Best place to sell tools?

cHk4

cHk4

cHk4

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My brother has changed career path and has around £30,000 worth of tools he built up over his 25+ year career of a master technician. He wants to sell them and mentioned ebay, I'm not sure what the value of these would be if he sold them on eBay surely the fees would be large as I'm sure he would get a few £1,000 out of this collection.

Outside of eBay and a local auction what other options are there to for him to sell these on?
 
In the MM i needs tools. (Ok you can't and I probably can't afford them)

Unless you split it up, you won't make nearly as much money.
Amazon is also worth a look.
Other than that specialised forums.
 
As I understand it,

£0.40 for a Buy It Now listings and then 10% of the final value fee up to a maximum of £75.00.

So say he sells a drill for £300 his fees will be £7.90, not bad.

Of course you need to consider PayPal fees (£0.20 transaction fee + 3.4% of FVF) should they apply but I would recommend cash on collection with these type of items.
 
i beleive ebay fees are capped at £75 (final auction fee)

catch 22 really though because as said selling them individually will net more overall cash but then each auction will be treated to seperate final sales fees.
selling as a job lot avoids the collective final fee but you won't net as much cash.

does anyone he works with have any interest in them ?
can he go to similar businesses and see if anyone is interested in them ?
 
bobbyspangles said:
As I understand it,

£0.40 for a Buy It Now listings and then 10% of the final value fee up to a maximum of £75.00.

So say he sells a drill for £300 his fees will be £7.90, not bad.

Of course you need to consider PayPal fees (£0.20 transaction fee + 3.4% of FVF) should they apply but I would recommend cash on collection with these type of items.
Click to expand...

The ebay fees alone will be £30.40
 
bobbyspangles said:
As I understand it,

£0.40 for a Buy It Now listings and then 10% of the final value fee up to a maximum of £75.00.

So say he sells a drill for £300 his fees will be £7.90, not bad.

Of course you need to consider PayPal fees (£0.20 transaction fee + 3.4% of FVF) should they apply but I would recommend cash on collection with these type of items.
Click to expand...

This means that if the item is £750 or under then you pay 10%, anything over £750 is capped at a £75 fee.

£300 drill would still cost £30 in final value fees.
 
Sorry I totally misunderstood the concept :o:o:o

Overall though I still wouldn't write eBay off. You should get a far better price than with a classified that has less people seeing your advertisement, thus potentially offsetting any fees.
 
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That's cool, I didn't understand that's how the fees worked, maybe it might be worth going down the eBay route as that doesn't seem too bad.

Thanks guys/gals.
 
In my view a lot of people overpay on ebay and therefore you can often make more even with the fees than if you sold to a more limited audience. The lager the number of people who view an ad, the more likely you are to find someone who will over-spend (I'm looking at you, chap who bought my inflatable boat which was full of holes for 10x the reserve).
 
AshD93 said:
Try posting them on a website/forum targeting your brothers trade?
Click to expand...

That's a good idea but going to look a little bit suspect... first post, "Hey guys my brother has 30k of tools, anyone want to buy?" :D

Joking aside I'll have a search and see if I can find a few.
 
cHk4 said:
That's a good idea but going to look a little bit suspect... first post, "Hey guys my brother has 30k of tools, anyone want to buy?" :D

Joking aside I'll have a search and see if I can find a few.
Click to expand...

I did think of that issue but there are ways to make yourself more genuine. Like not using PayPal gifts, allowing users to request photos with items and say, bread, so they know its genuine. Links to your other forum accounts. All sorts.
 
It probably goes without saying but just in case,

I would be careful with tools, especially of this value, in letting people know where they are, or might be being kept.

Perhaps doing any face to face deals in another location than the house they're kept. Edit: Another idea if you'll be selling the items separately is to not sell them all in one go, instead spreading it out over a number of weeks,

With brother's in both carpentry and an electrician I know they've both had problems with attempted break-ins on their work vans. Thieves seem to salivate at the site of tools :p
 
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