Buying used

[tmccowan]

I found someone on Craigslist selling their entire collection of Festool tools. I'm interested in the Kapex, but wasn't sure if I should check it for any specific issues. They said it was lightly used and the pics don't look bad but they aren't in focus.

Thanks in advance for the feedback

 

[Gwerner]

Can't help with your Kapex questions but please let me know if you are able to convince him to sell his tools separately. I e-mailed him a couple days ago hoping to get him to split out one of the Centrotec sets but haven't heard back from him.

 

[Sparktrician]

You might want to consider getting the serial numbers of any Festool products you are considering buying, then check with Festool to see if they're stolen or not.  If the seller won't tell you, that's a pretty big hint. 

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

He wants 12k for the set and will not separate.  He will have them for a while.

 

[tmccowan]

Serial number was the only thing I could think of, I was more worried about wear an tear issues. 12 grand definitely thins your clientele down.

 

[Gwerner]

He wants 12k for the set and will not separate.  He will have them for a while.

I thought the same thing when I saw it the other night. Anyone willing to spend $12K on Festool in one shot probably already has a number of the tools he has listed in that lot. Hoping he will decide to separate them soon.

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

http://charlotte.craigslist.org/tls/5120941316.html

 

[Tyler Ernsberger]

He wants 12k for the set and will not separate.  He will have them for a while.

I thought the same thing when I saw it the other night. Anyone willing to spend $12K on Festool in one shot probably already has a number of the tools he has listed in that lot. Hoping he will decide to separate them soon.

I agree.  Not many people looking for a whole shop of tools. If hes willing to separate I would be interested  in a couple things. 

 

[ear3]

I didn't pull out my calculator, but 12K seems like a lot.  I guess it's all the accessories that's inflating the price (2 systainers full of Whiteside bits to start).  But maybe some wealthy aspiring woodworker is about to get the best birthday present of his life.

 

[AlexThePalex]

The seller doesn't know what he's doing. His asking price of 12K is totally unrealistic, and his unwillingness to split up the lot will prevent him from selling one single tool.

If he splits it up he will make the most money out of it, but he'd still be struggling to reach the 7K mark. The power tools are worth the most to people, the accessories not. 2 systainers full of router bits cost a lot to buy in the store, but a buyer on the used market will pay only a fraction of the new price for a used bulk item.

But he doesn't want to split up so that only leaves a trader to buy the whole lot at once. They want to make money on the lot themselves, so they will only be willing to spend 3 or 4K mostly.

In my experience it is impossible to negotiate a deal with sellers like this until they have learned from a long wait that their innitial approach won't work.

 

[kelauben]

Just some quick calculations based on what he's advertising, I totaled just over $15K worth of tools at todays prices.  Assuming he's bought them over the last 3 or 4 years, I reduced his costs to about $13.5K by taking out Festool price increases.  If anything is used, that number further erodes away.  So, basically he's asking for 90% of what he may have paid if they were all new. 

Based on what he has and the pictures, I would not expect to find that anything is stolen. It's clearly someone that had an extensive hobby shop and kept it somewhat portable based on the MFT benches he made for storing all the systainers.

I would agree that he's not likely to find someone to buy the whole thing at only 10% off what he paid and even at 20% off todays price is a bit steep unless someone is starting from scratch and has quite a bit of disposable income available. Obviously, if he's moving and can't take it with him, it's going to interesting to see how this unfolds.  I wish him luck.