How to best sell friend's workshop.... HELP

[JeepDad]

Recently a friend of the family passed away - and he was a woodworker. Needless to say his shop had wide variety of power and hand tools - 30 years of woodworking and buying.  His children and wife have no interest in keeping the tools/equipment and have asked me to help catalog everything and then selling - after I have had a chance for myself.  Once myself, my brother, and a few other friends purchase what we would like, I need to sell the remaining items.  Here is where i need some advice.  

I have thought about craigslist, ebay, etc.... but here is the challenge I face.  I live about 2 hours away so I cannot travel back and forth every time someone wants to buy a tool or such.  Plus, she is old enough to where I don't want to have to deal with the hassle or craigslist herself.   So I had two ideas.  

1. Put an add on woodworking forums (like this) and have a one or two day yard sale.....  And then contact an estate sales or second hand tool shop to purchase the remaining items.  

2. Skip the "yard sale" and contact the second hand tool shop and have then purchase the remaining items.  

I really do not want to create a lot of chaos in her life and I don't really have a huge amount of time to devout either.  

Any thoughts or other ideas?????

[minorhero]

Seems there are two competing issues here. 1 getting the best price for each tool. 2 providing the least hassle.

If price is more important than I say Craigslist everything and let the person who lives on location show each tool and sell it. If hassle is more an issue then I would try the yard sale route. And I would ask the person living there which they prefer because it's ultimately going to be what benefits them.

[JeepDad]

"minorhero" good points.  I am not sure how she feels about getting the best price but I do know that she is 80 yrs old - so the letting her deal with the craigslist is not the best option.  I recently reached out to her and we are talking next weekend about next steps - and decide on what suits her best.  

[Coop]

I have a friend that like him, has a neighbor that is a woodworker/turner. The neighbor finely agreed that his eyesight and balance were not conducive to power tools. Both got on ebay and CL to get an idea of the value of his collection and priced them accordingly. They then notified several local woodworking and turning clubs in the area and had a weekend sale just for these folks. The next weekend, after posting yard sale signs, they opened the rest up to the public for a weekend. They were able to liquidate the biggest majority of the good stuff at a fair price to seller and buyer. 

[Chet]

^^^ This sounds like a good way to go. ^^^

[Tom King]

I've heard this same scenario, or very close, several times in the last six months.   I wish you luck, but no one here can be of much help if we don't at least know where you are.  I do know that a yard sale will bring next to nothing for it.  My BIL had such a yard sale for his Step Father, and they might as well have given the stuff away.

[JeepDad]

Woodworking clubs or guilds......perfect idea.  My friend is in Delaware and there is two within an hour dive.  

 

[Unknown craftsman]

 I agree with tom seems like this was a topic not too long ago. A friend of mine local just bought a number of things from a church that inherited a wood worker shop.

I think that's a good way to go donating to a church just in case you were sleeping when the plate passed by.

Anyways someone's going to be pissed when they have to deal with my shop just my jointer alone weighs 1900#s.

Good luck if your friend has good taste in tools it will go fast.

 

Aj

[Mick S]

Over the years I've been asked to appraise several wood shops for widows and in one case a widower. That's always been my go-to response, when possible. Local woodworking clubs. People tend to know what they're looking at and what its value is. Best case for everyone.

I scored a Stanley #1 as compensation for an appraisal once!

[woodbutcher74]

Not sure about other parts of the country but around here people use estate auctions to liquidate this type of equipment. The auction service catalogs all the equipment and puts the sale bill in all the newspapers and posts them at strategic locations. Auctions draw large crowds around here and usually good equipment brings fair pricing. Some of the auction services even have setups that allow on line bidding. My wife and I were the executors of my neighbors estate and the auctioneer let us set no sale pricing on some of the best stuff. There were only a couple of items that didn't sell and we didn't have any problem selling them privately. 

[Tom King]

Location means a lot.

[Rapid Roger]

I have done this twice in the last 8 years. Once for my good friend wo passed away, and once for me because I can't do wood working any longer. In both cases I did NOT want to get involved with shipping things or having to sell one item at a time.

I spent most of my time pricing items. I used catalogs (about two years old) for getting new prices and then used anything between 50% and 75% depending on condition of the tool. Some older or misused tools dropped way down to "What would I pay for that" or "How much demand is there for this tool". I used blue painters tape to mark the price and pretty much stuck to that price. If the buyer is at all into the hobby, they will know that the prices are fair and if they really want the tool, they will pay 50% if it is in good usable shape.

I then advertised what I had and prices on this blog (see "for sale" section) to give my friends and knowledgeable people first chance. I did stick to my NO shipping rule and focused on people close to my area (Central Kansas) who could travel to my location. I did sell things right along to friends and people who heard about the sale by word of mouth right away.

Then I bought an add in the local newspaper and penny power type paper to run for about 3 days before the "Saturday Shop Sale". I mentioned that it was WOOD WORKING TOOLS that were for sale and named a few of the items. The bigger items like table saw, planer, router table and then also smaller things like sanders and hand tools. 

At both sales, I was surprised how well it went and got a reasonable price for things. My friends wife and my wife had NO IDEA what to charge for things and that is the reason I sold out now.

We didn't sell everything of course but, in my view it either go's to friends and relatives for free or the dump or I just hang on to it until the end.

[Bmac]

First time poster here, lurking and learning for awhile from everyone. Have wanted to join but this topic finally spurred me to do so.

Jeepdad, where in Delaware is the widow? I live in DE and I know that the Woodcraft store in New Castle is holding it's annual swap sale on Sat, Sept 16th. I don't work there nor am I affiliated, but I know because I recently upgraded my jointer and was looking to sell my old one at the swap. This also motivated me to clean out my shop and look for other items I don't use or want to upgrade. There is no cost to sell, you can call the store and find out the details. Also I know there are local woodworking clubs that use the store.

Since I'm in DE, what large woodworking machines or tools does she have, and any chance she has a festool domino? Can't blame a guy for trying. 

[OldSouthWoodCraft]

Woodworking clubs or guilds......perfect idea.  My friend is in Delaware and there is two within an hour dive.  

 

If I remember correctly Shannon Rogers mentioned in a show a few months back that there are some rather large groups/guilds in the Metro DC area. You may want to get in touch with them. If there is a large collection then it would be worth driving to Delaware to look at the tools.

 

But I also highly agree with the yard sale type of sale and try to post it on the WW guild Facebook. The more people you can drive to it the better.

 

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