My Turn on the Flea Market Find......

[jjarrell4]

Okay here is my first "Flea Market Find Thread"
I don't know how many fellow Virginia Gentlemen we have here on GJ but Virginia is kind of slim pickins on Flea Markets, Richmond, our capital has a relatively large one, Bellwood, best if goin on a sunday, because that is when the normal vendors are out as well as the families selling personal things.
Well after an hour of walking around, I stumbled upon this cat who had a lot of rough and new tools , after digging through his boxes I came across the lil JC Penny set, all the sockets are JC as well as the ratchet, Which is made in the US of A and the slip joint pliers, the chrome is great on all of them, and the ratchet is smooth as hell. After that I started to pile on all the craftsman, snappy, sk and proto, tools he had, said and done total $40, that includes the Engine Analyzer which just looked cool plus it was new, and the IR. Enjoy the pic's some will likely end up in the classifieds section.

 

[tjmonsen5]

ALL of that for only 40 bucks? WOW!! Thats a REALLY good deal, even better than my flea market find last week!

 

[woody 73]

Very good deal,I sometimes wonder what sellers are thinking?

 

[american lockpicker]

Very good deal,I sometimes wonder what sellers are thinking?

A lot of the ones I used to buy tools off of never knew what they had.

 

[Wanna Ride]

Nice deal! I've bought some new Craftsman tools at flea markets too.

Am I the only one who has ever wondered how all the brand new, still packaged, Craftsman tools end up at flea markets? I've frequented flea markets all over the country and it seems like every one of them has a dealer or two that has THOUSANDS of dollars worth of new Craftsman tools. I've even seen a couple that had nearly enough inventory to replenish a couple Sears stores shelves. And often, it's all brand new, still in the factory boxes and packages.

Just curious.

 

[arkangel06]

Good deal!

 

[tjmonsen5]

Nice deal! I've bought some new Craftsman tools at flea markets too.

Am I the only one who has ever wondered how all the brand new, still packaged, Craftsman tools end up at flea markets? I've frequented flea markets all over the country and it seems like every one of them has a dealer or two that has THOUSANDS of dollars worth of new Craftsman tools. I've even seen a couple that had nearly enough inventory to replenish a couple Sears stores shelves. And often, it's all brand new, still in the factory boxes and packages.

Just curious.

Its all stuff that is rejected from online and phone orders, or returned to the store. Everything you see will usually have a dirty package, or possibly missing a piece or two. Its cheaper for sears to sell off these things for dirt cheap than to repackage or find the missing parts and put them back on the shelves.

I know someone who gets shipments in from Sears and LandsEnd. By the semi truck load. Most of it is good stuff in bad packages. Sometimes the item inside is actually broken (like TVs), but ive gotten air compressors and generators in beat up boxes, that have never been filled with oil or gas, and they run perfectly!!! Not to mention, those shipments are better than christmas when he lets me come dig through them. Let me just say that I have built up a serious tool collection this way. (yet i am still not even anywhere near half as set as almost all professional mechanics on here)

 

[Broncoman]

Nice deal! I've bought some new Craftsman tools at flea markets too.

Am I the only one who has ever wondered how all the brand new, still packaged, Craftsman tools end up at flea markets? I've frequented flea markets all over the country and it seems like every one of them has a dealer or two that has THOUSANDS of dollars worth of new Craftsman tools. I've even seen a couple that had nearly enough inventory to replenish a couple Sears stores shelves. And often, it's all brand new, still in the factory boxes and packages.

Just curious.

A lot of these guys buy up the all the aged or rusty craftsman stuff at the flea and then trade them in to sears for the shiny stuff, much easier to sell...no wonder sears hassles people, when you get people abusing the system.

 

[Wanna Ride]

I'll buy that with some, but not all of them. I stopped at a flea market in Baltimore about five years ago, and there was a tool guy at an inside booth. This guy literally had at least 2 dozen of everything he stocked. He had several out on the table, and then LOTS more under the table, behind the table skirt.

I mean this guy had TONS of Craftsman stuff, and all the packaging looked as good as in Sears stores. I believe there's more of this stuff that's hot than some of us want to believe. I'm just not sure how they get so much of it, it's like an endless supply. This guy easily had a $100k of inventory.

 

[tyreguy25]

A lot of these guys buy up the all the aged or rusty craftsman stuff at the flea and then trade them in to sears for the shiny stuff, much easier to sell...no wonder sears hassles people, when you get people abusing the system.

Jesus, this again? Honestly? Can we have a thread where the word Craftsman is mentioned without someone bitching about people "abusing" the built in lifetime warranty?

I am proud of the OP. He did a hell of a job. I need to hit our fleas soon and see what I can find.

 

[OccupantRJ]

Very good deal,I sometimes wonder what sellers are thinking?

Some of them are thinking "If I don't sell this stuff and get some money, they're gonna cut my lights off!"

 

[caper]

Jesus, this again? Honestly? Can we have a thread where the word Craftsman is mentioned without someone bitching about people "abusing" the built in lifetime warranty?

No,we can't.It's been that way for all the years I've been here.if you stick around you'll find it still happening in a couple years time as well.You've only seen a couple months of it,many of us have been reading it for YEARS.It got old for me a couple years ago but I realize it'll never change.

 

[rsieracki]

How does one go about buying trailer/truck loads of sears cman returns? sounds interesting

 

[Indy_500]

You ****!!!

 

[jjarrell4]

All I know is that for $40 I was a happy camper! And that I will for sure go back and visit that man's tables again

 

[tjmonsen5]

Did any of you read my post? There are tons of oppurtunities to buy these truckloads of stuff straight from the source. All big name companies have it. Its all returns, overstocks, old stuff that hasnt sold, broken, bad packaging, etc. I think its called liquidating overstock or wholesale or something. These guys with all the new tools have tons that you dont see... the broken stuff. They need to throw away a ton of stuff. You just see the good stuff. They get truckloads of good and bad stuff, you only see the good stuff.

 

[rsieracki]

Did any of you read my post? There are tons of oppurtunities to buy these truckloads of stuff straight from the source. All big name companies have it. Its all returns, overstocks, old stuff that hasnt sold, broken, bad packaging, etc. I think its called liquidating overstock or wholesale or something. These guys with all the new tools have tons that you dont see... the broken stuff. They need to throw away a ton of stuff. You just see the good stuff. They get truckloads of good and bad stuff, you only see the good stuff.

hmmm well with sears the "broken" stuff can be warenteed... so maybe googling is in order

 

[tjmonsen5]

they dont sell you the broken tools. At least ive never seen the broken tools being sold, that would be totally cheating sears out of money, because they would sell you the broken tool, you take it to sears and get a new one, and the flea market guy would probably get that same broken tool again, and the process would repeat itself.

 

[sk farmer]

nice. let me know if you want to ditch the 1/4 ratchet.

 

[jethro29]

sweeeeeeeet! deal. and oh yea,you ****!

 

[Lump]

Coming back from the SEMA show on an airplane one time, I sat next to a guy who was an exec with Sears, working in the Craftsman tool department. I mentioned to him that I saw too many new Craftsman tools at flea mkts for them to all be stolen...so what was up? He said they manage their inventory levels VERY carefully for financial report reasons, and whenever levels of certain tools get too high, they sell them to various sources. They know very well that many people will buy used or new Craftsman tools at flea markets, and then return them to Sears when the tool fails. But this brings people who like tools and who buy tools into the tool department at your local Sears store. And that is what they really want...hoping for a legit shot at selling us new tools from their tempting displays. It has certainly worked with me! I've bought LOADS of tools from Sears, while I have exchanged a couple of dozen in my whole lifetime. Good strategy, Sears guy.

 

[Wanna Ride]

Coming back from the SEMA show on an airplane one time, I sat next to a guy who was an exec with Sears, working in the Craftsman tool department. I mentioned to him that I saw too many new Craftsman tools at flea mkts for them to all be stolen...so what was up? He said they manage their inventory levels VERY carefully for financial report reasons, and whenever levels of certain tools get too high, they sell them to various sources. They know very well that many people will buy used or new Craftsman tools at flea markets, and then return them to Sears when the tool fails. But this brings people who like tools and who buy tools into the tool department at your local Sears store. And that is what they really want...hoping for a legit shot at selling us new tools from their tempting displays. It has certainly worked with me! I've bought LOADS of tools from Sears, while I have exchanged a couple of dozen in my whole lifetime. Good strategy, Sears guy.

Thanks for sharing that, I was unaware they did that. Makes me feel a little better about knowing I might not necessarily be buying tools that have "questionable" sources.