Fair offer

[cijuanni]

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.

Who said toss it??

I said it isn't worth my time to 'invest' in purchasing a bunch of low value items and sell them off piece at a time.

[J Tiers]

Tossed, set on shelf taking up space, etc...... Sunk cost for which you get nothing but a hassle, vs clearing space and getting paid for it.

Sure sell several at a time, but you still would get your tire-kickers.

[754]

I wish the OP would come back and give us a idea what is there, at this point we are all just guessing..

[PStechPaul]

You might try offering 25% of perceived value for the lot, plus 25% of the actual sale price, minus actual cost of shipping and handling. If you are currently unemployed due to stay-at-home quarantine guidelines and restrictions, this may be a good time to earn a little extra money while you aren't working. Another good way to sell items like this would be at a booth/table at Cabin Fever next year, or their consignment tables.

[projectnut]

If you know the brands, models, and part numbers of the items you're considering do an "Advanced" search on eBay and see what the same or similar items actually sold for. I purchase from eBay like many on the board. However I like most aren't willing to pay retail price. I have yet to see a seller listing old and obsolete tooling or tools that offers a guarantee. I'm willing to take a chance on items if I pay 50% or less of retail. If I'm paying anything more than that I expect to be able to return defective, misrepresented, or mislabeled items.

If you think you can make enough money to make it worth your while selling the items for less than retail offer between 25% and 50% of what you think you can sell and ship them for. If you need to charge near retail to make a profit you're probably going to have them for quite a while.

It pays to be an educated seller. Some time ago I was looking for blades for my power hacksaw. I saw some that would work on eBay. The asking price was above the retail at several industrial suppliers, but the seller also included "Make an Offer". I offered the retail price and got flamed for my efforts. I responded with links to 3 suppliers selling the exact same blades and their prices. Instead of rethinking his price the seller relisted the blades at an even higher price when they didn't sell. I followed the listing, and once again it expired without being sold. I kept the sellers information and occasionally checked his listings. Almost nothing of what he had listed sold, and eventually he quit making listings.

I'm sure he was frustrated that nothing was selling. I'm betting he paid more for the items than their actual retail value. If you want to be successful you have to know not only the value of the items you want to sell, but also who your competition is. If you're up against a business that buys out huge lots of similar items and is willing to take a small profit margin you're going to have a rough go of it.

[mattthemuppet]

I find stm_surplus a great place to get a good idea of tool value. The seller takes good pictures, does a reasonable job with the description and has a great rep, so arguably their winning bids are near the top end of the market. Tool holders do sell on there, but not for a whole lot.

The % of retail price thing is tricky - % of what that item originally sold for, what it sells for now or what comparable products of sufficient quality (whatever that might be) sell for? Tool holders are a great example - full retail might be anything from $0 to a machine shop that buys alot of inserts to $150 to someone off the street to $15 for an equivalent Chinese jobby. No way I'm paying $75 for a tool holder I can get a workable version of for $15, but I might pay $25 if the condition looks ok.

A better guide would be - max 50% of what comparable products sell for on eBay before shipping. That leaves some money left over for fees and your time, with probably 25% profit leftover. If that thing sells for $10, you'll be making $2.50-3 a sale...

[metalmagpie]

I have bought the contents of an entire shop and then resold them. Do not underestimate the amount of work. It took me fully six months to get through everything and get it priced and organized for resale. Then I had a mondo garage sale and netted about $15k.

The widow wanted to give the stuff to me. I didn't want to do that, so I offered her $1500 for the entire lot, or about 10 cents on the dollar as compared to sell-it-quick pricing. Is $15k a windfall killing over six months? Not really, that's about minimum wage here in Seattle.

If you pay 25% or 50% of what you expect to get, you will really regret it.

I suggest you sell larger items on site. And then haul everything else away to another space. And make some arrangements after you conclude the deal but before you remove the merchandise that will preclude them offering friends to go through and cherry pick out "souvenirs". I had to nip that in the bud.

metalmagpie