I went to an estate sale this morning and I think I did pretty well. I picked up about $250-$300 worth of vintage hand tools, a cool antique lamp (value unknown, haven't researched yet), a nice, vintage Wilton shop vise as well as a bunch of little crap I can't even recall. (most is still in my truck) I went through the kitchen and started digging for cast iron (found a couple no-names with heat rings, but didn't even grab 'em), then I hit the kitchen drawers to search for some decent kitchen knives (a BIG part of my eBay business). It was a pretty big disappointment and after going through all the drawers finding nothing but junk stamped "Made in Taiwan ... or China", I spotted one in the back of a drawer that caught my eye. I've only found one before, but I recognized it immediately. It was a Case tomato knife. Generally, not a knife the average person would get excited about, but they're pretty rare as they weren't all that popular. Why did my eyes light up when I spotted it? It the same knife they used to make Eddie Kruger's glove for Nightmare on Elm Street and Kruger fans pay dearly for the silly things! They will bring $200 all day long (I paid a quarter). Then, in a drawer across the room in a little breakfast nook kinda area, I spotted another nice Case ... just a simple paring knife, but a POPULAR paring knife which brings around $50-$60. Between the two, I have $0.50 invested. Check your kitchen drawers for an Eddie Kruger knife! Here's a pic of ol' Eddie hisownfineself with his tomato knife glove ... as well as the kitchen knives I picked up today.
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Now for the biggie of the day ... I dug out a box of large, fixed blade knives and started looking through the stash. Cool ... I dragged out 6 Gerbers, 4 Bucks and 4 others that I can't even recall now (they're still out in my truck). I do know one of them was a neat old French, Oyster shucking knife.
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Anyway, they had some ridiculous price on the box of knives ... $1700 I think. I offered $500 and they gave it to me. Gulp, I didn't expect them to accept it, but they called my bluff. I haven't really checked to see what I have yet, but I should be able to make a buck or two. (I hope) The SUCKY part? For some silly reason, the scabbards and cases for the knives were in a separate box, but some dufe picked up the box and bought the whole thing for $40.00! They told me they would have included it with my knives if they'd realized what it was. Dang it!!!
I can't complain ... my total tab was $520.00 .... now I just need to sell sumpin'!