How to sale dads stuff

My father passed away and we are in the process of sorting his sheds out, which is proving to be a real challenge. He was half way through building a steam engine amongst other things. He has a large collection of machines, lathes etc, tools, material and bits. Can anyone advise me how we could go about selling it. Preferably getting someone in to look at it buy it. There is far too much for me to list online, along with not knowing what most of the tools etc actually are.

Sorry to hear this, Stephie. Sadly, it's not an uncommon situation. However, there's very probably someone on this forum that can help - either in person or by connecting you with a local model engineering society. Where, roughly, is your father's shed?

Thank you. We are in Dagenham.

Sorry for your loss. There are Model engineering clubs in Ilford, Romford & Welling (just google "model engineering clubs near Dagenham" If your father was a member of one of these it would be an idea to contact them and see if they have a member or members who can help you appraise what you have. They would most likely help you even if he was not a member. Best not to get in a "buy all items" company unless you are willing to take a huge hit on the value of the bigger items and next to nothing for all the small stuff.

Good luck & I hope you move it on to a worthy home.

regards

Edited By Oldiron on 22/07/2023 22:56:54

Afraid that it does not help the OP, but I have wondered about this for some time. There is zero interest in the family for making and mending.

One option is to bequeath the contents of one's "shed" to a suitable club or society.

In the classified adverts in the back of Model Engieer magazine are a couple of adds for people who buy complete workshops.

You probably won’t get the best price but it solves a problem.

Hi Stephie,

Sorry to hear about your father's passing. I can still remember having to clear my father's workshop and sell stuff to help pay funeral costs. More than a decade has passed and still I miss him sometimes.

People who clear workshops will offer you a small percentage of the resale value - very small sometiemes depending on the work involved and access but they will (should) clear away every last bit including the junk and take away the bother (and trauma) of having to deal with it yourself. Plainly put, if your father's equipment is worth a few thousand then you can expect a few hundred from a clearance specialist. They run a business and have costs (and profit) to consider.

To get the most money you will need to put in a lot of hours. People like some of the good folks here will help you with valuations or you can check out ebay completed sales but as an individual, and knowing nothing about the equipment, you should not underestimate the time and effort involved in trying to sell it off individually.and then you'll have the mess to clear up at the end (at £300+ for a skip). You will also not know the value of some smaller items which could possibly be equal or greater than the larger ones.

If you still need valuations of some of the equipment, post some pics up.

I was quite lucky that when my grandfather passed away he had left a book with notes on everything, stating to the uninitiated what was of value and what could go to scrap. I plan to do the same for my family.

I would also suggest contacting his model engineering society (assuming he had one). They are usually pretty helpful.

If you post a photo of the steam engine up at some point we can probably identify it, which would help with estimates. Also if he had any large machine tools photos of them might assist, but remain vauge with your location details!

Stephie, I am based in Ilford around the corner. I can have a look and proffer some advice

Thank you all so much for your help.

The engine he was making, he then partly dismantled, I believe due to a part he ad to remake but I could be wrong.

He has lots of material, copper, brass and other metals. He also has some small instruments, these we are not sure exactly what they are used for. Some look like they are almost unused in the their original cases and look like they should be in a museum lol

The shed got into a terrible mess as he got ill, cancer SO is largely untouched for almost 2 years, although we have sorted out quite a bit.

I do realise what time would be needed to sort it as we had a wood shed to do as well with all the equipment. But am not in the position now to list individual items on eBay etc.

I have uploaded some photos of the larger machinery. Hope I've done this correctly.

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/albums/member_album.asp?a=59322

Edited By Stephie Bbutler on 23/07/2023 10:55:31

That would be really appreciated, thank you

You got a lot of nice stuff there Stephie. It might be well worth your while selling stuff off individually even if it does require a bit of effort.

We thought that too. Our problem is there seems to be a lots of tools to go with the m machines and we don't know what is what. Although it is in a mess, it looks like he has kept tools near each machine that go with it, but we are guessing at that.

Stephie, dropped you a private message

Sorry to hear of your loss, Stephie. Eventually it comes to many of us.

Clearing someone's workshop is not easy, even if you are a fellow model engineer. Neither easy, nor quick.

I've been involved, at least twice, and have no wish to do it too often.

Before too long, that task will fall to someone over my workshop and tools, even if I try to make some preparation..

Help from a fellow modeller will be very useful. But sometimes, a device will come to light for which the use is not obvious!

Dealers have to make a living, so what they offer will be less than that for a direct sale.

Seloling through a local M E Club may realise less that expected.

Maybe, listing and phographing everything, and then advertising on the "For Sale" on here, in MEW and ME may be the best way?

Howard

Dave Adkins from Slip 2 Chuck's does clearances. Can be contacted of Facebook.

The machines are worth between 4 & 5k. Typically the 'bits' will be worth about £1k but that is lots of tiny bits at £1 to £5 each so not worth many people's trouble.
Sometimes my club will will provide the advice a former member's family needs for the bigger machines in exchange for having all the little bits. It is less likely that a club of say <50 members will have people wanting larger machines right now but there is always a need for the small items which one naturally builds up a little at a time. The donor is helping the club in memory of a fellow engineer. The club members who put in 10-20 hours sorting stuff out are helping their club.

It would be quite difficult to move the machines with all the bits in the way so it would be best to get a lot of that cleared first. It is difficult to physically get lots of people into a shed so if a club offers to help only allow 2 or max 3 people to turn up not a great crowd. At least one should have been actively using a lathe for some 5 or more years so they can identify the bits that belong together.

Hi Stephie, it's always a problem for those who don't know much about tools and machines, and I do agree that some clubs may be able to help. The machines will be worth the most, but their accessories that go with each of them will give a better price, but maybe harder for you to sort them out. The Warco lathe photo in your post above, looks like a 1327BH from about the mid 1996, which would have cost about £3000.00 back then.

The shed looks to be a bit cluttered up, (a bit like my garage at the moment) which makes it difficult to sort out what goes with which machine, so as Bazyle has said, it would help if it could be sorted out a little, which you will probably need some help with from trustful people that you are likely to find in a good club.

Regards Nick.

Stephie,

I also send my condolences.

I recently emptied my workshop of all but the minimum of machines and their associated tooling and accessories. I didn't want my executors to be left in the situation in which you find yourself. Initially I approached three machine dealers (two advertise in the back of MEW). None were interested in what was on offer. Eventually I advertised the whole lot in the for sale section of this site. It saved entering multiple adverts and directed interested parties to an album in which I posted what was on offer marked with prices. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the prices I advertised them at and received were ridiculously low at about 50% of their probable "real" value. It did mean, however, that the machines sold within two weeks and the purchasers were all (I think) very happy with what they got. Main problem I encountered was the packing of smaller, heavy items and the subsequent delivery of same via courier. I used DPD. They were very efficient, picking up from my front door and delivering on time and in good condition.

Best of luck with the disposal, I hope that it works out well for you.

John

Edited By John Hinkley on 24/07/2023 10:52:31

Edited By John Hinkley on 24/07/2023 10:52:47

Sorry to bother you, Stephanie … I know you must have a lot to do, and it’s not easy.

I sent you a personal message yesterday afternoon.

MichaelG.