Where do you find your tool bargains?


Fxguy

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Aside from the obvious ebay and craigslist, and your local paper / flea market, where do you find bargains on used tools? 

 

I know there are some deals to be had over at vintagemachinery.org

 

Anyone know of another place? 

 

 

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A couple of creative ads and dumb luck have gotten me some great tools from CL. I got a nice boice crane jointer for a 6 pack of beer. Traded a shotgun for my planer. Got my cast iron wing delta table saw for free from a guy who "just didn't have room for it anymore".

 

Auctions are awesome when you find a good one.

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My personal favorite lately. You see tool "A" at a reasonable price. You see tool "B" at a higher reasonable price in much better condition. eBay bidding has tool "A" at $19 with Buy It Now for tool "B" at $24. Can you feel where this is going? I bid $24 for tool "A" and wait only to see sniping take bids into the $50s at the last minute. At this point I calmly buy the tool in better condition for $24 laughing all the way to PayPal.

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My personal favorite lately. You see tool "A" at a reasonable price. You see tool "B" at a higher reasonable price in much better condition. eBay bidding has tool "A" at $19 with Buy It Now for tool "B" at $24. Can you feel where this is going? I bid $24 for tool "A" and wait only to see sniping take bids into the $50s at the last minute. At this point I calmly buy the tool in better condition for $24 laughing all the way to PayPal.

 

There was another thread on this but I have completely given up on ebay bidding.  If there is no "buy it now" price, I don't buy.  I just don't have the time follow an auction and wait 3, 5, or 7 days to see if I have won.  If on a lark I see an item at a decent price and the auction ends in the next 20 minutes, I might bid.  But other than that, like the song goes, "the thrill is gone" between me and ebay. 

 

I don't buy a lot in the used market.  To make sure I pay a fair price on new items I just wait until they go on sale.  All the major manufacturers (except maybe festool) seem to run annual sales.   Also, if you look at an item in amazon you will generally get an email from amazon if the price drops.  It definitely pays to actively browse on Amazon.  It might not be on sale today but it could be in the new few weeks or months.  Just the other day i was looking at a sump pump (the kind with two pumps, one AC and one battery) and this morning I received an email that it is $250 off.  

 

I have bought a few items in the WTO marketplace.  Not a lot goes on sale here but I feel better buying from a community member. 

 

Also, on craig's list it pays to keep your search terms as general as possible.  I can't tell you how many times I have seen "planer" spelled "planner", "jointer" spelled "joiner", a "jointer" listed as a "planer", hand plane listed as a "hand planer".  This misspellings/misuses of terms are a good tip that the seller does not know what they have - those are the people you want to buy from!  I tend to search on brand names, because even people who don't know what they have should be able to correctly spell the name printed on the machine. 

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For that, I like camelcamelcamel.com it tracks amazon prices and can send you notifications if the price drops to a level you set.

 

you're awesome!  I just checked it out and camelcamelcamel even has browser extensions to make it quick and easy to add price watchers.  You can set separate price watchers for new, used, and 3rd party new.  You can also quickly see price history charts dating back years for seemingly any item.  I do a very large amount of my shopping on amazon, so you likely saved me a good bit of change :)  thanks!

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