Would You Buy This or Not? (May 8th , 2012 - part 1, the tools)

The first 3 community yard sales of the year did not disappoint, but it took going to every sale, because the areas are so picked through.

Here's a cartful of the stuff I bought. As you might guess, I got too many pictures to fit in one post, so I'm starting with all the tools I got.

[A little background for first time visitors to these posts: Janie and I have the yard sale bug bad. We live in one of the best yard sale cities there is - Minneapolis/St. Paul, and we buy almost all our clothing, cookware, electronics, furniture, etc., at a fraction of actual value. We resell to used book stores, retro stores, the scrap yard and people I just happen to know are looking for something in particular. A lot of what we find goes into our own mega-garage-sale we hold every year in Ouray, Colorado on the 4th of July and subsequent weekends. Some things we buy just because they're so fun they have to be in our sale! The true gems we set aside for the opening inventory of our own shop. And, we have one heck of an Ebay-someday box.]

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Best of Show

Drill press and caster assembly

Price - $45; sold.

These were originally attached, with the drill press rolling around on the platform. Now, I needed some heavy-duty casters, and these are huge - easily worth $10 each, so it's like I got the drill press for free.

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Other things I bought over the past two weekends

Splitting maul

Price - $1; sold.

Wall anchor hardware

Price - free; sold.

There it sat on a dumpster lid, about 40 in the two plastic bags. Clearly, it was a free to whoever wants them. A couple hundred folks or more had already passed them by. It pays to keep looking, I tell you what.

More wall anchors

Price - free; sold.

I told the guy I bought buckets of unsorted guy stuff and sorted them out into my mother-of-all organizer collections, and he said he had a bag of that kind of stuff he'd give me for free. Later in the day, I asked how much for a box holding 20 of these, and I passed up the price of $2. Maybe I should have bought them, but if you're patient, hey, free.

Sockets and drill bits

Price - $3 a bucket; sold

I've been through the sockets, and there are a good 15 or so American made ones, which I'll sell for $2 each; the Taiwan and Sri Lanka ones I'll get 50 cents each. Haven't done much with the drill bits yet, but less than ten cents each is right in my comfort zone.

Vintage screw drivers and a buffer

Price - $5 each; sold

Granted, the screw drivers are for one size, but I suppose you could make an adapter for other sizes as well. The think is, let's say you're building something and you have to use 500 of these hex-head screws. You could crank with a socket set for a day and a half, or you could take one of these tools and go "hrrnk", "hrrnk", "hrrnk" and be done in a half hour. They're adorable. The following pictures are the manufacturer's labels on each of the units.

Vintage Craftsman Sabre Saw

Price - $4; sold

I have no idea whether it runs or not. This is Minnesota. It runs. I know you may not understand what I mean by that, and I'll only say there's something very liberating in living in a place where you don't have to be suspicious of people.

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Auto tool kit

Price - $1; sold.

It came with the box, but a very well-spoken girl about 12 years old was negotiating with the seller. "Well, I only want the box, and there's this one end here completely missing." "Three dollars. My father said it came with a car he bought in the 20s" was the reply. I'd probably would just throw out the stuff" she said, hoping to impress on the seller that it was junk. I said, I'd buy the stuff for a buck, and everyone was happy. Really, I wish I had a recording of the girl. She spoke like a lass from Masterpiece Theatre.

Vintage Black & Decker drill

Price - free; sold.

It doesn't run, but I've talked enough with customers to know that parts are still made for these, and I can easily find someone to give me a couple bucks for it.

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Siding screws

Price - $2; sold.

There are the galvanized ones, which are resistant to weathering, and then the others are galvanized and then coated with a sort of teflon. Do they sound expensive? Yes, they are. I'm inclined to charge $2 a pound, and the double coated ones are almost a full 5-pound box.

Pop-rivet kit

Price - $1; sold.

I've come across these funny-looking nails in organizers I've bought, and didn't know what they were for. Now, in this unopened box, there will be an instruction manual that will give me the low down. Great find.

Motor brushes

Price - $1; sold.

These may not look like much, but if you buy and oll drill, and it sparks inside when you run it, it needs some new brushes. Here they are.

A variety of things

Soap - a quarter each; Plane - 50 cents (I know); Knives and scissors - a quarter each; tool tray - a quarter; plastic ties - free - sold, sold, sold.

Full roll of flashing tape

Price - $1; sold.

I think I know what this is for, but I really don't need to know. I'm sure it's worth a whole lot more, and I'll turn it over for $3.

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Funky old Eveready flashlight

Price - $1; sold.

Just because it's classic.

Let's see. Functioning, ugly hatchet - 50 cents. Tubes of calk - a quarter each. Levels - $1 each. Soldering iron - a quarter. Tile trowel - 50 cents. Sold.

Craftsman sander

Price - $2; sold.

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And finally, for free . . .

Porter Cable cordless drill

Price - free; sold.

She said she dropped it and when she tried to run it it started to smoke.  I had nothing to lose.  Sure enough, I charged a battery, snapped it on and tried to run it.  Nothing.  Except after about 30 seconds it started to smoke.  This is yet another one of those things I don't know how to fix, but someone does.  I'm thinking $5 is a good price.  What do you think?

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Ron Hall (that's me). I'm a major gift fundraising researcher and writer of federal grants that bring isolated populations their first access to public radio. I write this weekly yard saling blog "Would You Buy This or Not?". My tutorial How to Split Wood has 25,000 views and counting. Writing dysfunctional love songs and posting them to Gather also keeps me amused.

Janie is a guide and floor staff at the Minnesota Children's Museum and Minnesota History Center. She also has become a celebrity of sorts among Twin Cities children aged 2 to 7.

If you'd like to read more, just google "would you buy this or not". Don't forget the quotes, and tell Google to ignore what it thinks are duplicate results. You'll find scores of earlier episodes.