any need any tools ?

[DownUnder.]

Quick query, say for example I had the cash waiting for these. Also I am currently unemployed. How much could I technically make splitting these and selling separately? Based on a £25000 final fee?

[bobr]

CASH ON COLLECTION?! Who the fk would carry that in cash?

[S3_Graham]

DownUnder. said:

Quick query, say for example I had the cash waiting for these. Also I am currently unemployed. How much could I technically make splitting these and selling separately? Based on a £25000 final fee?

say he has 2500 items (which he has more) if you sell each one for £10 you have your money back...

Considering some items are worth WAYYYyyyyyyy more than £10 im sure you wouldnt loose money.

some of the cheapest items are more than £10... put it this way, i paid £8 for a 1/4 spanner.....

[eric twinge]

I've got my dads snap on cabinet and a few snap on tools buried in the shed, from his days of car mechanics.

I remember him saying that they cost a fortune about 25 years ago as well.

Might have to dig them out at the weekend, would never part with them though, brings back a lot of memories of sitting in a Datsun/Nissan and then Peugeot dealership on a saturday morning listening to the colourful language from the mechs when I was a young nipper. Happy days.

[jackal]

DownUnder. said:

Quick query, say for example I had the cash waiting for these. Also I am currently unemployed. How much could I technically make splitting these and selling separately? Based on a £25000 final fee?

I split up a few job lots but nothing like this so its very very hard to say.

Looking at the regular spanners and then the ratchet spanners and the '4 small draws' pile of spanners I would say there very conservatively there is at least £15k there if you split them and sold them in sets (a lot of sets !). I could be way out though, maybe well over £20,000. With the spanners at normal sizes £20 per spanner is not a bad guide. A set of 10-19mm midgets or FD+ will cost you around £200. But when you go larger it all changes and in the really big sizes 26mm+ you can pay £50-£100 per spanner. The thing is, none of this stuff comes up on the bay much so any of those auctions will be very well contested. There are some mad crazy obstruction spanners there in enormous sizes, massive flex heads, huge offset spanners than you never see on ebay. The same applies to the sockets. £100-£150 for a regular set of say 10 items but those 1/2 hex sets, the extra long hex/torx drivers, the 14 swivel sets, large imact sockets ..... these are a lot more money.

I reckon if you split it up into smaller sets (a lot of them mind) then there is £20-£25k in the spanners and sockets alone. Maybe more to be honest. After the spanners and sockets there is at least £10-£15k more stuff, again maybe more as a lot of those items like the torque wrenches are several hundred a pop. The pliers and screwdrivers are also the best sellers on ebay. I reckon it will go for a lot more than 25k though. There will be people with the funds who will know exactly what this is worth and they wont be shy. Wouldnt be surpised to see the auction end up over 40 or 50k.

Edited by jackal on Thursday 2nd June 13:06

[Reedy156]

left to right said:

If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball!

That made me laugh.... a lot!

(About as much use as a cock flavoured lolly pop!)

[buzzer]

is there such a thing as a fake Snap-on tool? We all know that there are fake clothes, watches, CD's the list goes on.

But what about tools? are there fakes in the tool world and if so how do you spot them? strikes me as a spanner is a lot easier to fake than say a watch...

not suggesting the collection on Ebay is fake in any way, but you would want to be sure!

[MercuryRises]

Jesus Christ, that's a serious collection

Judging by the prices here http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/tools.asp?tool=all&...

There's probably about 75K to 100K worth of gear there. If only I had 25 grand, as stated above, you could build yourself a sweet, comprehensive set from that lot, flog what was left, and finish up even (as a worst case scenario)

[mrmr96]

buzzer said:

is there such a thing as a fake Snap-on tool? We all know that there are fake clothes, watches, CD's the list goes on.

But what about tools? are there fakes in the tool world and if so how do you spot them? strikes me as a spanner is a lot easier to fake than say a watch...

not suggesting the collection on Ebay is fake in any way, but you would want to be sure!

Hmm... time to go register "5nap-On Tools UK Ltd"...?!

[McSam]

Without wanting to sound a bit of a tt, you can usually tell the quality of a tool by the feel of it. If it feels like it weighs the right amount (a lot, usually), looks right, ratchets have a good action, etc etc, then generally it is good.

[Baryonyx]

One of my mates reckons he has about £20,000 worth of tools, I wonder what the true value of this lot is!

[alephnull]

Er why are Snapon tools so expensive? I cannot believe it costs £100 to make a spanner...I guess the tooling to make them is pretty specific, but you would still be making batches of 1000s. They are just steel right? Not tungsten carbide or anything...?

It makes me want to start a business making tools...

[mrmr96]

alephnull said:

Er why are Snapon tools so expensive? I cannot believe it costs £100 to make a spanner...I guess the tooling to make them is pretty specific, but you would still be making batches of 1000s. They are just steel right? Not tungsten carbide or anything...?

It makes me want to start a business making tools...

Of course it costs no where near £100 to make a spanner. How much it DOES cost depends on what you mean by 'make'. If you're talking about the raw materials and processing costs then not much, but if you include the design time and testing, then more, add in the marketing etc and it's more.

I think the tools are expensive because they are produced to very fine tolerances, and are made out of high quality materials (don't know what) which I would imagine would be treated to keep them really hard, so that they don't chip, bend, break, deform etc even under high loads and less than ideal storage conditions.

They still seem expensive to me. I generally buy cheap tools and replace them when they break or (more often) when I lose them. Now, there have been a number of occasions where I've broken a tool on a job and had to go buy another one (normally an individual socket or something) and I will go get a 'premium' one of them. The cheap stuff is fine for me in 95% of cases and the other 5% I can cope with. Pro's on the other hand can't afford to have tools break as it means they can't finish a job and get paid.

[Deva Link]

mrmr96 said:

alephnull said:

Er why are Snapon tools so expensive? I cannot believe it costs £100 to make a spanner...I guess the tooling to make them is pretty specific, but you would still be making batches of 1000s. They are just steel right? Not tungsten carbide or anything...?

It makes me want to start a business making tools...

Of course it costs no where near £100 to make a spanner. How much it DOES cost depends on what you mean by 'make'. If you're talking about the raw materials and processing costs then not much, but if you include the design time and testing, then more, add in the marketing etc and it's more.

I think the tools are expensive because they are produced to very fine tolerances, and are made out of high quality materials (don't know what) which I would imagine would be treated to keep them really hard, so that they don't chip, bend, break, deform etc even under high loads and less than ideal storage conditions.

They still seem expensive to me. I generally buy cheap tools and replace them when they break or (more often) when I lose them. Now, there have been a number of occasions where I've broken a tool on a job and had to go buy another one (normally an individual socket or something) and I will go get a 'premium' one of them. The cheap stuff is fine for me in 95% of cases and the other 5% I can cope with. Pro's on the other hand can't afford to have tools break as it means they can't finish a job and get paid.

A lot of the cost is the van that goes around to the garages every week, the easy-payment terms, the lifetime warranty etc.

In the US, there are two ot three other makes considered nearly as good for half the price, Matco, for example, and Matco where trying to get going in the UK but I don't know if they did. Craftsman in the US way cheaper (I think they'd be like Halfords pro range). But the pro-mechanics in the US still say they prefer Snap-On.

[Fatboy]

Deva Link said:

A lot of the cost is the van that goes around to the garages every week, the easy-payment terms, the lifetime warranty etc.

In the US, there are two ot three other makes considered nearly as good for half the price, Matco, for example, and Matco where trying to get going in the UK but I don't know if they did. Craftsman in the US way cheaper (I think they'd be like Halfords pro range). But the pro-mechanics in the US still say they prefer Snap-On.

I've had a set of Craftsman tools - they're quite good, but not nearly as good as Halfords Pro Series - certainly the ratchets are not as good, and the sockets are not as thin..

[ambuletz]

bus pass said:

I'm sat here picturing what it would be like to own that lot


I can imagine it now, the wife pops into the garage to bring me a cup of tea....

"Could you just pass me that 15mm 3/8th drive socket please love"

"Yeah, sure."



20 minutes later, she's still looking for it

you know what, it would be hilarious to make a computer application which tells you where all the tools are. Type in the wrench you want, and a little CG 3d image of the tool boxes comes up and zooms into the right compartment and highlights which one you need.

lulz

[buzzer]

McSam said:

Without wanting to sound a bit of a tt, you can usually tell the quality of a tool by the feel of it. If it feels like it weighs the right amount (a lot, usually), looks right, ratchets have a good action, etc etc, then generally it is good.

but if the fakers make the spanner or ratchet out of steel, to the same design, they are going to feel the same.... I would like to bet there is a load of fake Snap-on tools out there that people are using that look, feel the same as the real thing!

My mate has a fake Omega Speedmaster, and to be quite honest you simply cant tell the difference between that and my real one... His was £100, mine was £1700. you REALLY cant tell the difference by looking at them, I think the only way is to take the back off and look at the movement.

[Deva Link]

ambuletz said:

you know what, it would be hilarious to make a computer application...

Hmmm...hilarious?

Whenever I do a job I seem to spend 2/3 of the time looking for a tool I've put down somwhere. With that lot the next job I took on would take up the rest of my life.

[EDLT]

buzzer said:

McSam said:

Without wanting to sound a bit of a tt, you can usually tell the quality of a tool by the feel of it. If it feels like it weighs the right amount (a lot, usually), looks right, ratchets have a good action, etc etc, then generally it is good.

but if the fakers make the spanner or ratchet out of steel, to the same design, they are going to feel the same.... I would like to bet there is a load of fake Snap-on tools out there that people are using that look, feel the same as the real thing!

My mate has a fake Omega Speedmaster, and to be quite honest you simply cant tell the difference between that and my real one... His was £100, mine was £1700. you REALLY cant tell the difference by looking at them, I think the only way is to take the back off and look at the movement.

You have to wonder what you are paying for if someone can make something that looks the same and works the same for half the price or less (I'm talking about tools here, not watches which are a little different).

Even my Clarke hammer was loads cheaper than a snap-on one, and both are little more than a lump of steel on a stick.

[Fatboy]

EDLT said:

buzzer said:

McSam said:

Without wanting to sound a bit of a tt, you can usually tell the quality of a tool by the feel of it. If it feels like it weighs the right amount (a lot, usually), looks right, ratchets have a good action, etc etc, then generally it is good.

but if the fakers make the spanner or ratchet out of steel, to the same design, they are going to feel the same.... I would like to bet there is a load of fake Snap-on tools out there that people are using that look, feel the same as the real thing!

My mate has a fake Omega Speedmaster, and to be quite honest you simply cant tell the difference between that and my real one... His was £100, mine was £1700. you REALLY cant tell the difference by looking at them, I think the only way is to take the back off and look at the movement.

You have to wonder what you are paying for if someone can make something that looks the same and works the same for half the price or less (I'm talking about tools here, not watches which are a little different).

Even my Clarke hammer was loads cheaper than a snap-on one, and both are little more than a lump of steel on a stick.

Generally (in my experience) the cheaper tools tend to be made of lower quality metal, so they either tend to be weaker, or give notchier ratchets etc.

Admittedly I've not compared snap-on directly with Halfords value range, but there is a noticeable increase in qaulity, longevity and comfort bewteen Halfords value and Pro Series...