Saw blade gloat and the ethics of flipping

[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.