Need advice on clearing Dads shed

My dad has recently passed and one of the remaining jobs is to sort/clear his workshop but I'm not sure where to start?

Sell as a job lot? Get a valuer in to sell? break up and sell on eBay?

Based in North Yorkshire.couple of photos giving you an idea of what there is..

Can anyone offer some ideas please?

Theoretically you get maybe 3 or 4 times as much money if you break up and sell the contents on E-Bay / Gumtree / FB Marketplace / local ad-paper rather than call the clearance man. But its a boat load of work even if you know exactly what you have. Takes patience to get best prices too.

Selling as one to a private purchaser is unlikely. Too much there and, frankly, too much value for the pockets of someone starting out with very little to afford.

Lord knows what a fair value for that Tri-Leva Myford with the add on electric feed drive kit is. Heard of those kits but never seen one.

Clive

Edited By Clive Foster on 27/04/2022 20:02:56

My condolences.

You can get companies in to do workshop clearances, it means minimum effort for you but less return.

My suggestion is that if he belonged to a model engineering society you request that they come and assist; they will be able to identify components to either sell within the club (which may earn you less but will mean the items will be kept local, and possibly among his old friends) or guide you which items to sell on ebay (more clinical, and subject to 14% or something fees, but may get a greater return.). Another advantage of going to his local club, assuming he was a member of one, is that people are more likely to be able to collect rather than having to box up machinery to cart across the country.

Be wary of people flashing offers at you, you may end up selling things under their value. I'm sorry to hear about your loss, its a difficult time.

Thanks for your replies, already I now know more about the lathe than before posting, so appreciate the info.

He wasn't in a local club and has been ill for a while so this lot hasn't been touched for a long time so I'm starting blind tbh.

A local or even not too far away club may sill be a better bet than clearance firm. You may not get as much as selling individually over time but any clearance firm will give you far less than the actual value.

Search on line for model engineering clubs.

I noticed only three workshop clearance companies while browsing the advertisement pages of a recent paper copy of Model Engineer (or was it Model Engineer's Workshop? ) .

Their various locations left large areas of the UK where their transport costs & time would cause the prices they could offer to prospective customers to be seriously reduced.

If the UK is actually served by a uniform spread of workshop clearers, why aren't they advertising in ME and MEW?

Just saying.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Don't invite a dealer in. You'll get peanuts.

Sell on eBay. The auction will realise the actual market price for you.

Start at a price that will interest buyers. Don't start too high.

Don't offer a buy it now price. More fees. No value to you.

Wait until the 80% discount on seller fees if you can.

Myford trilever with electronic power feed £699

Small bench pillar drill £39

[Name of machine] powered shaper £399

Etc.

That will get plenty of interest.

If you can, find someone with some knowledge to identify parts. Eg chucks, milling vices, tooling, etc. Don't just give this away with the machines.

Chris you'll get a small fraction of the value if you let some clearance merchant take it all away for an easy profit.

The grey Myford Tri-Lever lathe has a gearbox on it, the gearbox alone is worth hundreds so don't let that go cheap. Gearbox models regularly seell for better than £1000 much more if there are steadies and chucks.

The blue shaper looks clean and tidy from what little is shown, there's a few hundred there. Usually they come without the vice because they lso fetch good money separately so don't let someone bid you silly on that either.

I can't see enough of the smaller black lathe to identify it but if it's complete and working there's a couple of hundred at least.

Bench drill has a couple of vices with it, grinder looks like a quality item.

The model on the bench and the one on the top shelf look nicely made but someone else will have to identify those and offer a value on them.

I would say that individually the items I've mentioned will get you comfortably north of £2k. If you take some better pictures and see what attachments come with the larger items you might do much better. Just looking around the pics, the well-used but well kept machines, nicely insulated workshop, home-made powered cross feed on the lathe your dad must really have loved his time in there. You should make sure you do him justice by getting a decent price for his stuff IMO.

The Cowells ME90 lathe which can be seen on RH edge on second picture could be anything from £650 to £1200 depending on accessories with it.

Colin

E bay is the best place to move stuff. Clubs usually want something for nothing just like dealers, but without their overheads.

If you are not posting an item do not accept Paypal. If they are collecting they can pay cash on collection. You will have no proof of delivery acceptable by ebay so a buyer scammer can lie and claim non-delivery and get their cash back from Paypal as well as keep the item.

Thanks for the responses so far, really appreciated.

I've been on today and taken more detailed photos of the bigger items and based on advice given here, I'm going to ebay them.

Wasn't there someone asking for a clearance to start up a home workshop in the last few months?

Possibly homeworkshop.

Also lathes web site, worth £35 to see if it will go for £xxxx?

Things seem to sell well on the lathes website. I heard that Tony is very good about giving advice on valuation too.

@Dave, I think ebay now issues the purchaser with a reference code that the seller should ask for when collection is made to confirm the transaction and close this loophole. I've not tried this in practice yet.

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