She had no idea what the tools even were.

If it's just a casual sale by someone who could have taken a little time to know what the value of their property was, I take it at the offered price. I feel some responsibility toward people in distress. None toward ignorance and laziness.

[Mike Cutler]

Zac
No ethical issue. You bought a number for blades from seller at one time. Being a fellow woodworker he knows what the blades are worth, he just didn't want to go through the hassle of selling them for higher price, with more of his time involved in shipping,and such.

I bought a 1" , solid,integrated Delta, Shaper Spindle a few years back for $50.00. Essentially NIB. These list for much, much more, than what I paid. when you can actually find one for sale. Guy who sold it to me was a retiring cabinet maker. I asked why he was selling it so cheap. He told me it was an odd duck size, and only a limited number of people would have any use for it,or be able to us it. It wasn't worth his time to try an eBay it for more.
Point is, the guy who sold you the blades knew their worth, but just didn't want the hassle of what it would take to get more for them.