Ancient Plomb Socket Set on CL

[justin10054]

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/tls/2748334400.html

The seller claims these are from the mid '20s. I imagine a set like this is very rare, but $250 is more than I can afford right now. I had never seen these before, but Alloy Artifacts has a couple of these sockets.

 

[Outlawmws]

WAY too much $$ IMO

 

[larryq]

Anyone familiar with Bay Area CL asking prices won't be surprised at that listing. *Sigh*

 

[g0ldfing3r]

Anyone familiar with Bay Area CL asking prices won't be surprised at that listing. *Sigh*

I agree.

 

[justin10054]

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/tls/2728895226.html

This guy has two 3/4" drive sockets that he wants $100 each for. He's nuts.

 

[lbgradwell]

The second guy is nuts, but the first might get what he's asking.

Not from me, but...

 

[SCscoutguy]

The second guy is nuts, but the first might get what he's asking.

Not from me, but...

I agree with this. The first guy might be pretty close to what someone would pay for that. The second guy obviously smoked some crack before he posted that.

 

[johnnybentwrench]

I believe they are worth more than the sellers asking price. These are the first Sockets made by PLOMB. They are scarce & rare and just don't turn up in the wild much anymore

 

[philw]

The problem is that there are very few serious Plomb collectors when compared to other categories of collectibles. The demand may be there now but a few years down the line the bottom could drop out just like any other collectible.

The bottom has fell out of the Plomb market in the last year or two. Pebbled tools that were commanding huge $ now sell for a fraction. I can't give away non pebbled Plomb.

I guess I'm trying to give a warning to anyone who thinks they will buy this and hold onto it and make money eventually. Odds are that you would lose a huge amount.

(I'm not writing this to discourage buyers so that I can bid on it. I'm not interested in it all for that price. It has great historical value but it's not what I like.)

 

[johnnybentwrench]

There are serious PLOMB collectors out there who are only interested in the early hand forged PLOMB Tools. This set is sold pending Payment. The seller was contacted from around the country off a CL ad

I will send you my address for the non pebble PLOMB items you can't give away

 

[Bull]

Johnny, is that your friend who is selling the items? As soon as I saw the ad, I thought of oldjacks.

 

[johnnybentwrench]

No, oldjacks has only seen one complete set and one incomplete in 25-30 years and traded them for other PLOMB items. The seller is from up in Northern CA. He came down to LA for a graduation and I met him locally and bought them.

 

[philw]

There are serious PLOMB collectors out there who are only interested in the early hand forged PLOMB Tools. This set is sold pending Payment. The seller was contacted from around the country off a CL ad

I will send you my address for the non pebble PLOMB items you can't give away

Most are already gone. Couldn't sell them on ebay and make any money so I sold them in a garage sale. They went for anywhere between .50 cents and $2 and I ended up not selling a few. Gave the stuff I didn't sell to a relative who needed tools.

So yes I mistated. If you take my post literally then I was able to give them away.

What's the average age of serious Plomb collector's? My point is I think sometime in the future there will be more supply than demand. When that happens the price will fall.

That is the chance you take when you spend $ on any "collectable".

 

[oldjacks]

Let's set the record straight as most Plomb Tools are rather common. It's no big deal to put sets together and with ebay it has made this task very easy. So naturally at some point the price is going to drop as there winds up being more tools available than collectors to collect them. But not all Plomb tools are common and as such I would mention that I have been working on completing a set of one particular style of wrench that in 25 years is still not complete.

Now I ask you if I saw a tool that I needed for that set wouldn't I be inclined to pay considerably more for that tool than someone else who might not even know of its existence? Of course I would! Lastly I would mention that there are some great Plomb Tools out there that are still relatively unknown and indeed very collectible.

 

[johnnybentwrench]

I just scored!!! The guy I sold them to has been collecting PLOMB since 1942
He is sending me my missing PLOMB with an O double box end wrenches!!!!! he must have a literal ton of PLOMB

@oldjacks Thanks for the first two double box PLOMB wrenches

 

[justin10054]

Ask him to send you pictures of his collection.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Let's set the record straight as most Plomb Tools are rather common.

I think it may depend somewhat on region - in Minnesota I've seen very few Plomb tools. On the other hand, Proto and Challenger are fairly easy to find. Maybe by the time they were selling those brand names their distribution network was wider.

 

[B17E1943]

Didn't the earliest Plomb tools say A. Plomb on them? Listing has been deleted, so can't see the pics.

 

[oldjacks]

A. Plomb Tools are not Plomb Tools. Alphonse was an alcoholic and left the original company at some point in time in the 1920's. He then started another tool company called A. Plomb which in some manner was connected to California Tool Company. One can find tools with both names on them i.e. Calif Tool on one side and A. Plomb on the other.

 

[johnnybentwrench]

Alphonse started dropping the hammer in 1907 with with three other Blacksmiths and left the company in 1917, he started A.Plomb tools at that time and sold the company to Calif tools in 1927 when he retired. This is what I was told by a gentleman who has collected since 1942.

I will have to ask him about Alphonse and the bottle

 

[930dreamer]

Alphonse started dropping the hammer in 1907 with with three other Blacksmiths and left the company in 1917, he started A.Plomb tools at that time and sold the company to Calif tools in 1927 when he retired. This is what I was told by a gentleman who has collected since 1942.

I will have to ask him about Alphonse and the bottle

That's a serious wrench there. They don't use that much steel anymore on a wrench.