I go to estate sales in my area looking for tools. Of the numerous estate sales companies that hold these, I know the ones who know little about or care about tools (sorry ladies, but it's usually the woman-owned companies). I compete with only a few other 'tool hawks' in my area, but fortunately they're also looking for larger antiques and they get easily distracted as they go into the house before looking in the garage. I ALWAYS go in the garage first! That's where I get these sorts of finds.
On the other end of the estate company spectrum in my area is one that has a 'man-stuff' guy who bird-dogs everything men want like tools, fishing tackle, hunting, etc. He researches everything down to the flipping' molecular structure, and marks everything retail + 25% just to be on the safe side. But sometimes he simply doesn't have the time, and he's not such an expert that he can recognize some of the older brands as something he even needs to research. So I catch him sometimes too!
My real challenge is being in central Florida. People really didn't start moving down here in quantity until air conditioning became commonly available to the public in the 1950s, and so it's hard to find earlier stuff. Add to this the humidity + the five months of 90s temperatures, all which accelerate the oxidation process on anything stored long-term in a garage. Most of the time you find rust everywhere. Old cloth, vinyl and plastic just disintegrates. And the bugs and rodents? Everything eats everything down here. But wait....there's more. The water tables are so high down here that no one can have basements (minus one important long-term storage space). We don't have snow, and so the peeks of the roofs are shallow so there's no real stand-up attics (minus #2 storage). Lots of things just get thrown away because there's no place to keep it.
Did I mention all the estate sales of retirees who, when they retired to florida, sold off all their old stuff (including tools that they weren't going to use anymore) before the moved down here?
In short, ALL you guys in the northern climes who are awash in older stuff of all kinds get the **** AWARD.
