Need advice on tool kit price

[Greg Hines]

Final price on that partial kit Brian just sold on ebay....

$965



Greg
GPW219419

[lucakiki]

A friend ,this side of the ocean,just asked me privately about a toolkit price. For this reason I thought to bubble up the thread. Recent prices for complete sets have some how increased, but the concepts in the thread are still good.
And the tools keep getting scarcer, some real lucky finds notwithstanding.

[lucakiki]

Recent astonishing winning bids (on that gambling place hardly ever openly mentioned , EBAY) make it worth it to take a look at this thread once again. That is why I am bumping it to the top.
After three years, some prices have not noticeably changed. However if one should buy every single tool in his bag by sistematically outbidding buyers worldwide, the amount would really be shockingly higher than three years ago. On the other side by buying wisely , be it on the gee or elsewhere on the web, a correct toolkit can still be assembled for lower amounts of money.
Careful, though: if you want such a decently correct tool kit fast and cheap, just forget it.
Wrenches are now 15 to 20 bucks each as a minimum, if we gauge the price by the recent gee for sale ads... That makes about one hundred for a set of five, forgetting all matching brand and top choice brands.
No correct cheap Irwin screwdrivers around : let us say twenty five as a minimum. Screwdriver or screw buyer: the sellers usually don' t get screwed. Pliers are cheap, if you are not picky on the brand. Correct hammers are seldom cheap, and being picky at times is not even possible, because of availability. Add another 70 dollars for an happily wed 11" adjustable & hub wrench combo. Maybe more.
Lugnut wrench ain't cheap either., while the spark plug wrench usually is.

Have you followed the figures? Even not being picky, and actually buying from the most reasonable sellers, two hundred bucks are most likely not enough. Definitely not if you also want a tire gauge or a pump .
OK, OK, you want to be picky, and you want it all matching wherever possible? Then the above figures will definitely not be enough. Even the lucky souls who might occasionally run into the nugget for peanuts, are not going to resell it to you for twice what they paid( nor even for ten times, for that).
Any praiseworthy exception to the rule does not change the facts, and the average expenses connected to a tool kit are never going to be lower than what the wise guys told you.

[lucakiki]

Owing to the recent fuss and comments on a for sale ad ( mine, but that is immaterial) and also because of a difference of opinions regarding the best placement for comments on prices, I thought to revive this thread. I hope that all interested guys will read it thoroughly.
I personally think, and I am not alone, that price comments have a better placement in a dedicated debate than in a for sale ad.
Whatever your position on this issue, please post your welcome thoughts also on here. Whether you agree, whether you don't agree on the suggested figures.

[Roger]

Been some time since the last update on this thread. Some things change and some stay about the same. I used Jon's format and adjusted as I see the market today. Useing both the Gee and ebay for a close baseline for prices. Not to say you can't still get a bargin out there!.....



Notice I took out the reference to those nasty Williams tools!.....

[Frank]

Hi Roger.
$40 for an original plug tool Wow....do you have some for sale? That seem to be a very nice price.

[Roger]

Hi Roger.
$40 for an original plug tool Wow....do you have some for sale? That seem to be a very nice price.

Hi Frank, Had to guess on that one. You don't see to many of them being for sale. Should have put a bigger "+" on the 40.00.......

What do they sell for?

[Ben Dover]

Which Hub Nut Wrench commands $200.00? There are 3 GI Issue Hub Nut wrenches, , the Ford, Willys and 41W, apparantly each has a market value.

[Roger]

Which Hub Nut Wrench commands $200.00? There are 3 GI Issue Hub Nut wrenches, , the Ford, Willys and 41W, apparantly each has a market value.

Ben, I tried to overlook the obvious, two guys bidding and "I will get this at any price" I recall one recently one going for over 300.00. Can't remember the exact price, off the charts though! Had to guess on a couple, going by memory and mine aint all that good!....

I didn't even try to guess on what an original brake bleeder wrench might fetch. A few of these tools just do not surface very often.

Edited: Just read my guess' again. Confused the Hub Puller twice. Hub nut "wrench" most likely at a 100.00 "Ford scripted"

[Ben Dover]

Just curious as I have been passing out NOS Brake Adjusting Wrenches, Hub Nut Wrenches, and Irwin Screwdrivers as gifts.
I got a feeling there is going to be a second coming of Scrooge real soon.

[lucakiki]

Just curious as I have been passing out NOS Brake Adjusting Wrenches, Hub Nut Wrenches, and Irwin Screwdrivers as gifts.
I got a feeling there is going to be a second coming of Scrooge real soon.

What one is giving away as gift has nothing to do with actual values: unless one should only give away low value presents.
At times, those who give away things do also sell them.
Remember all those Irwins, doncha?
And yes, a W-41 hub wrench has a different value than a Ford or Willys one. Usually.

[Ben Dover]

Luca, I have no regrets about gifts of the past, on the otherhand I have a checkbook to balance. Gifts are still part of my lifestyle, but it takes money to buy more gifts.

[lucakiki]

Of course, Joel. No one should have regrets. Gifts are gifts.
I am not such an expert on the Gospels, but I remember one concept from one of them: the left hand should not know what the right one did... Or something like that.

That said, there is no better place than this thread to discuss tool prices.

We should bear in mind that there is no such a thing as a price list!
I know guys whose prices are always very, very reasonable. Nevertheless occasionally a tool on ebay goes for less than their very reasonable prices. So what? Ebay at times, just at times, allows incredible bargains.
Just as at times it shows crazy outrageous prices.
None of the ebay prices is a guide for pricing. I bought from the same seller who had sold a similar tool for a crazy amount, and the price was absolutely reasonable. No much battle, either.
Bought no less than four apparently unobtainable WOA lugwrenches: all of them from gee members, but only one by direct dealing through the gee. Not the cheapest, and not the most expensive. So, one place is not necessarily more expensive than the other.
Also, factor in the I want it now element, the last-needed-to-complete element, the < who cares I got the other tools for peanuts, I can spend a bunch for once> element, and dozens of other factors.

Basically, no matter the price of one single tool, the cost of a nice toolkit easily reaches the over 1000 $ barrier.
There was a guy who thought that the 300 $ asking price for a fairly complete kit was outrageous, but he recently admitted that he actually had to fork out more than three times that amount, and still he has not 100% completed his slattie kit yet!.
He is now looking at tool sales in a totally different way.
There are guys who have ben looking for ages for a single wrench, but when one pops up on this site, they do not bother to send a message. Not even after days the item is still unsold.
When it is gone, they start complaining.

Tools, otherwise than vehicles, can see their purchasing price attain one hundred times more in case of resale.
That is why some discussions and debates get so animated. If one manages to validate his tool as correct, he will not need to fork out mucho dinero for a really correct scarce one. I know that for a fact.

Ebay should not be demonized: bargains are possible, and one cannot but wonder at some strange flops.
We all know that Barcalos can be bought for around twenty, twentyfive bucks, barring the scarce 723.
That would make some 100 dollars for just four B-B wrenches. OK?

Not long ago, a very nice kit sold by a gee member on ebay did not go over the 130 DOLLARS barrier.
That is, for thirty bucks over the usual price of four Barcalos, the lucky buyer got a 723, and all the other nice tools in a kit.
How do you explain that?

On the other side, toolsets offered here, at reasonable prices, went unsold, and made much, much more on ebay.
How do you explain that?

Do I jump on a bargain? You bet I do, whenever possible.
If I can do it, all other guys can do it.
But nothing beats having good friends.

[Nikko]

Hi Roger

Good list you have put together there
here is one from ebay BRAKEBLEEDER TOOL 41-W-xx : 290$
what do you think is the value of DRAINPLUG TOOL orginal not repop


Cheers From The North
Nikko

[Roger]

Nikko,
I am not sure on the drain plug wrench price. So few of them are showing up. Maybe someone else has seen them around and could say.

Cheers from the Ole WEST,...
Roger