Estate sale deals

[Rick Potter]

Went by an estate sale today. I knew I should stop, when I saw the 80 gal compressor loaded on the back of some ones pickup. Around here we hardly ever find any tools worth checking out at estate or garage sales.

This one had the usual Craftsman RAS, sanders, and jointer, but was already pretty well cleaned out.

Too bad.

[Steve Peterson]

I get the same thing in the Sacramento area of California. If there are any good tools, they are picked over within an hour or so.

I have only seen one good sale in my entire life. It was listed as a barn sale. It turned out to be a cabinet shop closing and the guy was selling a 5 year old PM66 for a decent price. He had a bunch of other stuff as well. Pipe clamps were $1 each. Parallel clamps were all gone, but they probably went for just a few dollars.

Steve

[Erik Christensen]

out here most of the estate sales are run by pros on commission so they have a financial interest in maximizing the total $$... if there are enough things of discrete value (jewelry, tools, collectibles, etc) they call their network of commercial buyers to come in days before the 'sale' to make bids on blocks of stuff - as a result even if you get there at minute 1 things might be gone

[Wade Lippman]

I never go on the first day because the prices are just stupid. On the second day I have picked up a few good things at half price or less.

In a couple weeks there is an "estate" sale a half mile away from me. The house was sold last year for $850,000 (around here, that is really expensive...) and they are selling everything from the kitchen sink to the molding and the chimney. It should be fun.

[Bill Neely]

I went to one Friday, opening day. It was professionally run and some of the prices were outrageous: a Delta Professional 6" jointer had a tag for $1150. There was a Red Star 40A radial arm saw for 250 but it was kind of raggedy with the elevation handle and the front panel door missing.

[Dick Brown]

Have done well at a few here in Central Oregon. Picked up a General 250, 2 hp. cabinet saw with Biese. fence for $125, Craftsman table saw for $25, Nice 2250 watt Coleman generator for $30, etc. Most are not very good though, with very tired tools.

[Rick Potter]

The rest of the story.

I apologize for not finishing my original post, but I thought there might be a good chance to actually get some bargains, and the sale was not quite over.

So, here is the part of the post I should have written......They also had a big Delta RS31 table saw, complete with scoring blade, a matching RT 15 monster shaper with 3/4 and 1 1/4" cartridges plus maybe $400 worth of nice cutters, and a miter trimmer made in Denmark which was foot operated and had a maybe 4 or 5' factory extension table on it. The best thing was that the two Deltas were both single phase. They wanted $2500 each (dreaming), then this morning went down to $2000 for the pair plus $500 for the trimmer. Today, I decided I didn't want them that bad, and left them my phone number. I sort of hope they don't call, although I would like the shaper.

There was a three car garage, with a room below that was loaded with oak lumber and lots of moldings. I got there too late to cherry pick, and I know it was gone through three times before me, but I took all the lumber that was left for $100, and they brought it up the stairs and loaded it for me. I ended up with almost a pickup load of semi rough sawn 4/4, 8/4 and some 12/4, plus 25 extra 1x6 utility pine boards. I left hundreds of feet of really nice picture frame moldings I couldn't use.

Now I have to figure out where to store it.


EDIT: I realize it is a bit late to be adding a pic, but my grand daughter just put this on my computer for me.


P9140028.jpg

[Allan Speers]

^ New Duck !

Blue truck?

You pull vast amounts of air through a 2" anti-static hose?



-This just doesn't work, does it?

[Brian Tymchak]

...
You pull vast amounts of air through a 2" anti-static hose?

You know Allan, I think that perfectly captures the whole issue. I'm going to use it going forward, with your blessings.

Rick, You pull vast amounts of air through a 2" anti-static hose!!

[Rick Potter]

Fortunately, I have a nice sized shop. Unfortunately, my wife is holding areas of the shop hostage, by storing some of her things in there until I manage to finish all the work in the house.

Factoid: Amazingly, a pickup full of wood will fit in the same area as 39 boxes of sewing fabric. Who knew?

Factoid II: I will not be able to prove Factoid I in the near future. For some silly reason, she doesn't want her boxes of fabric stored outside.