Used tool demmand declining?

[Jack in omaha]

I have observed a big drop in prices and demmand for woodworking equipment. I can not speak for auctions but estate and more so garage sale prices and demmand is very low.
Many sales have just a few old I mean really old guys looking at tools and they are very stingy about what they buy and will pay.
Is the market shrunk this bad?

[Z28Doug]

"Many sales have just a few old I mean really old guys looking at tools and they are very stingy about what they buy and will pay."  
You mean the guys that insist that tool was only $4 brand new in "42", and should cost less now that's its been used??

[daddo]

You wouldn't know it by looking on Craigslist. A 1950's table saw sitting in the yard all rusted, corroded, missing parts and maybe no fence and the seller is sure, because it is a vintage piece, is worth $400 bucks.


 Some older machines may not be a good deal. They had much fewer safety features, hard or impossible replacement parts to be found, are rusted, inaccurate, loose, have out of date specs, and perhaps beyond the cost of a decent restoration.  Why spend 400 bucks for an old table saw and then spend 300 bucks trying to restore it- if you can find the parts?

 The only added value some may have is durability and nostalgia and simplicity, a belt driven by a real motor, not some direct drive noisy anemic motor that means buying another saw instead of easily repairing. 

 Some older and cared for tools are gems, and properly restored will last a few more lifetimes- some are just collectors items.

[Splinter Puller]

I suspect the decline is because the hobby itself is declining.

[daddo]

I suspect the decline is because the hobby itself is declining.

 That is a more accurate and simple reason.

I have noticed only a couple of people here who have shops that do woodworking and fewer metalworking. Most are for basic maintenance around the home. Others are specific and just do crafts.
  People buy wood stuff and furniture now from cheap outlets.

[Bibliophile 13]

Hobbies like this wax and wane, even seasonally. Heck, even the recent heat wave may have something to do with keeping people out of their shops and therefore out of the market for tools.

I'm not sure if there's a good way to measure whether a hobby is growing or declining. (I suspect Rob Lee and Thomas Lie-Nielsen could give us a pretty accurate answer, though.) Woodworking, especially with hand tools, may have already peaked, or it may yet see more growth. I think it's more popular now than when I was a kid. There have always been guys with table saws and power drills who build decks and whatnot out of 2X lumber. I don't know if those kinds of woodworkers are on the rise or not. But when it comes to amateur woodworkers who can, say, cut a dovetail by hand or sharpen a handsaw or edge-joint a board with a handplane, I think there are definitely more such people than there used to be.

But the way I look at it, if the demand for old tools has dropped, that's an opportunity to scoop up a few extra tools, clean them up a little, and lay them aside for when the market inevitably picks back up. All it takes is one article in a major woodworking magazine or a YouTube video gone viral to make demand for particular hand tools or brands really pick up.

[5thumbs]

Hobbies like this wax and wane, even seasonally.  Heck, even the recent heat wave may have something to do with keeping people out of their shops and therefore out of the market for tools.  

I'm not sure if there's a good way to measure whether a hobby is growing or declining.  (I suspect Rob Lee and Thomas Lie-Nielsen could give us a pretty accurate answer, though.)  Woodworking, especially with hand tools, may have already peaked, or it may yet see more growth.  I think it's more popular now than when I was a kid. There have always been guys with table saws and power drills who build decks and whatnot out of 2X lumber.  I don't know if those kinds of woodworkers are on the rise or not.  But when it comes to amateur woodworkers who can, say, cut a dovetail by hand or sharpen a handsaw or edge-joint a board with a handplane, I think there are definitely more such people than there used to be.  

But the way I look at it, if the demand for old tools has dropped, that's an opportunity to scoop up a few extra tools, clean them up a little, and lay them aside for when the market inevitably picks back up.  All it takes is one article in a major woodworking magazine or a YouTube video gone viral to make demand for particular hand tools or brands really pick up.

I have noticed a cyclical pattern. Prices always seem to go down when I'm selling and up when I'm buying.

[AHill]

Well, I don't know about that.  The Los Angeles Craigslist has a rusty and dusty No. 8 with a broken tote and he's asking $150 for it.  Another guy is selling two brand new Matsamura mortising chisels for $60 each.  Orlando Craigslist has one vintage wood jointer plane (wood body) for sale for $75.  One guy in Port Ritchie sells rehabbed planes for $75 each and it doesn't seem to matter what the model is.  Now he's got a Stanley 4C and a No. 3 for sale.  I didn't see any rock bottom deals at all.  The only inexpensive hand tools were basically junk.

[Admiral]

Pricing is invariably local. In the northeast supply is greater (but in the last few years, in the wild you have to look harder, and be more selective); on the west coast and in FL not so much. I'm doing my best to accelerate the "handtool diaspora" from the northeast to areas not blessed with supply. I regularly ship to the west coast, southwest and southeast.

[hbmcc]

Every time I start a project, no matter how small, I buy a new tool. My recent hand rail replacement includes a rotary hammer drill. What's scary is the tailed tools I insist on owning have been relegated to a small section at my Home Despot.  But I am old school. I still struggle to do my own repairs while my batteries wear down. 

In the long haul, I think there is a disconnect between those with space and manual experience and those with a little closet off the little deck on their apartment. Should Little Closet want to do a hobby other than couch potato, or digital stimulation, what can he do? Even women who made their own clothes find stuff off the shelf cheaper than fabric. I enjoy gardening, even canning--a guy!--but water-including-sewer costs make the hobby prohibitive. The jars alone cost as much as the pickles on the shelf.

I digress as usual. After the noise, tripping over electrical cords, and running to Ace, Lowes, and HD every few minutes, I finally get to shape a beautiful piece of Alaska Cedar hand rail. With a gut powered handplane. But don't you know it!? The blade is dull. So why am I looking in Lee Valley for plane blades?