Foo - Machinist tools - where to sell 'em

The husband of a lady I worked with recently died. He was a machinist and Kate wants to sell his hand tools. I haven't gotten to see all of them yet but I know there are some Browne & Sharpe, Starrett, and Mitutoyo (sp?) calipers, micrometers, and such. I doubt that there is much of a market for them here in Tallahassee.

Do any of you have any ideas about finding a good place to sell them other than Ebay?

Unless she's really strapped for money, I would suggest donating them to a local high school's shop. I'm sure they would be very appreciative and it would be a good way to memorialize her husband.

That's part of the problem. She is pretty strapped for cash.

Ebay them. Typically estates are closed out at auction and you'd be lucky to get 10-20% of the items' market value. Takes some more time to list and ship, but you'd get a tonne more money. Some stuff will probably sell for higher than retail pricing! :eek:

phantomcow probably wants them.

Yeah, I agree. A good eBay add, shipping world wide and take PayPal. That's the way to go

Shipping world wide = suicide
Using paypal = suicide

doing both = INSANITY

But you don't know this yet, so, go ahead!

what have you got? Perhaps a dial indicator of some sort?

what have you got? Perhaps a dial indicator of some sort?

Right now I just have a few of his tools here at the house:
A Mitutoyo dial caliper No. 505-645-D12T
Starrett depth guage No. 445
Brown & Sharpe multi anvil micrometer No. 176 (see a picture at http://home.comcast.net/~olebiker/BudsTools.html)

But for a helpful comment...
My neighbor is a retired machinist, has many of the high end tools like you mentioned, very high quality stuff.
He found a small local machine shop to sell some of them too. So check the yellow pages and do some calling around, quality remainds quality.
But if you happen to have a Starretts "Last word", or a DTI of the like, send me a PM

But for a helpful comment...
My neighbor is a retired machinist, has many of the high end tools like you mentioned, very high quality stuff.
He found a small local machine shop to sell some of them too. So check the yellow pages and do some calling around, quality remainds quality.
But if you happen to have a Starretts "Last word", or a DTI of the like, send me a PM

I'll check it out. Thanks for the advice.

Shipping world wide = suicide
Using paypal = suicide

doing both = INSANITY

But you don't know this yet, so, go ahead!


The sage voice of experience I presume? Please tell me... How long have you sold on eBay and how far over 10,000 unique positive feedbacks do you have, oh wise master?



8/98 & 10,854 at press time. ;)

Please, oh please teach me to sell on eBay!

I dont understand the negative ebay and paypal comment myself. I have had great luck selling things on ebay, and buying. Its one of the best places to do business if you ask me.

Definitly check out small machine shops. If they are in good quality, they can be used.

When you get more pictures than just the mic, please PM me, I'd be interested in buying some tools. I just got a new job as a machinist and need to build up my tool library.

But like I said, so long as the tools do what they are supposed to, most shops would love to get them off your hands for a reasonable price

I dont understand the negative ebay and paypal comment myself. I have had great luck selling things on ebay, and buying. Its one of the best places to do business if you ask me.Yeah, I don't get it either. Sure there's been some bad experiences for everyone, but considering the total volume of items and dollars moved through ebay/paypal, it's really minute. FWIW, all my customers pay the shipping-charges and I've moving well over 6-digits/year through my PayPal account.

Yeah, I don't get it either. Sure there's been some bad experiences for everyone, but considering the total volume of items and dollars moved through ebay/paypal, it's really minute. FWIW, all my customers pay the shipping-charges and I've moving well over 6-digits/year through my PayPal account.
I see very little money lost if customers pay the charges, paypal takes a small cut but Its lowered as you sell more. Do you have an ebay store?

i would try and contact either a machine shop or several machine shops they would be able to help you the items listed are of good quality starret tools are like campy bike parts if i had more money i would make an offer (going to school and only working part time as a machinist and school for a machinist)

tell her to start with any machine shops in the area and give them a call

You can try posting on craigslist.com (http://craigslist.com)

They're an online classified ads, just like in the newpaper, but most of the listing categories are free. It's pretty widespread, and if you're near a big city, a good option for advertising stuff.