Are used tools loosing their value these days?

[Wrench97]

The auto repair industry has consistently been 20+ years behind the times IME, clinging desperately to an outdated business model still trying to make it work. The bottom rung of techs still makes 90’s wages and most shop owners have not stayed current and frankly have no clue as to the investment in tools a top level tech has to make in order to just come through the door.

Many don’t have the desire to spend $1000’s in tools only to be paid poorly, treated like **** and be expected to be able to work on anything made in the last 40 years. Sooo many other jobs have way less of an investment and better working conditions. The auto industry and the general public are in for a rude awakening, because the price for service will only go UP, not down. And as less and less competent techs enter the field and more leave, the good ones will be able to charge a hefty premium as they’ll be the only ones capable of doing the work.

And I might be wrong, but I see more service work being done by used car lots and the like instead of the consumer. I.e consumers will drive the vehicle until the cost to repair it exceeds what they can afford, so they’ll trade it off and the used car market will scoop them up, spend money to fix them and flip them. I frankly don’t think many car owners are prepared for what things REALLY cost in auto repair. They’ve been catered to for too long and now expect the market to conform to their impossible demands. And I eagerly cheer this train along as it barrels down the tracks towards the cliff, it’s been long overdue and I’m interested to see where the field goes afterwards.

The used car market for the most part will half **** fix them. disconnect modules, cut circuits to trouble lights and pass it along. I had one the other day where someone removed the SRS module and cut the circuit on the PCB in the cluster to turn the air bag light off on a used car, the same car was also "not ready for testing" for emissions and never will be since they also threw a "tune" in the ECM and turned off the downstream O2 sensor...............................end result no CEL and it never monitors downstream O2's for convertor efficiency so no O2 monitor complete and no convertor efficiency monitor complete, fails emission testing here as not ready for testing. Customer took the car back to the used car dealer who found somebody to slap a sticker on it..............................

 

[Wrench97]

Doesn't sound like a very upscale neighborhood to me? I look up and down my street and all I see are BMW's, Mercedes Benzes and huge ******* SUV's. I bring my 911 out of storage once every blue moon and park in in my driveway so that the neighbors don't harass me about my 2021 Camry being an eyesore.

Sounds like farm country to me.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

The used car market for the most part will half **** fix them. disconnect modules, cut circuits to trouble lights and pass it along. I had one the other day where someone removed the SRS module and cut the circuit on the PCB in the cluster to turn the air bag light off on a used car, the same car was also "not ready for testing" for emissions and never will be since they also threw a "tune" in the ECM and turned off the downstream O2 sensor...............................end result no CEL and it never monitors downstream O2's for convertor efficiency so no O2 monitor complete and no convertor efficiency monitor complete, fails emission testing here as not ready for testing. Customer took the car back to the used car dealer who found somebody to slap a sticker on it..............................

They cant get all but the "defeated" cat monitor to run? Usually that was the ticket, you can have one monitor incomplete for a plug in obd2 test, so the tune just bypassed the converter monitor. Always incomplete, but so long as everything else completed they could run their catless down pipe.

Same deal as evap on the older stuff. Run all the monitors except evap with no more than 1/8 tank. It wont run and you can skim by. Obviously didnt work on nvld systems. Stuff was.pretty common at used car dealers. Limp them through a test, their either sell as a junker with a CEL, or more commonly fix them, but have the stickers so you dont have to worry about it if somebody doesnt care about CEL, or you're driving it around.

 

[Wrench97]

They cant get all but the "defeated" cat monitor to run? Usually that was the ticket, you can have one monitor incomplete for a plug in obd2 test, so the tune just bypassed the converter monitor. Always incomplete, but so long as everything else completed they could run their catless down pipe.

Same deal as evap on the older stuff. Run all the monitors except evap with no more than 1/8 tank. It wont run and you can skim by. Obviously didnt work on nvld systems. Stuff was.pretty common at used car dealers. Limp them through a test, their either sell as a junker with a CEL, or more commonly fix them, but have the stickers so you dont have to worry about it if somebody doesnt care about CEL, or you're driving it around.

This one looks to me like they defeated the Downstream O2 monitors and since they won't run the PCM won't run the Cat monitor? Thinking about it I never did look to see if it had downstream O2's installed or if they just welded pipes in place of the cats. After going down the rabbit hole to see why the the air bag light lit up dim on cold damp mornings the customer was going to take the car back.

 

[iamcoolguy]

I think they are, if new tools are being offer deeper discount, specially during this inflation period.

 

[yardiron]

Doesn't sound like a very upscale neighborhood to me? I look up and down my street and all I see are BMW's, Mercedes Benzes and huge ******* SUV's. I bring my 911 out of storage once every blue moon and park in in my driveway so that the neighbors don't harass me about my 2021 Camry being an eyesore.

I haven't seen a Mercedes or BMW around here anywhere. Lots of big SUV's jacked up on big tires painted camo, my 19 year old F250 and 20 year old car are among the newest vehicles on the street.

I paid $50k for my house, a year later the taxes jumped from $1,200 a year to $5,500/yr and they re-assessed it at $125k.
These are 1940's homes on 90x80ft and 160x80ft lots. The taxes, cost of living and $7 fuel for the truck eat up most of my cash. The dealer's pay $13.50/14.50/15.50 and $16 for a shop forman. Most shops are union.
I got out in the late 90's after they offered us a $ .23/hr raise over 8 years on the new contract.
Guys there are making less than we were making 25 years ago and new hires get offered even less.
They then complain they can't find good techs.

I think they are, if new tools are being offer deeper discount, specially during this inflation period.

New tools are more, the Snap On truck prices didn't go down and there are fewer sales. The dealers are less likely to offer any discounts because their overall profits are way down. Guys making $15/hr just don't buy many tools.
The result is that taking a car into any dealer here is a scary proposition. You just don't know what to expect.
One dealer pays retired guys to go to dealer training when its required because the don't want to send guys they need in the shop, or the guys they have refuse to go since the won't pay them for the training day. Yet they'll pay someone else.

A buddy goes to dealer training all the time for several dealers that he's never worked at for so much as a day.
A junk man who roams around on trash day here brought me over 40 plastic tool kits from one dealer, they tossed most of their specialty tool kits in the trash after they took the tool room space to make a customer waiting room.
From what i had heard around town they couldn't fix anything anyway, so I guess loosing all the factory tool kits didn't matter much. The Evap tester and Dana/Spicer rear axle set up kit sure are nice to have, so is the 'gauge tester' which plugs into various senders to test the function of things like the gas and temp gauges.
I also like the optical tachometer that was in that lot too.

It just shows why a tech needs to have so many tools, they tossed out the ball joint press and a set of noid lights too.

One dealer I worked at fired the service manager back in the 90's. It was around the time they started requiring managers to have college degrees. The new manager was 22, fresh out of community college with a degree. His last job was at working at a fast food joint.
He showed up in a suit and tie, walked around through the shop and started complaining about how everyone's tool boxes didn't match. He wanted everyone to buy the same color box and gave everyone 6 months to comply.
I told him good luck with that one, my box isn't going anywhere, and he'll be out of there before I will .

He then started harping on how there was a row of funny looking blue tool boxes along the one wall, (Those were the Cummins tools, all supplied by the factory. The boxes were all William's brand industrial cabinets, 8 of them. All filled with every factory issue tool available. He insisted I get them out of there on the double.
I thought about going up front and warning the general manager but he was an a$$ too. So I called a buddy who lived near by who had a 28ft enclosed car trailer and told him to get to the dealership ASAP. The new service manager even helped load them. Tools and all. (Most of the tools were OTC and Snap on).
At the same time, seeing the writing on the wall, I rolled my tool box into the trailer as well and left. It was around lunch time on Friday, so the kid service manager never suspected a thing. I called the owner that night and told him I chose not to replace my red tool box so I won't be back.
The guy didn't know what to say. Monday came and went and I got a call from the new service manager wanting to know where I was. I told him "On my way to FL." He asked me when I'd be back, I told him when it snows there I guess and hung up. Two weeks later the service director brought me my paycheck, with two weeks vacation, and tried his best to get me to come back. When I refused, he kept calling, a week later two more guys left, they fired that new service manager, but I was done.
I owned my tools, didn't own anyone anything and owned my house. I spent the rest of the fall in FL fishing.
By the time I came back that dealer had closed up. That was the mid 90's, I was making $25/hr then as an "A" rate when I left.

 

[2ndGearRubber]

IMO unless you're in the top 10% of the mechanic industry, it ain't worth it to play the game it seems. When you read and hear what a lot of guys are making, it's obvious why nobody worthwhile is getting into the biz.

What the future holds, I can't predict. But I'll be running it out until it's no longer economically viable.

 

[Ricky Joe]

Damn, guys! Here I’ve been carefully parsing tools for my son, and now I realize I don’t want him in that environment! A lot different than when I worked for others, which I haven’t done as a mechanic since 1985, when I opened my own garage, except for a short time after retirement. I had forgotten about the politics and disadvantages. I guess I owe you thanks!

 

[finn]

Sorry, no cushion grip tools in the lot.
Most of the ratchets are chrome handled or have the earlier square handles.
Personally I've never been a big fan of anything but a chrome handle, in tight quarters the added thickness of a plastic handle meant skinned knuckles. I think I've only got two in my whole set, a pair of flex head 3/8" ratchets that I used for spark plugs with a long extension and swivel plug socket.

What it looks like right now is that she pretty much just dumped the tools here with no intention of doing anything else, they put the house up for sale now and apparently she already had a place where she planned to take him. She donated nearly all the furniture that she couldn't sell at the one yardsale, dumped most of his clothes off at GW, and loaded all the tools into my car trailer and left. I don't even have a way to get hold of her other than the old guy's cell phone that now goes unanswered.
My trailer has 15 or so large Rubbermaid tubs full of his tools, plus the front bench is stacked full of boxed items like compression testers drills, impact guns etc.
All of the rechargeable tools are 9.6 and 12v tools, all need batteries but the tools look almost new. I realized they're obsolete since their all NiCad powered but it seems such a waste. I have a pair of those old CT100 3/8" impact guns myself and it was always just the right size and power for bench work, but the batteries are too pricey these days. He's got three that look new in the original boxes, plus a couple drills, (one 9.6, one 12v), and the work lights to match.

I put the two OEXL wrench sets on CL last week here for $300 each, 3/8"-1" and 10mm to 21mm but only got $25 to $50 offers from dirtbags wanting to steal them. If that's all they're worth, they can go in my box and sit there as spares. I took the ad down till maybe things get a bit better. As far as I'm concerned CL here is dead, nothing sells, even free ads don't seem to get any replies.

I picked up a free SK top box that was listed for FREE for a month there. I can't imagine why no one grabbed it other than the paint is faded. I'll clean it up a bit and sort out some of the small tools into this box for now. The plan is to attached it to the bench in the trailer later down the road. It looks like a Waterloo box, very similar to an old Mac box. It used to be bright red, its faded to sort of the color of an old Allis Chalmers tractor from a red that looks the same as the old Mac boxes were. Along with it came an unknown box, no name at all but very similar construction, if not a bit heavier metal. The second chest has a drop front. Both had their keys taped to the bottom of a drawer.
The third is a Snap-on KRA59/380? combo that's a bit rough but for free, I had to go get it. I had to slide my boat on the ground and take my boat trailer to get it, it even had some tools still in it. (Some Craftsman and Cambell Housfield air tools, a few Craftsman ratchets, and a drawer full of feeler gauges. The key is gone from the roll cab but the top lock is fine but had the key broke off in the lock. The guy giving it away was giving up on the business and moving to FL.
In the end, they weren't free since I probably burned 1/4 tank of gas to go get them though.
All are well worn and dirty but all are completely usable as they are. I will take the time to clean, polish and maybe even paint the SK box, plus make some drawer liners up but these will hold some of the loose tools she left in tubs in the trailer. All of which have to end up down in the basement here if I ever intend to use my trailer again.

What I don't get is how two ads for tool boxes went unanswered in the free section for over a week here, one was there nearly a month. I realize they're not new but all they need to do is hold tools, they don't have to be pretty. Anything is better than keeping them in tubs outside in the the trailer. Now I need to keep an eye out for a pair of bottom roll cabs for the two smaller top chests so they don't have to sit on a cart or bench down stairs.

The last box is a newer Craftsman roller chest that I bought Sunday at the flea market for $25. The guy said he had been asking $50 but had no offers. I said I'd take it for $25, he balked a bit but took it. I had to hump it across the field to my car.
Its no where near the box the other three are but for $25, its cheap storage space.

In all, all of these won't come close to the amount of space those tools occupied in his KRL1001/KRL1201 combo but they'll be a good home for the hand tools for now to free up my trailer. I just won't be able to lay out all the wrenches like he had them on fancy wrench racks, they'll have to just lay loose in the drawers in these boxes and sockets will have to go on separate rails and lay flat or in the top of the chests for now. There's at least 40 sets of sockets counting all the 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" standard and metric, shallow, medium and deep sets, plus all the various lengths of torx, triple square, Allen, and Robertson sockets. Plus all the specialty hub sockets.
Then there's a full set of everything in impact too. Plus there's double sets in Mac too, but the Mac sockets are limited to mid depth impact and chrome, in 3/8" and a few deep impact sets. There's only half as much Mac as there is Snap-on. plus some older SK sockets, wrenched and ratchets. I intend to itemize everything but it would take pages to list it all here.

I think you answered your own question. The boxes were in the “Free” section, a section where nobody in their right mind looks.

I haven’t been there in probably ten years, since it’s populated with ads for cheap plastic toys and rotted wooden boards, mostly junk that should be thrown out.

It’s all about marketing.

Facebook Marketplace has become a better venue than Craigslist.

 

[slowtwitch73]

I am seeing a slow down in tool sales (and likely other stuff) on craigslist . There's some good deals that would been gone immediately last summer that are sitting now. Even 'free' stuff like scrap metal is sitting.... takes gas to get it.

 

[d.mcfarland]

I am seeing a slow down in tool sales (and likely other stuff) on craigslist . There's some good deals that would been gone immediately last summer that are sitting now. Even 'free' stuff like scrap metal is sitting.... takes gas to get it.

Realistically the number of buyers is probably half of what it was 10 years ago.

I noticed the newest of buyers really just want new, not necessarily better tools.

 

[zendriver]

Yeah. The general public would rather just get a different car than "waste money" repairing their current ride.

Cheaper than buying new tires, Amirite?

They’re making payments and they’ll be making payments on the next one that won’t need maybe thousands of dollars of repairs, of which some might be done half-assed.

Most people need a reliable car to drive vs a paid for money pit.

If it’s just tires they’ll probably just buy another set.

 

[yardiron]

I think you answered your own question. The boxes were in the “Free” section, a section where nobody in their right mind looks.

I haven’t been there in probably ten years, since it’s populated with ads for cheap plastic toys and rotted wooden boards, mostly junk that should be thrown out.

It’s all about marketing.

Facebook Marketplace has become a better venue than Craigslist.

Facebook here has been a complete waste of time, I've answered dozens of ads there as a buyer and not once did I get a reasonable reply.
The one idiot that did reply to me refused to give me an address. They said just drive west to some town and call them back from there, about 40 miles from my place. I had one guy tell me the item listed wasn't really for sale, they just put the ad up to see what would happen.
Most items there are junk or overpriced, others are so far away I would never consider driving that far anyhow.
I set 60 miles as a max distance and its showing me items 400 miles away three rows down.
Items listed there get no reply at all unless they're nearly free, then they never show up anyhow, just like on CL.

I had a guy yesterday who wanted a $50 item I listed on CL, he got mad when I said I wouldn't meet him halfway or about 70 miles from here to let him check it out. I'm not delivering anything.

I answered an ad on FB on Friday evening, the ad had just popped up, it said "Posted 1 hour ago".
I emailed the guy, said I was interested, and left him a number to call.
His reply was that he sold it weeks ago???
The ad was up for two more days before being removed.

More than half the FB ads I see now are fake, they show an item with a local address but with a gmail address across the photo, if you search other areas, those areas have the same items listed with addresses local to where they're listed.
They're usually priced ridiculously cheap with items in the background that don't exist in this area.
Its gotten so bad hardly anyone even looks there anymore.

I check the free section daily on CL, its usually the only section not riddled with fake ads and scammers. Tools, campers, boats, and trailers are very common there. I picked up a trailer load of fancy 12" square pavers and 130 brand new cinder blocks for free just last week. Every one of my boat and utility trailers came from the free listings, as did the twelve yards of crushed stone I used in my back driveway. Last fall I picked up a super tall truck cap for my F350, and I got a bedliner for it a month before that.
To be fair, I had to drive almost 40 miles to get the cap, and it had been listed for a year according to the owner. The bedliner was listed for a few months but was located on a Military base, which meant having to meet the owner on their schedule early one Sat. morning just off base. But the price was right, we pulled it out of his newer truck and dropped it right into mine.