helping a widow

[richard shelby]

Her husband was a "collector". His basement shop is crammed with high-end saws, planers, sanders, dust collectors, clamps, hand tools, and lumber of every size and species. This would be a great shop for a cabinet maker, once the rust and dust are removed. She really wants to have her basement back and us unable to sell on-line, especially one piece at time. She would love for someone to take the whole lot .Do any of you have experiences with this sort of "disposal"? Suggestions? Horror stories? Positive outcomes? Thanks, Richard

[Dan Barber]

Richard, it's possible someone here can help but pictures would be very helpful. One persons view of "high end" tools is much different than others. Especially when you mention "rust and dust". Pictures would help members who might be able to help her gauge the amount of work that could be ahead of them.

[Zachary Hoyt]

A good auctioneer will do it in a month or three, and get pretty good prices, with no effort required on the part of the widow except making the initial contact. A not so good auctioneer will not get as much for it. Private sales are possible, but given the logistics of you, her and a hypothetical buyer agreeing on a price it might be riskier, as there can be feelings of regret after the sale. With a well-advertised and well run auction everyone knows that nobody got an unethical deal.

[andrew whicker]

I do see residential tools (read: single phase and hand tools) go for pretty high prices on auction.

[Pat Germain]

An estate sale company would be the fastest way to get rid of everything. They'll send people in to pick it all up and auction it off. They also have ways to get rid of what doesn't sell at auction. It's what they do.

[Jimmy Harris]

Post it on CL or FB Marketplace as the whole lot, junk and all. As long as the price is right, someone will gladly come in and take the whole mess out and resell the good pieces individually. I've done that before. It can be very lucrative. But it's also extremely time consuming for the buyer.

Or an estate sale or auction company could work too. They may leave you with the junk that they won't want to sell, however. So find that out before you agree to anything.

[Dan Barber]

My sincere advice is DO NOT put it on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist as Jimmy suggested above. You will attract all the crazies in the area who will be unwelcome guests into the widows home and will drive her (or you) batty. Way to many weirdos out there who think they will get the best deal, will not show up, not have the money, want to trade, etc. Just too big of a hassle, particularly for the widow. Way better off with an auction if you can't find someone here to take it or help out.

[Patty Hann]

My sincere advice is DO NOT put it on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist as Jimmy suggested above. You will attract all the crazies in the area who will be unwelcome guests into the widows home and will drive her (or you) batty. Way to many weirdos out there who think they will get the best deal, will not show up, not have the money, want to trade, etc. Just too big of a hassle, particularly for the widow. Way better off with an auction if you can't find someone here to take it or help out.

^^^THIS^^^ ... squared and cubed.

I use CL all the time....it it is for single items, not in basement (basements are rare in Phoenix), I am very "mobile", can physically manage all the items.
I field all the nut cases that reply, that play games, that show up saying my ad said one price and now I'm saying it's another (I always have a copy of the ad handy, which shows the posting date)
I'm willing to do it, but a lot of people won't or can't.
I don't know specifically what service will work here, but I agree that attempting to manage the sales herself would not be a good idea.

[Dave VanDewerker]

Our WW club gets these kind of messages on a routine basis. Some are complete shops with nice tools, but most are just run of the mill or low end tools that are hard to sell., Most of the time we just look things over and give them a reasonable estimate of what the stuff would be worth if they want to "dispose" of things quickly or spend the time and effort to get top dollar. Most time people just want to get rid of things. Currently we are helping a guy whose dad pasted away and was a amateur luthier. Nice stuff but very limited market and a lot of the tools are hand made.
The best one was a guy who gave our club over $100k worth of nice tools from a cabinet shop he ran, something about not wanting the ex to get them in the divorce :-), we auctioned them off to our club members.

[George Yetka]

This is a pretty common post here unfortunately. Someone should come up with a business that just handles helping widows dealing with their SO's hobby stuff. From shooting/fishing/woodworking/etc. Certain hobbies accumulate tons of stuff and for our safety we usually don't fully explain the values of said stuff. Auction sites i believe have a large fee but ive never used one.

The best scenario is that someone in the family is into said hobby as well. My grandfather died years back and his woodshop went to my cousin(I had already stocked my garage with all but a good bench). If my cousin wasnt interested Id know how to piece it out for my grandmother but it would be time consuming.

[Pat Germain]

This is a pretty common post here unfortunately. Someone should come up with a business that just handles helping widows dealing with their SO's hobby stuff. From shooting/fishing/woodworking/etc. Certain hobbies accumulate tons of stuff and for our safety we usually don't fully explain the values of said stuff. Auction sites i believe have a large fee but ive never used one.

The best scenario is that someone in the family is into said hobby as well. My grandfather died years back and his woodshop went to my cousin(I had already stocked my garage with all but a good bench). If my cousin wasnt interested Id know how to piece it out for my grandmother but it would be time consuming.

I'm a classic car enthusiast and I see the same situation you describe. Dad or Grandad passed and left us this car. What do we do with it? My specialty is Ford Mustangs. People watch the Barrett Jackson auction on TV and see a Mustang sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. They assume the clapped out, six-cylinder Coupe they have rusting in the back yard must be worth a fortune. So they contact my Mustang club to look for buyers. It's not easy to tell people that car they saw on TV was a rare and desirable Boss 429 and their car is worthless. But some people just want the car gone.

[Richard Coers]

I spent hours and hours appraising a good friend's shop like that. Then the widow told me she took pennies on the dollar to make it disappear. I was pretty upset, because I would have been thrilled to buy it for that. So the priority is to decide if she wants money or wants it gone. You'll always get pickers who want the best, but if she wants it gone, price it like a super bargain on Facebook Marketplace. The most help you could give her is screen or be the representative who meets the people. Widows don't like reliving their husbands life over and over, and can be nervous about strangers.

[Erik Loza]

...she took pennies on the dollar to make it disappear...

This was my observation when I was in the business. I can think of several cases where it was a mom-n-pop cabinet shop. Pop passed away, then mom was left trying to liquidate the machinery. They would call me, ask what it was worth (an impossible question to answer in most cases). Then, I would drop by months later and they ended either still sitting on it, or selling it all for scrap or "haul off for free". An estate sale makes the most sense and agree that FB marketplace will mostly get you weirdos and tire-kickers. Good luck in any event.

Erik

[mike stenson]

Widows don't like reliving their husbands life over and over, and can be nervous about strangers.

It's not just widows. We gave away my dad's tools and a whole bunch of other stuff. That which we didn't know people who could use it, we donated it. Dealing with it otherwise, was just a mess.

[Dan Barber]

I'll say it again - DO NOT put this on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, you will set yourself up for a world of issues. If she wants it "gone" , put a good price on it and list it here in the classified's.