26 Aug Used & Old Tools Are a Great Bargain

Autumn is the season of flea markets and yard sales. It’s an especially good time to pick up old tools at bargain prices — as people are cleaning out their basements and garages. Some homeowners buy a lot of new tools with the best of intentions but then never use those tools, and so they end up selling them off at a yard sale, where everything goes cheap.

I’m really keen on picking up high-end paint brushes (we go through a lot of paint brushes). You can buy them for pennies on the dollar. Ron really likes scraping tools for paint stripping and spatulas for plastering. Recently he picked up a hand sledge and a masonry hammer, each for just $5. The photo below shows you the haul we brought home from last week’s flea market. All of those tools — which included a never-used caulk gun and some vintage (circa 1950) paint scrapers — for $15. You can’t beat it!