Fair offer

[browne92]

Local guy has some tooling he inherited and wants to get rid of. Mostly tool holders and inserts that he knows nothing about it. None of it fits my machine, so I was thinking of buying it as a lot, and selling it off on eBay for retirement money. I speak pretty good google and ebay, so I can get at least some idea of what the stuff will sell for. Based on that number, what should I offer him? 25%? 50%? I don't want to rip the guy off, but if I have to list, pack, and ship the stuff, I want to get paid for my efforts.

[mattthemuppet]

unless they're commonly used holders and inserts you're probably going to make pennies. Given that they're inherited, the odds are that they're old and/ or use defunct inserts (old school TPG without a hole for example). Tool holders and inserts are cheap enough now that hobbiests like me won't be interested.

Personally they're worth scrap value = a few cents for the holders and more for the carbide, depending on weight and current price/ lb. I certainly wouldn't entertain the idea of trying to make a profit off them. Now, old metrology stuff you could make a little money off of, depending on how little it cost you to buy.

[RB211]

A fair offer is giving him what they are worth. You wanting to profit isn't his concern unless his objective is to be rid of the stuff. In which case, go for the best price you can.

[reggie_obe]

What they are worth is what ever they are worth to you. Maybe an old style insert holder, but it doesn't mean it"s worthless.

[Bob Engelhardt]

You could make him a partner: take the tooling, sell it and give him a percentage.

[754]

A pic of some of the holders would probably help you determine quickly if it's outdated very hard to sell stuff, or up to date easy to sell stuff .
if the guy was out of the trade for 20 years plus, you can bet it's fairly old stuff. If it's all Kennemetal or good brand it helps.
I would be asking about the precision tools..

[rjs44032]

Local guy has some tooling he inherited and wants to get rid of. Mostly tool holders and inserts that he knows nothing about it. None of it fits my machine, so I was thinking of buying it as a lot, and selling it off on eBay for retirement money. I speak pretty good google and ebay, so I can get at least some idea of what the stuff will sell for. Based on that number, what should I offer him? 25%? 50%? I don't want to rip the guy off, but if I have to list, pack, and ship the stuff, I want to get paid for my efforts.

If you're buying for resale, then 50% of market price is more than fair. Anything above that and you're entering high risk territory. I recently bought a set of gears at 50% of market. Posted them on EBay. Waited forever for them to sell after reducing the price twice. They sold at 80% => 30% profit - 10% Ebay - 3% Pay-Pal - 10% shipping with insurance. So I ended up with about 7% of market for my time and efforts. Didn't feel like a win. More like break even territory.

I would be honest with your seller on what you plan to do and that 40% - 50% is best you can muster. Or perhaps he'd like to take the risk and efforts to sell them himself. There is nothing wrong with profiting if you're honest up front. Hope this helps.

Best Regards,
Bob

[SteveF]

I agree with rjs and even 50% is high. Look on eBay and remember that you will need to be UNDER those prices to get people to buy yours. Be extremely conservative with your pricing estimates.

Steve

[Mcgyver]

you can't offer him 25% and expect to make money, look at what the stuff sells for.

After years of mucking about with this stuff, here's my rule of thumb on buying & valuation. The value of used/second hand machinist tools (even if "new" its still second hand, i.e. not retail) is 10%-40% of new depending on condition, 40% is never used boxed, 10% is usable by rough. Average guys stuff is 20-25%. This is supported by watching ebay comps (completed sales)

If buying in bulk, pay half that or less. If 20% of new = 1000, I'd pay say $400 if taking it all, maybe 500 if there's some things I really want. The logic is simple,you're only going to get its "value" (1000) selling one at a time which means an endless parade of classified flakes or a heck of a lot of work and some risk photographing, listing and shipping everything individually on fleabay. He will easily spend 600 in time dealing with piecemealing it. Nobody is ripping anybody off, there is value to the seller in one quick painless cash and carry sale. I even tell them "you can get a lot more for selling onsey twosey than I'll pay, because in taking the lot of it because I expect a big discount , just depends how you want to spend your time". I don't do it much anymore as it is time consuming, but I more or less have equipped my shop that way

PS. that's a rule of thumb stuff for typical tool box contents, insert holders can be much lower unless you know for sure they're currently sought after tooling. A lot of the holders are give aways if you buy a few dozen inserts at a time and when the #@$%#% discontinue the insert they're worthless. We don't know what is there but If you can't use them, I'd be thinking pass. Buying and selling has to be viewed as fun, a bit of sport and there needs to be something you really want to make it worthwhile....otherwise any minimum wage job would pay better

[J Tiers]

Even in-demand stuff that is hard to find can be hard to get rid of.

I bought a batch of 4NS collets a while back, because they are somewhat rare and the place they were for sale was never going to find a buyer who needed them. I figured I could get my money back (I did not pay a ton). They are used on many Rivett 608 machines, so I offered them on the Rivett group. I DID get a couple replies, but the people were in Australia and shipping was a rather large chunk of the delivered price. Not worth the trouble. I may end up tossing them in the scrap, since my 608 uses 5C, so I do not need them, it was a matter of almost doing other owners a favor.

It can seem like taking advantage, but you have to consider what you are doing. If I had needed the 4NS for my own use, I would have cheerfully paid considerably more if it had been asked. There is the difference.

[cijuanni]

you can't offer him 25% and expect to make money, look at what the stuff sells for.

After years of mucking about with this stuff, here's my rule of thumb on buying & valuation. The value of used/second hand machinist tools (even if "new" its still second hand, i.e. not retail) is 10%-40% of new depending on condition, 40% is never used boxed, 10% is usable by rough. Average guys stuff is 20-25%. This is supported by watching ebay comps (completed sales)

If buying in bulk, pay half that or less. If 20% of new = 1000, I'd pay say $400 if taking it all, maybe 500 if there's some things I really want. The logic is simple,you're only going to get its "value" (1000) selling one at a time which means an endless parade of classified flakes or a heck of a lot of work and some risk photographing, listing and shipping everything individually on fleabay. He will easily spend 600 in time dealing with piecemealing it. Nobody is ripping anybody off, there is value to the seller in one quick painless cash and carry sale. I even tell them "you can get a lot more for selling onsey twosey than I'll pay, because in taking the lot of it because I expect a big discount , just depends how you want to spend your time". I don't do it much anymore as it is time consuming, but I more or less have equipped my shop that way

PS. that's a rule of thumb stuff for typical tool box contents, insert holders can be much lower unless you know for sure they're currently sought after tooling. A lot of the holders are give aways if you buy a few dozen inserts at a time and when the #@$%#% discontinue the insert they're worthless. We don't know what is there but If you can't use them, I'd be thinking pass. Buying and selling has to be viewed as fun, a bit of sport and there needs to be something you really want to make it worthwhile....otherwise any minimum wage job would pay better

Good advise.
Selling anything worth less than $25-$50 on Ebay isn't worth the hassle or my time. To make $11.43. What is your time worth?
Selling locally low value items isn't worth the trouble either. Who runs across the city or county to buy a $25 item? No one sane.

If you could buy the whole lot for $100 and sell it as a lot for $400 or more that would be worth doing. Parting it out, dinky sale after dinky sale isn't

[J Tiers]

.......
Selling locally low value items isn't worth the trouble either. Who runs across the city or county to buy a $25 item? No one sane.
..........

The answer depends on what the thing is. Anything that is not easy to find will bring folks even if it is not actually "worth" very much. Run of the mill stuff, who knows?

Around here, a 1" micrometer, in just average "been in the toolbox for a long time" condition, which is working, not actually damaged, but nothing special, goes for anything from $10 to $30, depending on what brand and how clean.

For an ordinary 1" mic, I'd not get out of the chair if it were free, for most. I have traveled across town to find a rare or unusual one, or a size I wanted and did not have, like a 12" or 24" dial caliper at a reasonable price, or a large mic ditto. And I have bought them for $25. It's the item, and not the price, unless the price is low.

[cijuanni]

For an ordinary 1" mic, I'd not get out of the chair if it were free, for most. I have traveled across town to find a rare or unusual one, or a size I wanted and did not have, like a 12" or 24" dial caliper at a reasonable price, or a large mic ditto. And I have bought them for $25. It's the item, and not the price, unless the price is low.

Point is, the seller had to take pics, post it on CL, deal with texts or calls, arraign a meeting etc,,, all for a $25 sale.
If the seller paid nothing for it he made $25, if he paid 50% of the sale price he made $12.50.
Plus the no shows and jackasses who don't bring cash or then want to negotiate the price down.

As a seller it simply isn't worth it when for the same hassle you can sell a $500 item and hopefully pocket hundreds.

[Mcgyver]

Point is, the seller had to take pics, post it on CL, deal with texts or calls, arraign a meeting etc,,, all for a $25 sale.
If the seller paid nothing for it he made $25, if he paid 50% of the sale price he made $12.50.
Plus the no shows and jackasses who don't bring cash or then want to negotiate the price down.

As a seller it simply isn't worth it when for the same hassle you can sell a $500 item and hopefully pocket hundreds.

agree, unless you're have a bit of fun with it. I've figured out how to avoid the flakes, I like the shop visits/chats, met several who've become friends and Iike working with tools....and of course I don't buy in the first place unless there is something the guy had that I really want. So you get what you want for no net cost, meet a few interesting people, its all good. 98% of what I sell is local and I do as well or better than ebay. Its rare that someone wants to to take the time for a $25 mic.....but they will for a 25 mic, 60 depth mic, box of taps etc....all of sudden its a 200 sale with no shipping time or fees....and I'm in the shop Sat anyway. Still, its decision on how spend ones time, not a sensible business model. otoh, you guys would be amazed at how much cool stuff I've got squirreled away

[J Tiers]

.........

As a seller it simply isn't worth it when for the same hassle you can sell a $500 item and hopefully pocket hundreds.

........... Its rare that someone wants to to take the time for a $25 mic.....but they will for a 25 mic, 60 depth mic, box of taps etc....all of sudden its a 200 sale with no shipping time or fees....and I'm in the shop Sat anyway. Still, its decision on how spend ones time, not a sensible business model. otoh, you guys would be amazed at how much cool stuff I've got squirreled away

McGyver has nailed it......

If you don't want a $25 sale, and you toss that, then you toss the next one, and later the next after that, etc, etc, you tossed maybe a hundred bucks, maybe $200. That's a bunch of end mills, collets, maybe a small indexer, etc that you tossed.

You must have a lot of jerks around your area, I have not had problems with local sales. I HAVE had people show up and pay the first named amount, cash down, no hassles. Even on machine sales, where I had built in a negotiating cushion..... and yes I had a good idea of the general run of prices, and set above the low end by a decent amount.

I'll try to sell several at once, sometimes folks take the lot, sometimes not. I kind of prefer the individual sales, because that ends up about 25% to 40% better on total take. The bulk discounts get to be an issue, I have refused them before and will again. I'm not a charity operation unless it is MY choice to be one.