I'm not sure. They're not unicorn rare. But they are a little harder to find than just uncommon. And most of the Carter kits that show up don't include them because they've long ago been pilfered, as I said, and as Brian's story illustrates. So, pricing out loud, probably not a $50 type item, but not $15, either. I don't think I would let mine go for less than $35 unless I knew the buyer personally.
Last week I drove out to a tool-rich estate sale with a large, dilapidated, multi-bay wooden shed complete with early/mid-century metal lathe and milling machine. I had my sights on two Baldor long-arm buffers and a Wilton bullet vise. Even though I was at the tail end of the first group, the Baldors were sold by the time I entered the shed. Luckily for me, the Wilton had been shunted off to the back of one of the work benches and I had to ask two different estate agents where it was located. Much of the shop had at least a decade of grit and dust covering it—as did the Wilton—and the vice blended into the brown background. After ensuring it was sound, I bought it for $90.
With the feeding frenzy in full swing, I found a POS Craftsman tool box with about a 50/50 ratio of interesting tools to ****. Not wanting to take the time to dig through the **** for the nuggets, I decided the $12 sticker price was fair for the entire contents. I applied the same reasoning to a cheap $4 green plastic tool box with about 30-40 wrenches—DOEs, DBEs and Combos of various makers—hauled it off to the hold table and dove back into the fray.
When I emerged with my final trophies, a ½” rail of mixed sockets—$8, a Wright Tools partial socket set—$5 and a New Britain S-35 Ratchet—$4, I found that one of the agents had priced out my $4 box of wrenches at $120! What do you mean the box is $4 and the wrenches are $3 each—sputter, sputter!! I decided at that point I had better go through the box to see what I really wanted! I’m glad I did because well over half of the wrenches were from off shore. I kept the 13 CM -v- metrics, the Plomb pebble, and the three Williams Superrenches. After some negotiations, we settled on $22.
Highlights from the $12 tool box include:
Plomb ½” Swivel Socket with one down arrow and one up arrow
Proto Challenger 1670 Breaker Bar
Proto Professional 706-SL 6” Adjustable
Champion DeArment 420 Channel locks
Two Stanley Wood Chisels
CM 6pt Metric Socket Set with carrier –v-
CM Torx Socket Set -G-
CM 3/8 Flex Head Ratchet and Flex Handle
RIMAC 116 pry bar
Very cool to at least see it. There is a few stores that sell tools that I go to just window shop.
Very nice. I found 2 of them a week apart and haven't seen any since in the 10 years on the hunt. One was unmarked and the other was similar to yours.I have not yet been fortunate enough to run into a partial kit in the wild, but I have found the highly coveted all-steel spinner (T-109-51), which is almost always missing from the kits.
Is there one on eBay now? That's the difference between waiting for one and wanting one now. And despite its seemingly overwhelming presence, some guys still just don't like dealing with eBay. But, a good conversation (Pricing is one of the things we talk least about on GJ...), and ground truth for targeted hand selling (meaning, somewhere online like G503.com, or an MVPA swap meet, etc) is probably somewhere in between $12 and $50. Or $35, like I said!
Is there one on eBay now? That's the difference between waiting for one and wanting one now.... and ground truth for targeted hand selling (meaning, somewhere online like G503.com, or an MVPA swap meet, etc) is probably somewhere in between $12 and $50. Or $35, like I said!
Hey then you got a better deal than you would from me!
Since you're being quotidian, and I don't use the term you're counting as a laudatory, you're in error by at least one (1)! But I don't care if Mike (wrenchguy) has 1 or a 101 "*****", if you plan on following precedence and putting POY up for a vote at the end of the year in a poll among some top pickers that you nominate (apparently strictly quantitatively?), I am casting my ballot now (early mail in!) for wrenchguy! Because if someone comes along and finds something cooler than that antique hardware store carousel between now and NYE, I am just giving up!
Hey, all: just a reminder that in our illustrious thread host's opening post, suction designations are only one factor to be considered.
"As inaugurated by Private Lugnutz and confirmed by BlueBomber, there will be a PICKER-OF-THE-YEAR trophy awarded at the end of the year. I will nominate 10 candidates with 20 or more posts on this thread who, in my estimation, exemplify the high standards of economy, quality, esprit-de-corps, perspicacity…(AKA “best year of finds”). GJers will then vote to choose the winner."
Also, remember this is all in good fun...
Not at all! All in good fun! I was just doing a little campaigning for Mike. And I'm glad you picked on the allusion and ran with it...
LesserSon said:
Oh, it wasn't hard for BlueBomber to raise the IQ bar from 2018 to 2019, but LS brings a creative, sly, diverse, challenging, MENSA class mentality to hosting!
