Garage sale heaven...but I'm going nuts

[Lump]

Today I hit about 20 garage sales, and all but the last one were a waste of time. But the last one had LOTS of tools, with lots of really old tools among the mix. (It's late now, and I must get up early to hit the flea market trail in the morning. But tomorrow afternoon I'll be posting lots of pix). I came to the first old tool box, and picked out a few pieces and asked for a price. I had a metal boxed set of ACTION brand USA-made sockets/ratchet, two nice name-brand wrenches, and a screwdriver. Guy said $5. HOT DOG, I'm THERE! So then I stood up from that old tool box, and looked deeper into his garage. There laid wooden crates and plastic tubs full of sockets and wrenches. I started looking, and found lots of good brands. I asked him how much if I bought a large quantity of sockets. He said ten cents each. EUREKA! I sent my wife and family down the road to go buy themselves some ice cream, and dug into the tubs. I found Plomb, Pennen, Wright, Cornwell, Proto, Husky, Craftsman, Kraeuter, S-K, New Britain, Thorsen, Duro Chrome, Williams, Fleet, Armstrong, and more. All in all, I bought 200 sockets for $20, the ratchet/socket set by "Action" tools, Mac wood handle screwdrivers, extensions, 30 name-brand USA-made wrenches, an oddball antique ratchet, and miscellaneous for a grand total for everything of $45. Then my family came back to pick me up, with cranky two-year old grandson in the back seat, so I had to leave. There are five more tubs of old sockets to be gone through yet, and lots of miscellaneous old tools which I have not yet dug through (big US C-clamps, hack saws, hammers, screwdrivers, etc, etc). I plan to go back tomorrow afternoon, on my way home from the flea markets. Then I'll post some photos.

 

[Lump]

Before I go back, can anyone tell me about a tool brand of "VLCHEK"? That old gentleman had about 10 VLCHEK wrenches, and several sockets. They looked good, and are made in the USA. But I never heard of the brand. Any ideas?

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

I plan to go back tomorrow afternoon, on my way home from the flea markets. Then I'll post some photos.

You got 24 hours!

 

[Bull]

Hey, keep an eye open for vintage Crescent brand combos and box wrenches!

 

[Goinlow]

Wow this truly does sound like heaven.

 

[Coleman]

I hate you. Did I mention I hate you?

 

[dieseldodge01]

OK one day you will have to tell me how you do it, I can't find **** up here.

 

[heelsroll]

AWESOME. Heart still racing?

 

[Lump]

Up and awaiting my son to go along with me to a couple flea markets to pass out flyers, and then we're heading back to that same garage sale. Apparently this old gentleman used to go to auctions to buy tools, and then to flea markets to sell them. But now he said his health is failing, and he can longer lift and carry these heavy tools around. He must have 5,000 sockets, 2000 wrenches, and TONS of miscellaneous tools. Yesterday I found just about every brand I've ever heard of, and several others...except no Mac or Snap On. So someone beat me to the punch on just those two brands. (Oh, I did find two nice old wood-handle Mac screwdrivers, but they were priced higher, at .25 each ). I hope you guys are gonna want some of these tools. At 10 cents apiece for sockets, and a buck for wrenches, I'm finding it hard to pass them up. But like I said, I bought 200 sockets yesterday, and I expect to buy about that many again today.

 

[atari]

i cant ever seem to find any good garage sales around here like that, its so hit miss, Mostly miss. I just go to flea markets and such that will have stuff for sure. I look forward to swapers day all year. Now thats my kind of flea market, tools and guns does not get much better. Last year was crappy though. Did you find any larger c-man inpact 1/2in sockets?

 

[arkangel06]

Wow man what are you going to do with all this stuff???

BTW you **** even without pics...

 

[billymade]

Here is some info for you on the The Vlchek Tool Company:
http://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/vlchek-story.html

 

[Tom2]

I quit wasting gas driving around to garage sales. It's 90% kids ****! Usually some VHS tapes, and outdated electronics.

 

[Lump]

Got home from a long day of flea markets and garage sales, just in time to watch the boxing match. I'm exhausted now, but I wanted to post a few photos, before you guys all decide that I've been making this whole thing up. But I've found LOTS of cool used tools in the past 3 weeks of shopping. I'm going to attach several photos tonight. The first pix are of today, the SECOND day that I went to that garage sale I referred to in this original post. (I didn't have a camera with me yesterday ). So today I took several shots. Next I'll start spreading out the tool haul I made, so you guys can check it out, and tell me if I did good, or not-so-good.
First pix are of my 30-year-old son, who agreed to go with me today, to help reduce the time needed to go through so many tools, searching for US-made brand name tools. Good boy!!

 

[mrshaun]

now I would go did through that stuff. looks like our pawn shops. lots of tiawan/china.

now and then you get lucky and find the good stuff stashed in there.

 

[Lump]

Next, here are some photos of the boxes of typical offerings at this particular sale. Note that many of the wrenches were dirty or rusty, and not always so easy to identify. But the seller agreed to stay on the program he and I worked with yesterday, which was that if I bought lots of tools, he would be very aggressive with his pricing. So my son and I spent this second visit to his sale picking out every single USA-made socket he had, plus most of the brand-marked USA-made wrenches. We also got a few miscellaneous US-made tools in the package deal. Keep in mind that I only took these photos AFTER I had removed many, many name-brand tools from each box.
Check out these photos:

More pix to follow

 

[Even 11]

Holy Cow!!! That garage sale has a better selection than any garage sale, flea market, auction, or junk store that i have ever seen!! I need to find a sale like that!! Are you passing anything on to us tool mongers on the board?

-Dane

 

[Lump]

So here are the tools I actually bought today. There are NO Asian-made tools in these pix. I bought ONLY USA-made tools, except about 4 German-made wrenches. The box of sockets is 7.5" tall, but the sockets only come up about 6.25 inches deep. The box is 7" wide by 10" long. After posting these pix, I will dig out the sockets and wrenches I bought yesterday, and photo them spread out so you can see them. Finally I'll do the same with today's haul. Whew, I'm worn out!

 

[Lump]

Holy Cow!!! That garage sale has a better selection than any garage sale, flea market, auction, or junk store that i have ever seen!! I need to find a sale like that!! Are you passing anything on to us tool mongers on the board?

-Dane

Yeah, this is obviously more tools than anyone needs...even collectors. But I hit about 30 garage sales and two big flea markets this weekend, and was fortunate to find lots of good tools at great prices. So I will be counting on my Garage Journal pals to take some of this stuff off my hands. I need some specific tools to fill in gaps created by missing tools in various tool sets which I inherited from my dad, plus tools I lost from my own tools purchased new which I was wrenching in the 1970's. So maybe I can trade, sell, or barter some? We'll see.

 

[JSBriggs]

WOW! That is alot of tools. Im guessing that you should be able to make sets of alot of those.

-Jeff

 

[Lump]

Here is some info for you on the The Vlchek Tool Company:
http://home.comcast.net/~alloy-artifacts/vlchek-story.html

Thanks, Billymade! With your information, I went ahead and bought those VLCHEK combo wrenches today. I really appreciate it.

I bought a lot of tools there over today and yesterday, and by the time the seller finished discounting my "package deal", I think I paid about 20 cents per wrench, and a little under a dime-per-socket (NO Asian-made tools either!) Not too bad, eh?

 

[Toolhorder]

I'm amazed you guys think that's such good stuff. It's pretty common place around here. I don't even stop to look through piles of old USA tools unless there is Snap On in the pile. The flea markets up here have boxes like that at every turn.

 

[Coleman]

I'm amazed you guys think that's such good stuff. It's pretty common place around here. I don't even stop to look through piles of old USA tools unless there is Snap On in the pile. The flea markets up here have boxes like that at every turn.

Guess some or most folks aren't as fortunate as you! Have fun with that!

 

[mkdive]

That's a haul that I'm jelous of!!

 

[Bull]

Yay for Cali, I suppose. As for Snore-on, uh I mean Snap-on, it's more fun to me to search through tubs of obscure vintage US brands, like we have here.

I'm amazed you guys think that's such good stuff. It's pretty common place around here. I don't even stop to look through piles of old USA tools unless there is Snap On in the pile. The flea markets up here have boxes like that at every turn.

 

[Lump]

I'm amazed you guys think that's such good stuff. It's pretty common place around here. I don't even stop to look through piles of old USA tools unless there is Snap On in the pile. The flea markets up here have boxes like that at every turn.

I guess I can understand that perspective. But for me, Snap On is not the only good brand out there...especially among older tools. This haul included Cornwell, Matco, Craftsman, Plomb, Proto, etc, etc. Again, speaking for myself, some of those are some pretty desirable brands. And I'm hoping that guys/gals who collect some of these other brands of older tools may want some of these pieces to fill in gaps in their own collections. If not...well, now I have PLENTY of good quality tools! Today I'll be spreading out the hauls from the last two days, and taking some additional photos. Then I'll add them all together with the smaller haul from my own flea market last weekend (Yes, there was Snap On in that pile), and take some photos together. Finally, I hope to separate them all by brand, and take photos of groups of tools by brand. On the other hand, the older Mac tools which I personally treasure so much were mostly absent both weeks.

 

[Brandon_K]

While I love tools, maybe I'm missing something here;

What do you DO with that box of sockets now? Surely there is probably 5 or 10 1/2" 3/8 drive sockets in there, what do you do with them? Between a full set of shallow, mid's and deep in 1/4-1/2", I've never found a socket that I needed that I didn't have.

I guess I don't get it.

 

[Arne73]

While I love tools, maybe I'm missing something here;

What do you DO with that box of sockets now? Surely there is probably 5 or 10 1/2" 3/8 drive sockets in there, what do you do with them? Between a full set of shallow, mid's and deep in 1/4-1/2", I've never found a socket that I needed that I didn't have.

I guess I don't get it.

See post # 26

 

[Lump]

While I love tools, maybe I'm missing something here;

What do you DO with that box of sockets now? Surely there is probably 5 or 10 1/2" 3/8 drive sockets in there, what do you do with them? Between a full set of shallow, mid's and deep in 1/4-1/2", I've never found a socket that I needed that I didn't have.

I guess I don't get it.

That's okay. We're all different from each other anyway. I sometimes get that same reaction from folks when I drive my 1923 Hupmobile touring car, or my 1970 LS-6 Chevelle. Why would I bother to restore, preserve, and drive these inefficient, obsolete cars? Today's brand-new highly-efficient cars are stacked up like cordwood on every dealer's lot, just waiting for us to sign-on-the-line and buy them. (I've done it many times myself!)
Indeed, the whole idea of hunting for and buying older tools is a little crazy, if you only consider them for their utilitarian value. Many folks may prefer to just go to Sears or to the nearest tool-sales truck and buy everything they need at once, brand new. Then they can happily spend the next 10 years paying it off (with interest, naturally...which doesn't seem like that much fun to me, at this stage of my life. Besides, I don't wrench for a living anymore). That's cool too. But guys like me deeply appreciate older tools and can appreciate the character of premium quality products from another era. And guys like me enjoy the treasure hunt...trying to find major brand tools for pennies on the dollar. It's enjoyable to me, and so I do it. (How about those threads with guys who are restoring old tool boxes, or spending hundreds of dollars and hours to restore old floor jacks? Some of us have to admit we may just be a little on the wacko side...like me.) Others might not enjoy such things, and so they should do whatever else they like better instead.
So, what do I do with them now? Well, I'm hoping that there are other people out there who think like me. I'm hoping I can sell a few of them in the GJ classified section, and I'm hoping I can trade some of them for the older Mac tool pieces which are missing from my vintage Mac sets which I inherited from my dad, and others which are missing from other sets which I bought myself in the early 1970's, when I was a young "wrench" myself. And I have two adult sons who each have their own homes now, with very few tools in their boxes. I hope I can make some sets of good quality, USA-made tools for each of them, for less than some guys prefer to spend for one wrench. To each his own!

 

[selohssa]

Well said Sir.

 

[selohssa]

Oh and buy the way, I am anxiously awaiting the pics of all the goodies spread out.

 

[bonneyman]

The Action-brand ratchets were made by Thorsen. Very nice ratchets.
I'm just getting the "rusty old tool" bug. In the past I'd never look twice at a wrench that was rusty. Now, I look and might buy it just because it's old, and I know there are folks out there looking for old stuff. If I can get it for a $1, and sell it to someone completing their collection for $3 or $4, everybody benefits.
Though lately, I've been buying stuff I don't REALLY need (and don't even know what it does), simply because I feel this era of stuff is going to disappear soon. With the way things are going, getting an Amercian tool for a good price now is far preferable to not getting it....and needing it down the road.

 

[Flathead Youngin']

Hey, I "get it" and love to be on the hunt too......though I haven't hit the flea market/swap meets/yard sale much in the last few years. I've also been more on the hunt for specialized tools, too....

Like my grandpa says, "I know people that will go out to eat on Friday and spend $20. Then, the next morning they'll **** that money in the toilet and flush it down. It's just hard for me to pass up a good Thorsen ratchet for $5, and I'll own that the rest of my life."

 

[Packard V8]

Yes, you and I do it because we enjoy the archeology of old tools, the thrill of the hunt.

No, there isn't any real money in it. By the time I finish selling off everything surplus, I pay for what I kept. That is, if no burden is figured for the hours upon hours of driving, looking, sorting, hauling, cleaning, advertising and shipping.

Maybe, you'll occasionally get your heart broken. We on the GJ site are a picky bunch. More than once, I've gotten excited about finding whatever, say a mint set of P&C sockets, only to get a huge yawn from this group and end up basically giving them away.

Suggestion - give the group first shot at your treasures here. If they don't sell in a week, on to eBay.

thnx, jack vines

 

[fordbroncodave]

how much of that is truck brands?

 

[sk farmer]

to each his own but i love the older, odder more obscure stuff. new snapppy stuff has that shiny chrome bling but others can have it. i love an old tool that is still in good or can be returned togood condition. they have charachter that the new "bling" will never have. not tomarrow, next year or in twenty years. a pro could be equipped with at least twenty brands of good us made tools from the past. maybe even twenty. how many are left now that can be collected in the future?

 

[Lump]

how much of that is truck brands?

Fordbroncodave, I'm guessing about 5 percent. Having said that, I should say that the "truck brands" in my experience are Snap On, Mac, Cornwell, and I THINK Matco. (Never saw a Matco truck during my time with my tools, in the early 70's in Dayton, Ohio area. But I think I get the impression from GJ folks that it is a truck brand. Is that right? Are there any other recognized "truck brands"?) With only 4 "truck brands" known to me, that is why I guessed at 5%.

 

[Lump]

Just to be clear, I have been a "collector" of things all my life...literally even before I attended kindergarten in 1960. My parents were antique car club members, and avid collectors of all kinds of antiques. But I never paid much attention to many USA-manufactured tools until I joined Garage Journal. I knew about the value of the "truck brands" and Craftsman tools, along with the quality of a few others like New Britain, Blackhawk and SK Wayne. But I didn't know much about names like Plomb, Wright, Armstrong, Proto, etc. Only when I read posts from people who were searching for those brands did I begin to pay attention to them. I am very grateful to the GJ members who opened my eyes to these wonderful other brands.

 

[arkangel06]

Now thats a massive haul, Try making up sets and then selling them.

 

[Lump]

When I began sorting through all of those thousands of sockets you've seen in the photos, I received a really terrific and unique education on the physical comparisons of the various brands, and of the evolution of quality USA-made tools too. Real quality tools look and feel different than the off-shore-made junk. Soon I began to develop some real respect for some brands I had ignored in the past, simply because I had not known them. For example, the Wright brand tools I found impressed me very much, and the Armstrong tools were very good too. Sparta, Bonney, Huskey, Thorsen, and....well, you get the idea. These are all some very GOOD tools. No wonder several Garage Journal members collect them.