Hit 50 vintage tool listings this week and I'm just tired

Logan Baker · 2026-05-06T01:15:05.470007+00:00

I sell stuff at the local flea market on weekends. Been tracking how many old tools I list each week. This week I hit 50 listings and it barely made me 80 bucks. All that cleaning and photographing for pocket change. Anyone else feel like the effort doesn't match the payoff anymore?

taylor.paige5mo ago

Read a piece online the other day about how the vintage tool market is getting flooded with people doing the same thing. Everyone thinks it's easy money, but the buyers are picky and the stuff sits forever. 50 listings for 80 bucks sounds about right. The real problem is the time spent scrubbing rust and getting good photos, that's the part nobody talks about. You might have better luck bundling the cheaper tools together and selling them as a lot. Or focus on the higher end brands like Snap-on and older Stanley, those still move for decent money. The market for common rusted wrenches and hammers is just dead right now.

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the_jordan5mo ago

Nah I gotta disagree. The market aint dead, youre just selling the wrong stuff. I focus on the weird old tools nobody else bothers with like specialty braces or obscure plane makers and those still pull decent money. 50 listings for 80 bucks means youre listing a lot of junk nobody wants.

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wendy724mo ago

Fifty listings for eighty bucks doesn't sound like a crisis, just a rough week at a flea market.

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