How much for used tools

[kseele300z]

When selling used tools, what prices are good compared to new. If you take the new price then use 75% is that ok or would the range be down to 50%. I know from the buyers side 50% would be good and sellers would be 75% of new price. What are your general thoughs?

 

[Blacknwhitepit]

When selling used tools, what prices are good compared to new. If you take the new price then use 75% is that ok or would the range be down to 50%. I know from the buyers side 50% would be good and sellers would be 75% of new price. What are your general thoughs?

As a seller (and I have done this a bit)

The best I can ever hope to get for a tool is about 70%. That would be for a brand new Snap on tool.

Regardless of what people believe about quality and so forth the facts are clear.

Snap on has the best resale value.

I have been selling tools online for 5 years now.

Lets use an example

I have a 10 mm Combination wrench that is new. This is what I can get for it.

Snap on 50-70%
Mac 40-50%
Cornwell 30-55%
Matco 20-40%


Craftsman 10-20%
Proto 10-30%

-BWP

 

[Rigmaster]

I think BWP gave a good explanation- and he's sold more tools than I have by far.

The only thing I would add is that alot of it depends on how "used" the used tool is. I won't pay a premium for used tools in most cases, because I'm buying them to use- not to collect or admire. So, I'm willing to buy tools that are cosmetically less than perfect, but I expect the price to reflect this.

In general, for most of the tool truck brands (Snap On, Mac, Matco, Cornwell) tools that are USED but not abused, I think you can expect to get somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-50% of new price.

As others have said, your best bet as seller might be Ebay- it only takes 2 people to get in a bidding war on your stuff for the price to get jacked up to close to full retail. But you have to be willing to deal with the whole Ebay experience, as well as flaky buyers and just PITA buyers in general. The folks on this board seem to be a lot easier to deal with, both as buyers and sellers.


Rig

 

[wrenchr]

As a seller (and I have done this a bit)

The best I can ever hope to get for a tool is about 70%. That would be for a brand new Snap on tool.

Regardless of what people believe about quality and so forth the facts are clear.

Snap on has the best resale value.

I have been selling tools online for 5 years now.

Lets use an example

I have a 10 mm Combination wrench that is new. This is what I can get for it.

Snap on 50-70%
Mac 40-50%
Cornwell 30-55%
Matco 20-40%


Craftsman 10-20%
Proto 10-30%

-BWP

I have more trouble selling matco then anything else!! The general consensus is " I'll just buy craftsman" and save money!! My brother bought a metric matco wrench set for $20.00 a few years ago!!

 

[davestlouis]

I'm a little surprised that Matco is weaker than MAC, in my mind they are equal...owned by big parent companies that sell LOTS of homeowner-quality tools, and the higher-end stuff may be rebadged lower-end items.

 

[davestlouis]

BWP, why is the range on Cornwell wider than the other brands?

 

[back2class]

BWP, why is the range on Cornwell wider than the other brands?

Cornwell tool are mostly good but resale is poor compaired with Snap-on or even Matco. Great if you are buying but bad if selling.

 

[davestlouis]

According to BWP's numbers, Cornwell is significantly stronger in the resale market than Matco, and even higher than MAC at the high end of the scale. I'm just wondering why Cornwell's range of values is 25%, vs as little as 10% on MAC.

 

[trackwelder]

With the sluggish economy there are alot of tools going around, not exactly the best time to try and unload a ton of tools. You will do better with the snap on stuff and the complete sets, but more than likely you will be disappointed with what you will get for the rest. Just my honest opinion good luck!!!

 

[davestlouis]

I've settled into just trading off unwanted stuff for items I want/need more. Keeps my expenditures on new purchases down and allows me to get cool stuff.

 

[Danglerb]

Its supply and demand and varies by area and where you sell.

Ebay seems to get top dollar "most" of the time, but I still buy there when nobody else has what I want.

Swap meets in SoCal anyway have a WIDE range of prices, but I try to stick between 15% and 45% as a buyer. Some items have much more of a premium, some places, than others.

Its also easy to to trade time, maybe LOTS of time, for price, both buying and selling.

I flat out would not pay 70% of retail for a used truck brand tool. I would much rather pay a bit more, and get some good will with the truck seller.

 

[jerk_chicken]

This is good because it shows a lot of people can get top quality tools at reasonable prices and it's the buyer's market used. That's how I got into Armstrong. Good quality, and the prices new and used are pretty good.

Cornwell is supposed to be up there in quality with Snap On, am I correct? In that case, it seems like a fantastic value, perhaps not so ****. Same for Proto.

As far as Mac and Matco goes, I know there are suspicions of the rebranding of the lower models, so they'd likely do well by making them a bit different from CM. It's hard to say if they really do use better alloys or tempering, but you're not generally going to see a person with CM Pros moving up within Danaher (I was interested in, but won't get Armstrong combos).

And where is SK on that list?

 

[back2class]

According to BWP's numbers, Cornwell is significantly stronger in the resale market than Matco, and even higher than MAC at the high end of the scale. I'm just wondering why Cornwell's range of values is 25%, vs as little as 10% on MAC.

That suprises me. I keep a pretty keen eye on ebay at least and Mac seems to command a premium over less flashy brands like Cornwell and Armstrong. Just my obserbvation.

Mac should be at the bottom. Seems like overpriced mid-level stuff to me so I stay away.

 

[fatfillup]

I am buying and selling used tools, though only since Sept. 08. I am selling mainly to my pressure washer accounts (truck and heavy equipment shops and local auto repair shops. I try to keep my pricing between 30 to 50 % of retail depending on condition and popularity of tool. Snap on sells best. All tools are cleaned and I trying to catalog them (big job). Full sets sell well also.

I am curious about the opinions on mac. Is it just the newer mac that people don't like or all mac? I personally have some older mac (10 years or so) and am quite pleased. The newer stuff doesn't seem as good.

Good luck selling your tools and be flexible, money is tight.

 

[Blacknwhitepit]

I have more trouble selling matco then anything else!! The general consensus is " I'll just buy craftsman" and save money!! My brother bought a metric matco wrench set for $20.00 a few years ago!!

Amen Bro.... MATCO's can be some of the hardest to move at a price that they "should" be worth!





Most of what I based the percentages on are from what I would consider a tool manufacturers "Hard line" and USA made.

While most of these are purely anecdotal, these are merely guidelines.

BWP, why is the range on Cornwell wider than the other brands?

The reason for the volatility of Cornwell tools is that the same item can sell for for a good price and the next week it will not. The value of Cornwell has gone up in secondary market over the past 2 or so years (The fault of this board???)

The Undervalued tools: Proto, S-K, Armstrong, K-D, Allen (the USA Made versions) are the most difficult to move. Usually I can only sell them as a set, unlike S-O, MAC and Cornwell which sell very well individually.

The Paradox is that the Undervalued ones are also of great quality. I recently sold some K-D's and Allens to a British guy via EBAY. While looking through his history, I notice he usually bought only Armstrong (and quite a few sets at that). Smart Guy, Buying some of the best USA made quality at bargain basement prices!

-BWP

 

[48548]

Hmmm.. As a buyer for the past few years, I would say it depends on how badly I want something. Say a snap on tk860 website price of 54... I have bought two in new condition on ebay, they are the current models, and kinda rare, so I paid 45 each with shipping, not the best deal, but I looked at it as I got what I wanted and they looked new to me, and I saved close to 20 to spend on something else. On the other hand I wanted a tslf936, and I waited and waited, and one sold 108, and another one for 152 and I got one for 78, was it a great deal, not sure because I can't find them on the snap on site, but I did get the fslf936 3/8 version for 50 one day, so I look at is sometimes I pay more and others time I get a good deal and it does average itself out and I would image it is the same for the seller, sometimes you make a lot of money and other times, you take a loss. Also in the end, it was a lot cheaper than getting then new off the truck and I have really gone from 6 or so snap on ratchets 3 years ago, to close to 40 and I bet when it was said and done I got them all for 40-50% averaging it out.

 

[bushhawg73]

For the most part I agree with blacknwhitepit. Here is my SWAG

Snap on 50-70%
Cornwell 40-55%
Mac 30-50% depending on age, the older tools were better
Matco 20-40%
Armstrong 20-40%

 

[Skyline]

I pretty much agree with blacknwhitepit. The one thing I wanted to add is about S-K. The reason their value is so poor is that they dump huge quantities of goods on a wholesale level, and do nothing to protect their list prices. Look up a socket set that sells for $200 on the S-K web site, and, guaranteed, you can find someone selling the same set for $100 on eBay, brand new. You have to wonder how that happens to be.

So if you have a used item to sell, don't count on getting more than 25% of list....because the list price is so inflated from actual new sales price.

 

[jerk_chicken]

I see that a lot with SK, the wide ranging prices. It made me wonder if they had different levels where some were good and some were CM level.

 

[kseele300z]

Well i hear good and bad but is all very interesting to know. I guess I should have done the selling sooner as these tools have been sitting covered in a garage untouched for the last 13 years. What a shame that is. But too bad I waited till now when I am ready to move to sell them. Thanks for the price range input it should help bring down my estimated earnings but what-a-ya-gonna-do.

The good thing I'm hearing is with the age, at lest the Mac tools are better built than current tools.