Welcome to GJ,
Hope you've been enjoying building your tool collection.
Will have to say its a labor of love especially collecting Craftsman and then trying to sell what you don't need. There's is simply a ton of it already out there, sitting in piles at every flea markets....etc. The only ones that get some traction is the =V= or earlier and really only sold in complete sets, even one or two missing pieces kills value and even complete set don't get that much money for the quality (they're high quality and a great deal for someone starting a shop).
Selling Craftsman sockets and wrenches sold individually is brutal; Unless it a highly desired, well established collectible tool on its own that people are searching for otherwise making any money to cover time and effort is tough at best. Almost everyone's father or Uncle had SK, Craftsman or Proto tools in the garage. These are old tools but not rare by any means.
You do get people needing to finish off sets buying randoms but its not nearly as much as you think and they only want to spend $3-$6. Shipping is a killer now.
I say definitely lower your prices considerably. Use only eBay items have SOLD (green prices shown) as a reference and then note it's condition compared to yours. Then lower the price about 25% below that to sell on the forums or locally and then maybe you'll get some traction. Here on GJ, I find sellers here want much more or the same prices as ebay prices and buyers are very frugal, way more than buyers on eBay; not a great combo.
For years I had booths at many vintage tool shows selling all kind of tooling full time. We all hate to lower prices but tools sold much faster at lower is more profitable in long run. Holding onto items hoping to get Gucci prices means more space needed to store a bad seller (space is money), money ******* in that item that could be used buying tooling that's more profitable or more desirable for yourself. Having a pocket full of cash and light load heading towards home is way better than a heavy load going home and barley enough bills to rub together because you stuck to your high prices. You'll then have to repeat the whole process again selling it in hopes it will sell this time while if you sold a lot of items in the first place you would now have space, money and time to sell other new items that hopefully is more profitable. The one who unloads the most is the winner, not necessarily the one who gets the highest price over time.
Remember, If you're serious about this and know what you're doing then you're only buying items that make money. The cash I would make at tool sales would go into buying even more tools, you normally don't buy tools that don't make or help you make money (money feeds the hobby). If I have tools not selling/not making me any really cash; I give it away so I don't need to deal with it, having to haul it around, taking up valuable shop space, extra muscles need to load it and unload it. If I sell it low, at least I can use that money to buy something else that will be more profitable or a tool more useful to me. A correction from a mistake.
I have hundreds and hundreds of socks from Craftsman, SK, Proto, plomb, Snap-On.....etc sitting all organized and categorized that are a total pain to deal with. I give the stuff away. Just recently I tried giving two different friends complete Craftsman -V- socket set racks with a ratchet from 3/16"-1" and neither were that excited and when looking on eBay, they don't sell for that much as a complete set compared other tooling that people need in shops. Everyone tries to sell Snap-On for super high prices but most buyers just want to pay what you think your Craftsman is worth. Think about it, how much effort and time are you going to spend to make maybe $50 from a box full of sockets? It's not worth it
Don't lose the drive to collect, buy tools for yourself but bear mind as a rule of thumb about half of what you think is profitable is not; so be smart and get educated of what's worth buying and what you need to walk past or run past like used drill bits, sockets, individual wenches and taps and if you see auger bits in pretty wood boxes run right past it and fast.
. Good luck and have fun!
