Finally, got a gloat.

I was interstate over the Christmas break and was at the MIL's. As usual, she was constantly chattering and I had tuned her out. No, I am not being unkind, here's a sample of why I tune her out

Me. "Margaret, where do you keep your glasses?"

Her. "Glasses? You want a glass? I keep them in the bottom cupboard behind the red bowl that Norman gave me. You don't know Norman, he was the husband of Mary that ran the old store down at Port Noarlunga before the bushfires burnt it down. That was a bad year for bush fires that year, the Aitkens lost all their sheep on their farm. That was their first farm ... and so it goes on, ten minutes at least - guaranteed."

Anyway, I am reading FWW and Margaret is chatting away. Whilst she was talking I found it very difficult to concentrate due to something she was saying "... old Mrs Maine ... bzzz ... tools ... bzzz ... husband ... deceased ... moving ... must sell ... serious hobby ... woodworking ..."

Eventually I came to my senses and truly listened, Mrs Maine's husband had died last year and she had to move into a nursing home. He had been a serious woodworker and she was selling off his tools but she had no idea what to charge for them. For the first time over the holidays, Margaret had my undivided attention.

We went over to her place and I looked at the 'shed', it was full of a lifetime of working tools. A RAS sat in one corner with a DP beside it. Across from them were a Dyco TS and a large sander. All the planes had gone to a relative already, so no luck there.

Since it was a ten hour drive to get home I was limited to what I could take, so I got a box of drill bits (the box is big enough to make the purchase of a drill doctor cost effective), a sharpening stone, a professional barbers strop (which restored beautifully with some neatsfoot oil), 5 good quality handsaws, a calliper, 2 machinist's squares, a bevel gauge, saw set, 7 old chisels, a set of 3 Bahco chisels and a Makita 3601B

1-3/8 HP 1/2" Router (complete with all accessories and in good working condition).

In case anyone was wondering, I calculated the cost of flying my son home and taking some machinery in the van. One look from SWMBO when I raised the subject killed that idea.

Oh, price? US$30.

Greg

Reply to
Groggy
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Maybe your wife would have gone for it if you'd bought her a ticket, too.

It would have been worth a try!

Charlie Self "I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man I keep his house." Zsa Zsa Gabor

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Reply to
Charlie Self

....>>>>snip

Reply to
Lawrence L'Hote

Groggy wrote: mucho snippage to save the bandwidths...

Grog,

Two things.

1) Explain Dyco table saw. Aussie brand obviously but of what particular flavor, cabinet saw, contractor's saw or bench top?

2) When did you marry my sister?

By the way, the Makita, if memory serves me that was the first readily available plunge router on the market. I lusted for one way back a long time ago, pre-Norm days. Anyways, cool little router.

UA100

Reply to
Unisaw A100

You never did mention where old Mrs. Maine lives, and how much she wants for the rest of the tools. You could be a mench and help her price and sell the rest of the tools.

Reply to
Montyhp

I don't understand.

Are you actually bragging about ripping off an old widow woman?

Is there some other way to see this that I don't?

Reply to
ahood

Nope, sounds like you got it right. Old widow, no idea what the tools are worth, buyer comes in and tells her they ain't worth anything and walks away with everything he can carry. Sounds like a typical gloat to me. Of course it's not the buyer's responsibility to set the price, it takes two to make a deal. If the widow wasn't happy with $30 she didn't have to sell the stuff. Still, gloats to me tend to be a little distasteful as they usually involve getting a great deal at another person's expense. Just my opinion.

Reply to
Larry C in Auburn, WA

Kind of a hybrid, solid top on a contractor style base. It includes a 4" jointer. See one at

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By the way, the Makita, if memory serves me that was

It's a D handle screw type:

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Reply to
Groggy

All is not quite what it seems, the post was about the gloat, not the help I gave her. But for the record, I appraised and tagged the tools for her and notified several people I knew that they were for sale. All tools and their manuals/accessories were placed together and I cleaned the dust out of the shed plus pulled all the cobwebs out of the way. The bushes near the entrance to the shed got a trim and the place was generally set in a condition to facilitate the sale of the items.

The lady knew roughly what the value of the items were but has very limited time to sell due to her health - she recently had a minor stroke and the doctors told her to move into nursing care asap.

One of the people I notified will be arranging the sale of the remaining items and will run the sale for her with my MIL.

There were a number of other small electric tools that I could have taken, drills, planer, 3" sander etc but I had no use for them. Were I without scruples, I would have taken them for on-selling later.

As to the price, I had offered her more than double what I paid, she insisted on the final amount after I had spent 5 hours cleaning and sorting things out.

Greg

Reply to
Groggy

Yes, see reply to Lawrence L'Hote above.

Greg

Reply to
Groggy

The gloat is secondary. Ya' did good, sir. Ed

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

That seems fair to me, Grogs. I scored some real nice white and red oaks at the home of some old folks after hurricane Isabel. I also spent 10 hours cleaning up their property and cutting up the trees so they weren't a hazard.

Reply to
Montyhp

On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 11:21:09 GMT, "Groggy" brought forth from the murky depths:

Only if you LET her, sir. Condolences, nonetheless.

She probably wouldn't have gone for tying him on the roof in a blanket with a couple ropes, either, huh?

Is that a typhoon I just saw starting up? Thou Sucketh, dude.

======================================================== TANSTAAFL: There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

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Gourmet Web Applications ==========================

Reply to
Larry Jaques

This is not a gloat. In fact you should start out minus 1 for this.

Okay, plus 1. Back to level groun. But if you described and told me how you tune her out you could have gone up.

Okay now plus 1. Rest snipped.

Okay gloat away. You are entitled.

John

Reply to
Eddie Munster

For used stuff. That is okay. I'm not even dead and I give the stuff away at those prices for the convenience of a fast sale. Usually, all I get is some token amount just to make me feel like the person is going to properly use what he has. If I want to chew people, there is always ebay. A couple of exceptions in my past include a Ryobi BT3000 table accident. A friend of mine found a buyer at HD and said hey, would you like a mint one, preowned cheaper. I only lost 30 percent on that deal and all the thanks goes to Blair. I still feel guilty and wonder how the guy is doing with it. Now I'm into a Unisaw, thank you Blair.

Hey, used stuff needs to move. Not gather dust. He did nothing wrong. However I commend you for going over and helping out said widow sell her stuff. Thought so.

Go try and run over squirrels or something.

John

Reply to
Eddie Munster

LOL ... Just love that commercial where the squirrels high five each other after running the car off the road.

Reply to
Swingman

Congrats, Larry. You just made a *real* ass of yourself.

In addition to the money, he spent FIVE HOURS doing things like cleaning, organizing (manuals _with_ the corresponding tool, etc.), inventorying, estimating *prices* (for stuff he had _no_intentention_ of buying, himself), etc. All to help her sell the stuff for a _fair_ price.

After all that, his inital _offer_ for what he did take was significantly

*HIGHER* than the final price. The seller _wouldn't_take_ the higher price.
Reply to
Robert Bonomi

Hey there Robert, check the times of the posts. When I posted my comment all the info that had been provided was that he ripped Gramma off. It was only after I already posted my comment that Groggy filled us in with the good part. Obviously after he told the rest of the story it's a whole different picture. Based on the info we now have, I completely agree with you that what he did was more than fair. But, just keep in mind you've made your opinion after seeing two posts from Groggy and I only saw the first one. Just like you've made an opinion based on all the info you have, I did the same. Hope you understand where I was coming from at the time and don't think of me as an ass, if you do so be it.

Reply to
Larry C in Auburn, WA

Guys,

I didn't mean to foment any ill-will here. With hindsight, I can see why I got some of the responses I did, and fair enough too. I should have provided a bit more info up-front to avoid it.

cheers,

Greg

Reply to
Groggy

You didn't do anything wrong. People buying this stuff really don't want it in the first place. A used router. I need another router like a hole in the head. And someone else's tool might just provide it. Somebody somewhere might need a little router and can't afford to buy new and all the pawn shops and such are bare. So he will pay 30 dollars instead of

100 for new. I don't need it so the most I will pay is five dollars.

The value of used tools is not an absolute. It varies with who is buying. And who is selling. If the seller is willing to sit on it for awhile and advertise lots, maybe Grannie gets a bit more. But Grannie has to advertise and put up with all kinds of weirdos (well look at us) coming over and scoping things out. And you have to worry who you get over these days.

If yo feel so strongly about it. Sell off all your big ticketed items now. And rent large tools that would be hard for you widow to sell. That way when you stroke out because somebody left a lightbuld on, she doesn't have to sell. When the rent payment is stopped, people come and take away the cabinet saw for free!

Al lot of that stuff is just junk to me and will only buy it to help out move it. Nice to have extras of some stuff or nice to simply have, but nobody needs to pay big money for something that they are not desperate for. (well okay, I know of two! HAhahaha) And if Grannie doesn't want it moved fast she knows what to do. But guess what.

If you guys are justifying your tool hording and expenses thinking that one day your widow can sell them for 80 percent of what you paid for them think again. When we go a lot of stuff is a painful mountain of junk. And it is not easy to sell. So dream on. Make a list of your tools and what they should sell for when you die. I wouldn't want t saddle a loved one with that sort of difficult burden. And if the money is really badly needed than Grannie can sell off slowly and run a used tool store out of the shop for the next 8 years. But if you widow is going to be in that situation where you frittered needed money away on a hobby then grow up and do something to fix it now. (like work) Rather than thinking she can sell off to afford her survival. What a plan...........

There are no absolutes. To think otherwise is just pure arrogance. Life itself; is an excerise in exceptions.

John

Groggy wrote:

Reply to
Eddie Munster

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