I'm glad you held on to a few of those hand tools......  you wouldn't believe how often hand tools can be "of service" to ya!  I guess you have to think about things in a certain way.  Anyhow, I'm glad that you are keeping some of your tools within the family.
cheers,
bird.

Quote from: Lostmind on July 08, 2012, 03:35:57 PM
I passed the two planes and some hand saws on to my son, along with the info I got from you guys.
He was glad to get them. I'm holding on to the Yankee brace and screw driver for a while , I do use them once in a while.
Thanks for all your input.
Roy

Quote from: bird on July 08, 2012, 03:23:58 PM
Alright, Scott, cough it up....  where the heck are you getting a Frey brace for peanuts???  I need to be hanging out with YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
cheers,
bird.

There seems to be two ends on prices for the Frey-Spofford braces.   Some sellers are certain that they're special and rare antiques.  That's the high end.   Others seem to think "It's another old fashioned brace."  That's how I got one for free, and a couple more for $10.

Quote from: Branson on July 09, 2012, 07:24:13 AM
There seems to be two ends on prices for the Frey-Spofford braces.   Some sellers are certain that they're special and rare antiques.  That's the high end.   Others seem to think "It's another old fashioned brace."  That's how I got one for free, and a couple more for $10.

Exactly right, but then all old tools fall into the category.
Some sellers whether private (yard sales) or public, antique mauls etc are greedy desperate for cash and can't see anything else.
    Others just want to move the merchandise!
Keep the inventory moving and make a little off each sale and you will make out.

  I was in a shop a few months ago, they will go out of business before they sell anything at all.
Of course he was complaining about how bad business was.
  Next time I am trough there he will be out of business I guarantee.
   As I was leaving I remarked,  "I'd be a multi millionaire if I could get 1/4 of these prices.  I can't even haggle from here."

  Its always like that. I only get "down the valley" about once in 4 or 5  years. Nearly every shop has changed hands by then.
  But then I know other dealers who have been open in the same location for 30 years.
They will work as long as they care to work.
      yours Scott

Hi Scottie,
        Yeah, it seems to be a weird "sellers" market for old tools.  It seems like you run across someone with a booth where they are charging top dollar for shit.  Or, you have a serious tool "person"  that knows everything about tools.  Of course, if you're lucky, you run across someone that doesn't know anything about tools, doesn't care about tools, and THAT'S where you get a good deal!....  or so I've been told.
     I hope all is well with you.
cheers,
bird.

A good lesson I got from a rare book dealer, a very successful one.  He asked me what I thought about a way overpriced book we found.  "What do you think" he asked me.  I don't remember my answer, but his response was something terribly overpriced was a good sign.   He said that it meant the dealer didn't know what he was about, and there would be something else ridiculously under priced, so look harder.  Before we left, he bought a little book for $.80 which he sold in a week's time for $110.

So , than is my Yankee 2101 worth $300.00 or $5.00?
I think it's the market at the time you want to part with something.
The PBS Roadshow has been running a series on the prices since 1998.
Most are flat or down. High quality seems to always go up.
I normally price below the market and sell nearly every thing I post.
A good quality ,hard to come by piece usualy has two or more buyers.
I find out in a couple of weeks if it's to high for the current market.
There is a difference in a good price ,and "stealing" something.
Fairness counts for something. No seller can know everything about everything.
That's why I ask for help.
Just my 2 cents.
Keep giving opinions ,please
Roy

Quote from: Lostmind on July 10, 2012, 08:15:05 AM
So , than is my Yankee 2101 worth $300.00 or $5.00?

  Your Yankee brace, as it sits right now, with average online presentation,
will sell for $ 92.66 on ebay, in a 7 day auction ending sunday evening. 
  I will be willing to bet I am within $30 either way, at the close.

  If you took the time and trouble to clean it entirely, polish it up bright, and then take really really good pictures of it?
At least 6 bright clear professional looking pictures, you would get between $200 and 300 depending on how mint it really is underneath what I see from here. 
     Art sells. Nothing else.
Well a snappy fun description doesn't hurt at all, but its really the art.  People need to see.   

   I came by the secondary market honest. I grew up at yard sales, second hand shops, salvage stores, etc etc.  Never stopped. I have tried to give that to my grandchildren.
One time Nikole was visiting. She was maybe 6.   7:30am sat morning,
  "Want to go to yard sales?"
  "Whats that Grandpa?"
   Off we go. Second stop, about $700 retail of fine condition toys in boxes we scored, and 3 grocery bags stuffed with clothes just her size, that she picked out.

     They are only clothes in a store.
   After that they are just laundry, and laundry sells for dirt!
 
She didn't know it much at the time, but it came to maybe 6 dollars.
  What she did know was, she could have --all-- she found and wanted. Anything!

Heading back home she pulls my shirt sleeve. "Grandpa, have been thinking about it and I changed my mind. Think we could go back for...... "     
  and of course we did. 
   yours Scott

Great story re: Nikole.