Want to sell a garage full of tools, how to determine what they're worth?

[Young Grasshopper]

I had a relative to passed away a few years ago and left a garage full of tools(3x5ft/18 drawer tool boxes) and also a few compressors and other things. We have no use for them. What's the best way to figure out what this stuff is worth? I'll try and take pictures over the weekend.

 

[herm0016]

look up similar stuff on CL. where are you located? I am always in the market. Looking for a nice box right now.

 

[jlee]

Post info here and I would not be surprised if you had it sold to someone on the forum within a week.

 

[NutBucket]

I'll send a truck in the morning to take it off your hands...no charge!

 

[Meghan54]

OP, do you feel like having lookies pawing through the various tool chests for days upon days as you try to sell tool by tool? Sort of an extended yard sale?

If not, and you want to dispose of all of them in one fell swoop, maybe you could consider consigning the entire lot to an auction house to dispose of all of it for you. If there's enough, a good auction house will pick all of it up, transport the stuff to their sales site, etc...no work on your part at all.

Of course, the downside is the seller's premium, or fee, typically around 20%, which means the auction house takes 20% off the top for their fee for selling the stuff for you.

But, I've seen guys go rather stupid at auctions for damned near anything tool related or if the item has a cord attached. Might be worth investigating as an avenue for disposal instead of trying to become yard sale man for weeks upon weeks, and still have random unwanted tools laying about with no takers.

 

[Torn Mind]

Snap on, Matco, and Mac are high end and you can tap into the tool snob hidden in many men.

Gearwrench is middle end. So is vintage Craftsman.

Brands like Pittsburgh, Husky, or Kobalt, and newer Craftsman are budget grade.

 

[Young Grasshopper]

Thanks for the info, I live in LA. Also the auction house thing is a great idea. Where would I find more information on these auction houses? I can't seem to find any info on how they ussually work.

 

[NutBucket]

Look for an estate sale company. A realtor can likely put you in touch with one.

 

[boomerang]

I've got to deal with this in the spring or summer with my own stuff. Figured estate sale or auction was the way to go. Ideally, we'd like to sell the place turn key with the tools included.

 

[PottedMeat]

Of course, the downside is the seller's premium, or fee, typically around 20%, which means the auction house takes 20% off the top for their fee for selling the stuff for you.

But, I've seen guys go rather stupid at auctions for damned near anything tool related or if the item has a cord attached. Might be worth investigating as an avenue for disposal instead of trying to become yard sale man for weeks upon weeks, and still have random unwanted tools laying about with no takers.

here in dfw auctions tend to charge around 10-15%

if a seller wants the most out of their money i'd be careful about using an auction house. as a buyer they're great because the owners generally want to get rid of stuff and will post the minimum amount of info/poor pictures for the items to sell. if you go that route research previous auctions such as what they generally sell and closing prices for similar items. the nice thing though is that you essentially hand over the items and they give you money back.

as said above anything that says 'SnapOn' or 'Mac' goes for ridiculous prices. anything. there will also be a huge difference in closing price if you state 'seems to turn on' vs 'unknown condition'.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Look for an estate sale company. A realtor can likely put you in touch with one.

I second this. They'll come evaluate what you have and from there you can decide if it is worth having an estate sale. Nice thing is, they'll handle everything. We went this route when my wife's mom passed away a couple years ago. They come to the house, setup tables, bring in staff to help monitor the sale and help customers, they take care of advertising, we had to just go through everything prior and take everything that we wanted first, everything else sold. I think their cut was around 30% IIRC but we still cleared around $70k and it was totally worth it not to have to hassle with any of it.

If you have a house full use useless junk, they'll let you know and they will likely take a higher percentage.

If you want the name of the one we used I could probably get that info for you. They are in the South Bay Area and were very knowledgeable and professional.

 

[drnickriviera]

I'd say take pics and post them here first. I'll bet the guys here can tell if it is worth a garage sale, estate sale or auction pretty fast. I hunt estate sales for woodworking/mechanic tools. Lot of people think they have valuable tools, but when you get there it's all Harbor Freight and Ryobi stuff.

 

[NutBucket]

That's true. Plus there are LOTS of us in SoCal that might help out first...much less hassle

 

[Evilviking]

That's true. Plus there are LOTS of us in SoCal that might help out first...much less hassle

This. Including me
Magic Mountain area

 

[JulesMaximus]

I'd say take pics and post them here first. I'll bet the guys here can tell if it is worth a garage sale, estate sale or auction pretty fast. I hunt estate sales for woodworking/mechanic tools. Lot of people think they have valuable tools, but when you get there it's all Harbor Freight and Ryobi stuff.

There might be more stuff other than what is in the garage though and unless you do this for a living there is no way you could possibly put a value on all of it. If it's just the contents of the garage, yeah, we could probably give him a reasonable estimate but i doubt it's just the garage and if that's where half the value of the contents of the house is he might be losing a bargaining chip with the estate people by selling separately.

For example, if they come out and put a value on the contents of the house at $50k and quote you a 30% fee and you remove $25k of it in tools their fee might go up to 50%.

FTR-I don't want any of it.

 

[pauldun170]

Recently helped inlaws clean out closet full of tools.
Lots of stuff made in USA, Germany, and Japan
Nabbed that right up.
Tools that were in tip top shape after 50+ of use.
Can't say the same for some of the modern era crap I had in my tool chest at home.

 

[monkeydelmagico]

if a seller wants the most out of their money i'd be careful about using an auction house. .

PottedMeat has some good advice. Me and family have used several auction houses over the years. They are not all good. Some are downright thieves. You have to watch how they advertise closely. My aunt got really reamed by one particular auction company. They advertised minimally, invited mostly inside contacts, and the bids were egregiously low for many items. It was an "inside" job in which only known associates of the business had the sales information.

She wasn't really paying attention due to grieving and by the time we realized an entire estate had sold for literally pennies on the dollar.