Thank you for visiting our Antique & Vintage Tools Wanted page, If you are selling old tools this guide might be of help.
Firstly we are located in Norwich, Norfolk, UK.
What information is important:
Please include our approx location i.e. Nearest City or Town
Send us Group images of the tools, i.e. lay them out on a table or on the floor. Our email is enquiries@tooltique.co.uk
Most people use WhatsApp and send them to 07435963030
Important Message:
We are offered tools every day so as you can appreciate it can take up a lot of time to deal with this side of the business, it might be helpful if I can cut to the chase to save you time and effort.
I run this business how I would like to be treated and as a result I try to be as fair as possible to both buyers and sellers. What I do here requires a lot of time & effort to achieve the finished results for our customers, who are genuinely really nice people.
Likewise, I like dealing with good people when I am looking for tools, who understand the value of the service I provide. I understand when dealing with someone who has retired how hard it is to part with their tools, however, I usually enjoy these visits as we often have a lot in common and usually have some great stories to share.
I also take great care when dealing with a spouse or relative who may reluctantly need to part with a loved one’s tools, It always helps when they understand the efforts made to ensure those tools will eventually find good new homes and live on in someone else’s caring hands.
What I’m usually after is good tool kits or tool collections.
We get many inquiries from people who sadly live too far away from us and what tools they do have, don’t warrant the time and costs involved in visiting them. Sometimes they might have something good, so I try my best with the postage route or if a collection is fair/good we alternatively ask whether they would like to visit us instead.
The sellers I avoid:
The people who have done some online research and apparently know more about my business than myself. These people usually want top eBay prices, often higher than we can sell them for, but don’t want to do the work themselves by selling them on eBay! Once upon a time, I gave these people the benefit of the doubt, but their manner on the phone and in emails usually stands out a mile. Hassen to say, Joanne never passes their details on to me anymore.
We are very busy refurbishing tools which takes a great deal of time and work to make sure all the tools are ready to use.
Those we often can’t help.
Ebayers who want help with the identification and values of tools. We are working 7 days a week and simply do not have the time to do their research for them.
Others may have a few old tools that they didn’t want to throw in the skip, so thought they might as well give us a call. More often than not the tools shouldn’t ever be thrown away, but hold little value other than to cover postage. We can advise and help if we can and are always honest with people.
Generally, we don’t buy single items unless they are rare and the seller can put a price on it, that they are happy to accept.
I do not make firm offers on photographs alone, due to the chances of unseen issues/damages with the tools.
Final Note:
It’s not easy doing what I do for a living, It’s not a highly-paid self-employed job, but one I really enjoy, especially now I have refined the processes of making these old tools sing again. It’s the satisfaction of doing a good job for people who put them to good use and who also want to do a good job for others. We love what we do here.
It saves on waste, cuts down carbon emissions to produce new tools, and all the shipping pollution that’s also involved. I appreciate this may not be important to everyone but waste is probably one of the biggest issues the world faces in the future as there isn’t an endless supply of resources.
Thanks for reading this page, I hope it helped.
Kind Regards Steve & Joanne