When you’re looking at where to buy old tools, you need to decide where to go. When I started collecting tools back in the 1980s, the main places were antique shows, flea markets, and antique malls. Even after all these years, these are still the easiest places to find general woodworking tools at a good price. You get to look at what you’re buying to see how good the condition is. Then you can barter on the price if you want with the seller. Large antique shows and flea markets have hundreds of vendors during the show. If you’re looking for common planes, chisels, and saws, this is the best place to be. After buying tools for forty years, this is still the primary place where I buy tools.

However, since the ’80s, numerous other places to buy old tools have opened up. Mainly because of the internet. eBay is by far the easiest way to find what type of tool you’re looking for. A simple quick search can lead you right to the type of tool you’re looking for as well as its vintage. Prominent eBay sellers will take multiple pictures of the tool and include a solid description of what you’re buying. On eBay, you can either wait for the auction to be over or simply buy it with a Buy It Now button. eBay is where I’ve been selling my restored tools for the past twenty years and will probably continue to do so for the next twenty.

Antique tool sellers’ personal websites are also another resource. They, too, will categorize their inventory into a search format so that you can easily find what you’re looking for. Tool collector websites often sell tools that are in good to mint condition, so little restoration may be needed. With this, the pricing on their tools will often be more than what certain eBay sellers will have, but not always.

Online classifieds like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are another option. In my experience using those platforms, I’ve I have found that sellers are often very vague in their description and only include one or two pictures of what they’re selling. I rarely buy tools through those two platforms as I don’t like having to schedule a time to meet up with the seller, and prices are often too high anyway.

Along with Facebook Marketplace, Facebook tool groups is another way to buy old tools. There are dozens of tool collecting groups on Facebook that specialize everything from restoring workbenches to using stanley planes to collecting infill planes. The members of the group will post pictures of the tools they want to sell along with their price. There are also Facebook groups where you can bid on tools like an auction or even swap tools for trade. I have never bought anything from any of these groups as I have heard and seen too many scammers listing tools they don’t even own just to take money from the buyer and split. Others may have had luck with these groups.

Yard sales is another way to buy old tools. However, the yard sales around me are always filled with clothes and baby toys. Driving around town from a yard sale to yard sale is a painful way for me to spend a Saturday afternoon. Unless it’s a barn sale out in the country, I generally skip any community yard sale, with one very large exception,  The US 127 World’s Longest Yard Sale!

The US 127 World’s Longest Yard Sale runs from Michigan to Alabama on state route US 127 the first weekend of August. This sale is hundreds of miles long and has thousands of vendors who set up from the Thursday through Sunday of the show. In fact, the sale is so large that many sellers will set up the weekend before the show even starts. Anything and everything is sold during this show. Every year, I spend several days traveling up and down US 127 between Ohio and Tennessee looking for old tools. Some years I hit the jackpot, others I get skunked only coming home with a handful of tools. But the show is amazing. I call it the Super Bowl of Antique Shows.

Another good place to buy old tools is from tool collector associations. The largest is the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association, but there are a few smaller regional assoctions like The Ohio Tool Collectors and PATINA. Each association will have shows several times a year around the country where members meet up and show and sell their tools. It’s a great way to meet fellow tool collectors and learn about the tools they own. It’s one of the best ways to learn about old tools and how they work.

The most fun I have buying old tools is from antique tool auctions. I prefer the live ones, but their are a lot more that appear online that I participate in. Live auctions are full of action as the auctioneer bids out the tool to the gallery. I get a rush trying to win something I’ve been waiting several minutes to hit the auction block. I’m always hoping that I’m the only one who wants the tool, and in some cases, that has happened, but for the most part, I have to bid against my fellow tool collectors.  I always have a set price of what I want to pay and also take into consideration if there is a buyers premium and tax taken on top of my bid. Buyers premium is a fee many auction companies will use in order to cover some of the cost of setting up the auction. Many times, the buyers premium will be 10-15%. However, I’ve seen some as high as 20%. You’ll need to be careful when bidding so you don’t inadvertently overpay for your tool. If a buyers premium is 15% and they charge tax, I automatically adjust my bid fees to 20% in my head. So, if I’m willing to pay $100 for a tool, my max bid will be $80.00. $80.00 bid + $12.00 buyers premium, + $6.00 tax comes to $98.00.