The work of a hobby tool dealer like me consists of finding stuff, photographing and cataloging that stuff, and filling orders. I no longer have the problem of finding stuff — I have plenty — but photographing and cataloging takes a good deal of time. And, to be honest, there are some tools that don’t justify the time or effort spent in photographing and describing them.
That’s not because they’re bad or unwanted — quite the opposite. They’re perfectly usable (otherwise I wouldn’t sell them), but they’re common items that don’t really call out for detailed descriptions. And I want to sell them to you at the lowest price I can.
So, just like “generic” products at the grocery story, I offer a generic description, a generic photo, some guarantees, and a few disclaimers:
- Any tool you buy from me will do what it’s meant to do — that is, it’ll be perfectly functional
- Most generic tools will have some kind of non-life-threatening defect — a repaired handle or tote, japanning that is less than complete, and so on.
- Particular tools have particular common defects. Those are listed in the generic description — for example, Yankee screwdrivers have most often had the return springs removed (that’s actually a feature, not a defect), and saw vises are almost always missing the anti-vibration leather strip, and multitools usually don’t have their full complement of bits. Just like all the ones you own already.
- You’re always welcome to return anything; I’ll refund the purchase price (you pay to ship it back; I’d rather it were otherwise, but experience has taught me that there are some tire-kickers out there who need to be discouraged)
In return, you get somewhere between 15 and 30 percent off the price of the tool. I think that’s a reasonable risk for a reasonable reward, and I hope you do too.