Wasted trip

[gibsontool]

Been in Los Vegas for a while visiting friends and cruising around a little,took a trip down to Quartzsite Arizona where they have a big flea market. I have been there before and had found some nice stuff but this trip was a bust, prices were high and there just didn't seem to be much in the way of worthwhile older tools. A lot of the stuff sits outside exposed for months on end and in one particular case the seller had a bench of about 20 or 25 planes and he said many had been there for years. It rains very little there but after that length of time those planes are in very poor condition. He had  an original box from a Stanley 55 which was about 3/4 full of various cutters and plane parts that had no lid on it, it wasn't a solid clump of rust but it wasn't far from it. The box and the parts were something I would have bought had they been in better shape. It's sad that hard to find stuff like that gets treated that way.

[john k]

Seen the same thing up here.  Dealer leaves boxes and buckets of tools outside.  Watched a guy set up, and literally poured 5 gallons of rusty water mixed with tools onto the table.  Made you want to gag, with all the insect carcasses in there.  There was a flea market like yours, where the dealers could leave things sit from month to month.   Not much, or no cover, rust all over, and they couldn't understand why sales were down.  We do get some rain in Nebraska. 

[EVILDR235]

Same thing at our favorite flea market. It starts raining and people just let their stuff get wet and then they wonder when people don't buy their valuable stuff.

EvilDr235