Estate Sale Tools

[Alden]

I dont know if you guys have been to professional Estate Sales (not mislabeled Garage Sales) but its really worth the effort.
Sometimes you can find some great stuff for nothing. Most of them price everything with Resellers in mind, probably 50-75% of their traffic is from people buying to resell.
So, its a matter of finding the guy who had a house (or garage) full of great stuff, and an Estate Sell company that stacks deep and sells cheap.
Today I found that sale.
I spent $200 and loaded the truck up.
I found an older Craftsman 1hp 10" Cabinet saw with a big cast iron top, extensions on both sides, 3 inserts for different blades, 2 new sets of Dado Blades, a set of Shapers and a dozen other blades still in the pack for $100.
Two big 30 lb Craftsman Vises for $12 each.
A Woodtek 1"X30" belt sander with 10 new belts (80 and 120grit) for $15.
I think I'm most pumped about the files I picked up for $1 a piece ! All sizes from 4"-14", round, half-round, triangle, a few rasps too. All of them are old steel, 25 of them are made in USA mostly old Nicholson and Belknap/Bluegrass, and a couple from Austria.
Also ended up finding 3 motors and a 1700rpm buffer. Paid $5 each for the motors and $15 for the buffer with two wheels on it!

So anybody that wants to hunt these sales for tools, heres a little primer on how it works (in my area anyway)
They always start during business hours (most start 7-9 am) on Wednesday-Saturday and always end by Sunday. So I take my first look at the listings on Tuesday night.
They usually take good pictures of most of the stuff in the house, so you will know for the most part exactly whats at the sale before you get there.
When I find a sale with enough junk to get me in the door, I'll study all of the pictures listed and put a mental note on the things I'm interested in. Heres the trick, if its something really good. You have to figure out exactly what room that item is in (from the pictures), and guess where that room is located in the house, then go directly to it and snatch it in the first 30 seconds when the doors open up. The 30 other people standing in line are professionals, and this aint their first rodeo. The really good stuff (i.e. ANYTHING they know makes money) is gone in 60 seconds, believe that.
If you see pipes in the listing, they will be the first to go. Believe it or not, I see pipes at least 3-4 times a month, sometimes 3-4 times a week. I havent found really great pipes, the best I've done was three 1929 Kaywoodies I paid $2 for and sold for $120-$150 each.
The other trick is, if the sale starts at 9am, be there at 8. You will need to be at the front of the line for the good stuff.
Dont even think about showing up on the second or third day of the sale, there will only be scraps left.
Heres a link to a Nationwide listing, but I imagine some areas have more listed here than others.
http://www.estatesales.net/
If you really want to find sales, do a search for your city+estate sales and spend some time finding "the" site for your area. It pays to check more than one place regularly for your listings.
So, in a Nutshell, they're awesome.
Get U some.

[Growley]

Edward,

This is awesome! You got me so pumped up. I'm a bargain hound by nature. I want to go estate sale'ing tomorrow! I used to garage sale as a kid. That's where my dad taught me the "walk-away". I guess that had a big influence into my being in sales the rest of my life. I don't really "need" any tools right now, but when I do I'm going to follow your advice about figuring out which rooms the items I want are in and so on.

Great stuff. You got some killer deals! Congrats.

Brian.

[Alden]

Cool! I hate to be so long winded, but I was hoping at least one or two of you would appreciate the info.
I dont have a lot to offer about pipemaking yet, so I figured I'd make myself useful with what I do know
Its not just tools though. If you have the time for them, this is a heck of a way to find furniture, art, antiques, appliances, patio furniture, dvd's, stereos, gun cases, whatever junk you need and always cheaper than anywhere else.
Garage sales are just the crap nobody wants anymore
This is all the GOOD stuff !

[KurtHuhn]

Nice! Thanks for the link. I'll have to check it out.

[frazeeg]

Perfect. I've been tempted to go to a few but this is very helpful. I would have been like a little lost puppy otherwise.

[Alden]

I went back today and picked up the other two motors. Lots of stuff was gone today, but there was still some cool stuff there. They still had two LazyBoy recliners for $50 each!
Picked up a couple neat things for cheap. Bought a 30 inch section of railroad track for $1, figured I can use it to hammer some of those files into knives some day
Bought a cool hanging lamp. The guy took a wooden hub from a wagon wheel thats probably 150+ years old and mounted a bulb in the middle of it so the light shines through where the old spokes used to mount in the hub. $10 !
Good stuff !
Get ya some