Vintage tool prices softening

[scottybk]

Seems like way less bids and lower prices lately on vintage tools on ebay, compared to say a few years ago. Anyone else notice this? Also a lot of buy it now with really stupid high prices that just sit forever. The sellers are dreaming. I think the party is over.

 

[d42jeep]

S-K prices still seem pretty strong to me. Maybe the inflated Craftsman prices have started to drop a little. Here is a complete 1/4” drive S-K set made around 1953 that wasn’t particularly inexpensive.
-Don

 

[Ole Slewfoot]

I'm looking to replace some things that got stolen, and not feeling it...deals are mainly from ignorant sellers.

 

[Oldtuleguy]

High interest rates=lower asset values

 

[G-ManBart]

My wife has an eBay business selling mostly vintage tools with a few other things thrown in here and there. Prices and sales were pretty consistent and solid until about two months ago when it went totally dead. She focuses on really nice stuff and is usually on the higher end of prices, but not crazy. She's dropped a few prices just to move a few things, but only on things that were priced a bit on the cheeky side to start with.

What she has seen is that cheap stuff is now what's selling. I think with the economy people are hesitating on discretionary items that they can live without, but they'll still buy a few inexpensive things since it's fun or maybe they're piecing together budget builds rather than buying the really nice stuff.

She keeps an eye on the number of views and favorites an item gets and she said those numbers seem similar to the past right now, but the sales are drastically slower.

 

[slowtwitch73]

Yup.. along with homes, used cars, etc etc.

 

[Zewnten]

Just saw a set of sae 5/16 to 3/4 and metric 7mm to 19mm craftsman raised panel usa wrenches sit on ebay for 1.5 weeks, guy wanted $80 plus $20 for shipping. Someone finally bought them today.

 

[four.cycle]

lemme get back to you on this...

 

[Junkdrawer Dog]

I think with the economy people are hesitating on discretionary items that they can live without, but they'll still buy a few inexpensive things since it's fun or maybe they're piecing together budget builds rather than buying the really nice stuff.

This^^^^^

 

[four.cycle]

alphabetically, here are some recent ebay sales on a few items:


Adjustable Ratchet Wrench Co. Mephisto (patent 1101381)(ebay 266087021036 01)

Adjustable Ratchet Wrench Co. Mephisto (patent 1101381)(ebay 266087021036 BID HISTORY)

 

[four.cycle]

a few more:

(* note there's a second sale on the Currier-Koeth "KKK" set just in case you thought the first one was anomalous.)

 

[four.cycle]

a few more:

(* in fairness, it should be noted that this unit here is probably the most complete Mossberg No. 14 set I've seen yet. *)

 

[four.cycle]

a few more... just in case you thought I was only cherry-picking screwball high-end stuff:

 

[four.cycle]

if anyone else would like to tell me how soft the market's gotten and how reluctant ebay buyers have been lately about turning loose of their money, I'm all ears.

there are two dozen more items I'm watching right now - almost all of which are already bid up to crazy money.

 

[HeelSpur]

This seller has no problem selling anything. Most sellers will struggle to get 10 bux for this.

NICE Vtg/Antique WESTCOTT No.78, 8" S-Curved Adjustable Wrench Keystone Mfg. Co. | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for NICE Vtg/Antique WESTCOTT No.78, 8" S-Curved Adjustable Wrench Keystone Mfg. Co. at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[G-ManBart]

This seller has no problem selling anything. Most sellers will struggle to get 10 bux for this.

NICE Vtg/Antique WESTCOTT No.78, 8" S-Curved Adjustable Wrench Keystone Mfg. Co. | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for NICE Vtg/Antique WESTCOTT No.78, 8" S-Curved Adjustable Wrench Keystone Mfg. Co. at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

LOL....my wife and I laugh about that seller all the time, but the tactic works. My wife will be researching something and say "oh, the **** chick had one"

 

[four.cycle]

@HeelSpur
^ that's funny... I don't think I've ever bought anything from that guy!

 

[crguy]

if anyone else would like to tell me how soft the market's gotten and how reluctant ebay buyers have been lately about turning loose of their money, I'm all ears.

there are two dozen more items I'm watching right now - almost all of which are already bid up to crazy money.

You're watching the good stuff selling at real world current prices on Ebay, not picking up rusty dollar wrenches at garage sales & flea markets. I watch Ebay, and haven't seen much of a change in prices for the stuff I'm interested in.

 

[four.cycle]

^ You know... I was hoping you would chime in on this one.
The stuff that actually retains (or increases) in value has been fairly consistent, from what I have seen.
Used Thorsen is still at the bottom of the barrel, along with Fleet and Penens.

Top shelf, US-made stuff that's clean, complete, and not common as rocks is still commanding respectable prices.

There will always be anomalies:

- a wartime "D-I" Duro 1/4" drive set recently sold for a lousy $20 bucks. (There's another one on there right now that's only got a $20 bid on it right now but it's got an Indestro breaker in it. here)

- I just won an auction one hour ago on an old Mossberg wrench for $9.99. The exact same wrench sold at auction several months ago for north of $65. Go figure.

- the German tool kit I snagged the other night was one fourth the current going rate for similar sets.

But the truly uncommon, odd, and cherry stuff is still getting top dollar.

 

[d42jeep]

^ You know... I was hoping you would chime in on this one.
The stuff that actually retains (or increases) in value has been fairly consistent, from what I have seen.
Used Thorsen is still at the bottom of the barrel, along with Fleet and Penens.

Top shelf, US-made stuff that's clean, complete, and not common as rocks is still commanding respectable prices.

There will always be anomalies:

- a wartime "D-I" Duro 1/4" drive set recently sold for a lousy $20 bucks. (There's another one on there right now that's only got a $20 bid on it right now but it's got an Indestro breaker in it.)

It was a lousy $20 bucks well spent, too.
It looks a lot like yours!
-Don

 

[Garcky]

January. A lot of things that are discretionary purchases sell less well in January. People are still feeling stung by Christmas spending. Should start picking up again soon.

 

[scottybk]

I just don't get people that pay big ebay prices for stuff like C'man "V" that isn't rare. In NJ and eastern PA around here I can go out any weekend and pick up USA craftsmen for almost nothing at fleas and garage sales. I've read in other areas old tools aren't as common, in this area we're up to our neck in them.

One place to avoid is anything calling itself an "estate sale," the operators/hosts use ebay to set all their prices, IF there are a lot of tools. But if the estate sale ad shows a ton of like Hummel dolls and the operators are women, that one you should hit because the garage might have some scores. I got a Snap On 1/2 breaker bar 18 inch for 50 cents a couple years ago at a sale focused on like 8 million Barbie dolls and their accessories. They even threw in a tin dustpan and corn whisk broom. Nice ladies running that sale.

 

[Josh the IH guy]

Sk prices are still high. It seems since the sale to great star, all usa made SK has been crazy. I havent noticed prices coming down. But I have noticed that they have leveled off.

 

[four.cycle]

alphabetically, a few items that sold yesterday:

 

[four.cycle]

Nope, I don't know who "Moment" is either. Good luck trying to Google it. I recall my former Civil Engineer girlfriend talking to me about "moments" one time... I think part of my brain melted...

 

[four.cycle]

When you stop looking at "Craftsman V" and start paying attention to the truly interesting stuff, you'll see where the money is being spent:

 

[four.cycle]

Who knew an old Vandegrift would command so much respect?

 

[HeelSpur]

Last years tool auction;

Lot - 3 pc Lot Collection of Screw Wrenches

www.auctionzip.com

 

[MR.X]

there's a bit of a defensive tone to a couple of these posts as if someone was threatening the value of someone's personal tool inventory. Apples and Oranges.....there's the tools that some reader of Garage Journal VINTAGE tool discussion might reasonably find at a garage or estate sale at a bargain and want to flip and how they're currently faring on ebay and then there are "Schultz" book Missouri valley Wrench Club auction style ANTIQUE patent wrenches and how they're doing. Is someone going to start posting Stanley planes prices now too? The fun of the Alloy Artifacts era was that the average guy could educate himself on an area of tools that wasn't already well documented in books and accounted for by established collectors and go out and actually find them. Sitting in a folding chair in some Sedalia Missouri state fair building bidding against a bunch of supposedly poor farmers with apparently bottomless pockets for tools that everyone present knows the general value of isn't everyone's idea of fun. Relax, chit goes in cycles. Those old farm auctions like the ones Aumann's runs are stilling bringing bank from what I can see.

 

[four.cycle]

^ Not really sure what that's about. ;

I am only reporting some observations with supporting documentation. No more, no less.
These threads (regarding ebay selling prices on vintage tools) pop up recurrently, and I believe they are always the result of making the mistake of trying to view the entire world through a soda straw.

I don't pay any attention at all to planes, braces, vises, or anvils - they are by no means, in any case, any indicators of what's happening in the world of "vintage tools".

 

[Oldtuleguy]

Most of the good stuff is getting scarce. There is alot of common stuff not moving or going cheap

 

[MR.X]

OK. Moving on, do you think that one wrench you posted really says "Moment" or that was just the seller's best guess? I tried to find the completed sale for a clearer pic but I guess it hadn't posted yet.

 

[four.cycle]

^ I'm not really sure that's the case, OTG.
Just when I get to the point where I start thinking that, somebody comes along and unloads an entire collection - like that batch of stuff that went yesterday.

 

[four.cycle]

they both looked like "moment" to ME. the seller didn't put any name on them - I did.
"moment" is a term used in engineering.. that's why I made the comment about not bothering to Google search it.
I'm guessing French or German, maybe?

 

[MR.X]

they both looked like "moment" to ME. the seller didn't put any name on them - I did.
"moment" is a term used in engineering.. that's why I made the comment about not bothering to Google search it.
I'm guessing French or German, maybe?

Yikes. I'm no help there.

 

[MR.X]

...but i did get to see a video entitled "how MOMENTS work - spanners and seesaws" ...the rotational or turning effect of a force. So it's not as bad a name as I thought.

 

[four.cycle]

^ as I said up-thread: a former girlfriend was a civil engineer. she tried to explain "moment" to me one time. way above my pay grade.
on the flip side: there was no way she was ever going to figure out how to use a shake froe.

some of that European stuff just makes me crazy trying to ID it. there really doesn't seem to be a European equivalent to AA or GJ, unfortunately. one could consider it negligible, but I've come to believe that trying to view the world of "vintage tools" and including only those made in the U.S. simply isn't possible any more.

 

[Garcky]

I just don't get people that pay big ebay prices for stuff like C'man "V" that isn't rare. In NJ and eastern PA around here I can go out any weekend and pick up USA craftsmen for almost nothing at fleas and garage sales. I've read in other areas old tools aren't as common, in this area we're up to our neck in them.

One place to avoid is anything calling itself an "estate sale," the operators/hosts use ebay to set all their prices, IF there are a lot of tools. But if the estate sale ad shows a ton of like Hummel dolls and the operators are women, that one you should hit because the garage might have some scores. I got a Snap On 1/2 breaker bar 18 inch for 50 cents a couple years ago at a sale focused on like 8 million Barbie dolls and their accessories. They even threw in a tin dustpan and corn whisk broom. Nice ladies running that sale.

Well, eBay is probably the very worst place to look for collectable anything. If something's desirable to collectors, it will get bid up to about its maximum value. The search tools there are so good that people who are looking for something are definitely going to see it.

If you're just collecting some tool brand, but not specific items from that brand, you'll always do better, and get some fresh air and sunshine, by going to sales, flea markets, swap meets, etc. It's more hit or miss, and you can't really be hoping for some spectacular rare find all the time, but you can find stuff at prices that are low enough for you to make money selling that stuff on eBay.

That's where all the eBay stuff came from originally, anyhow. You can also go to estate sales, but most of the time you'll find higher prices than you'd hope to pay. However, some of the time, if you go on the last day of the sale and actually dig through boxes in the garage, you can find a real prize. Don't count on it, but don't discount it, either.

Now, if you're an advanced collector and are just looking for specific individual tools to complete a set, eBay is where to go, of course. But, you ain't going to get any bargains, unless you're the only collector of that brand or line of tools. That's unlikely, though.

 

[MR.X]

^ as I said up-thread: a former girlfriend was a civil engineer. she tried to explain "moment" to me one time. way above my pay grade.
on the flip side: there was no way she was ever going to figure out how to use a shake froe.

some of that European stuff just makes me crazy trying to ID it. there really doesn't seem to be a European equivalent to AA or GJ, unfortunately. one could consider it negligible, but I've come to believe that trying to view the world of "vintage tools" and including only those made in the U.S. simply isn't possible any more.

Right?! I'm holding onto a cool lot of what appear to be WW2 era Japanese aircraft engine tools until I can figure out for sure what exactly they are. Might be awhile.

 

[four.cycle]

^ There's an example of why I made that statement above. As time goes on, this "out of country" stuff is surfacing here. The advent of the internet and ebay and other global online venues has kind of thrown it all into one pot.
Wolfgang's site is great if you're looking for info on woodworking tools, but he's not focused at all on "mechanic" stuff like sockets and wrenches and pliers.
Gerald was really about the only guy that paid much attention to "foreign" stuff but he's involved in another gig now and hasn't been as involved on the site so much the last year or so.