General information

[Misawaboy]

Hi all,
I am a retired navy seabee (Utilities) and retired Environmental and Emergency manager. I have been assigned outside the US for the past 20 years and am now back home in TN as a retired person. My step-father was a plumbing and general contractor. He now has cancer and I am trying to assist with finding homes for all his plumbing and power tools. I am in the process of cleaning and checking each tool/machine for operation. He has about $20-30K in tools; some are in great shape and some will be trashed. I am looking for ideas and/or suggestions about how to sell and/or donate the tools. He has two Rigid 300's, one Oster 105, 4 three-leg rigid vises, three air jack hammers with attachments, 20 three wheel pipe cutters, 30 or so pipe and monkey wrenches, brass fittings, motorized and manual sewer snakes and lord only knows how much more stuff is in the garage. I am in the process of cleaning and sorting but wanted to join some forum in hopes that some of you can give me ideas about how to sell these items before I spend days and hours cleaning and adjusting the tools.

Thanks for any who respond.

[amcnerl]

Welcome to the forum and home. Sorry to hear of the cancer in your dad. I'm not any help with the tools just thought I'd welcome you here. I'm sure you'll hear from quite a few people with some great ideas. Good luck in your goal.

[ToUtahNow]

It seems eBay is the best place to sell tools and machines but you will have to be willing to ship if you want to get a reasonable price for what you are selling.

When I was still operating a shop I was often the only bidders at $.10 on the $1.00 when a shop was closing down. Of course I was generally only interest in a small portion of what I bought but had to take it all and dispose of it myself.

Mark

[plumberscrack]

I bought a Ridgid 300 and a 3 legged vice from Ebay even with the $100 shipping still made out like a bandit:D

To get the most money for those tools take alot of really good closeup pictures. Digital works best if you have one. Let the bidding begin!

I have a Ebay drop off store near me. Drop off your junk and they take it from there. They list it they ship it and send you the check when it sells. Minus a sellers fee off course.

[Bob D.]

I second PCrack's suggestion of taking the items to a eBay drop-off store. Clean the stuff up and make it as presentable as you can, then take it over to them. You may nned to ehlp them out with proper descriptions of items.

Try them out with a couple items first and see how they do. Since you have a large number of items maybe you can work out a reduced commission with them.

Not sure if this is a concern or not (may vary from state to state) but any proceeds would probably go to you (in your name), might be better to have it go to the estate of your step-father.

Oh, welcome aboard UT!

[Pipestone Kid]

I don't know about Tennessee, but in our area a good auctioneer would get you a tidy sum for the amount of stuff you have. It would be fast--over and done with in a day and no messing around with shipping etc. Just another option for you.
Jim

[Bob D.]

True, an auctioneer would get it done quick and easy. I think you would lose more in commission though, but I am guessing as I don't know what a local eBay consignment store would want, and I don't remember what I paid for an auctioneer back in 1990 when I sold a house load of furniture and tools when we moved.

I know it was the easiest way to go and the fastest. They came with three trucks and loaded up everything for sale and off they went. the auction was the following Saturday at their auction house and we had a check the following Monday in the mail. Painless and fast, and surprising what some items brought. They sold my then 2 year old Craftsman 10" TS w/CI top and wings for $10 less than I bought it new for. Other tools shaper, jointer, lathe went too, no room in the new house. A corner nick-knack shelf we had bought at a yard sale for $20 sold for $275. I think we netted about $9000 after all expenses.

If time is of the essence and/or you just don't want to get that involved in the sale of the items the auctioneer is probably the way to go. If you want to maximize the money and are willing to wait it out and do a little more work then sell the stuff yourself or pass it off to a eBay seller as suggested.

[PLUMBER RICK]

post some photos here and we can help give you a cost or value to expect. some of us have some ebay experience with this stuff. some of us have even bid against each other (mark):D

look up some of the items on ebay and you can get an idea of what some of this stuff goes for.

the cleaner the item and the better the photos along with accepting paypal and shipping at a realistic cost, the more activity you will get. i also like the buy it now feature.

keep us informed and post a link if you go that way.

rick.

[Bob D.]

Agree with Rick on the Buy-it-now. When I find something on there I want I usuallly don't want to wait out the 7 or 10 days till the auction closes. If the buy-it-now price is reasonable I'll click and go for it rather than risk losing the item to someone running some sniping software. I don't have time to sit at the KB (some of you probably don't believe that) and watch an auction close in its last few minutes.

Good, sharp photos are what sells something on eBay, along with truthful, informative descriptions.

[Rafael]

Ebay will generally get you the most for your money, but with heavy items the shipping can kill a deal.
Try posting on Craigslist, that is generally a better avenue for heavy items, and people will more likely buy more than one item, you may find someone who will take the entire lot.

[Gene Bickford]

If you decide to sell on E-bay and time is not a problem try to get your positive feedback score up a bit.
You could start with some low value items first(wrench,drill etc..)
Describe in detail condition of each item and ship fast.
When I sell on e-bay I always include this note when shipping the item:
THANK-YOU, once again for your business. We have vowed to keep alive that good, old-fashioned way of doing business, so we stand behind what we sell. If you are dissatisfied with your purchase, PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO LET US KNOW. We always leave feedback for our buyers and would appreciate your taking the time to do the same.
Feedback is very important. It lets potential buyers know that you are legit and honest with what you sell. If you have no feedback I have no way to know if your legit so I'd be reluctant to bid on a high value item, but something like a wrench wouldn't be much of a risk for me or you.
Also don't be afraid to tell your story in your description. not for sympathy but, so buyers will have an understanding of how you came about, and why you are selling these items.
I'm not sure if your father is up to it but selling on e-bay could be a fun project. It's great when you sell something you think is worth $25 and the winning bid is $50.
My E-bay ID is genetravisb. Let me know if I can help in any way.

[Misawaboy]

Wow, I cannot believe the good advice from you guys! I have been away from the computer for a couple of days. I have called and discused an auction (they will take 20% if I deliver and 15% plus transportation charges if they pick up and take to the their location). I have also checked out eBay (I have sold a couple of things and agre the high price of postage can kill a deal), have a PayPal account set up and may try and use that venue for some of the smaller less bulky items. For the most part I think using the auction is probably our best bet. Kyoko and I will meet Sister at his place on Wednesday to sort, clean, and trash anything not working. I need to replace a couple of the power cords and will operate each unit before we offer for sale.

You guys are awsome. Thanks for all the help and assistance. Will continue to monitor this site and stay in touch.

Hey Seabee.. how or where did you get all the rate symbols and how did you get them included in your response? Nice touch. I was with NMCB 9, NSA Da Nang, OICC Saigon, Operation Deep Freeze, and many other places in my 26 year adventure. Thanks for the input.

v/r Paul (Misawaboy)

[Bob D.]

I scanned them in and created the animated .GIF file somewhere around 91/92 when I was AAOIC and tasked with publishing the DETs POD using good old WordPerfect 5.1 (PITA quirky software but sometimes I miss some of its features).

You need to go to the User Control Panel (click on User CP near the top of the page in the upper left corner) and from there you can edit your signature. It used to have a hyperlink to the Navy SeaBee web site, but it looks like that got broke. No matter, I have fixed it and it is back.

[Rafael]

Use Craigslist!!! And then post that you are selling tools on craigslist to a few woodworking and tool forums. You will sell everything without giving away 20%, and you may get rid of it all in 1 or 2 lots.

[garager]

Shoot put an ad in your local paper w/tools for sale, watch them line up or beating down your door to buy the stuff. You keep all the $$$$, no sharing w/auctioneer( basically a tool yard sale) and it works. To get prices, the internet is a good place to find them, Google search bar, or even here.

[Tom W]

I have bought a number of items from the Albany, NY, Craigs List. The value I like is that the items are local and I can go look at what interests me. I have also bought items from E-Bay and have never been burned. Everything has been as advertised. I would go first with Craigs List because it is local, there is no cost and you can post pictures. Also, since it is local, you may develop a word-of-mouth sale wherein someone who buys something may look at the other stuff you have and know someone else locally who may want some of your other items. Remember, "Clean and shiny sells."