The nicest tool you left on the table?

[john k]

Wandering through a flea market, tool auction, or tool event, I have on occasion drooled over an item, only to pull myself away telling self I don't need it, or already have something similar.  But when back in the truck or on the road that darn piece of iron or brass or wood sticks in the mind.  Won't leave you in peace at all, even gone back to see if it was still there, and it never is.   How many have left something that really *spoke* to them, on the table?

[Papaw]

Many a time I have done so to my own chagrin! Usually it is money or ignorance that keeps me from buying.

[RedVise]

If you are thinking about it that evening, you know should have bought it home with you ...

From the below post, I looked at that wrench a couple of times, I finally got smart and bought it home with me.
Now, it is one of my faves.

"an 18" monkey wrench I have been looking at for a month"
http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=3041.msg18290#msg18290


Brian L.

[oldtools]

nice 18" wrench, looks like mine with new scales, it is one of my faves also... but heavy..

[HeelSpur]

A McCormick Deering yard stick.
Went to a flea market with only a few dollars in my pocket and it was one of the first items that I saw so I figured I'd look around and pick it up on my way out.
It was gone, I'm still kicking myself to this day.

[Papaw]

Maybe not the nicest, but one that almost got away. This story tells the cunning of one of our members, Lynn Dowd. As you should know, Lynn and his wife run a twice a year sale at their place in Garland, Texas, and Lynn knows my urges to collect H D Smith tools.
Maybe my second trip there, my wife was with me and Lynn put a fine example of the H D Smith Triple Lever Screwdriver in my hand. I knew it was going to cost me and the wife was not pleased about spending a lot of money at that time, so I didn't take it home.
I missed the opportunity that day to have one of the tools I really wanted!
As it happened, I did make their next sale ( without my wife) and Lynn went to a back room and brought out that screwdriver as soon as I arrived. I carried it around all day and did buy it before going home. You can see it in the far right pocket of this tool roll pictured below.
 
Perfect Handle Tool Roll by Noel C. Hankamer, on Flickr

[Branson]

The Sebastapol flea market turns up very interesting things.  Last Spring I came across a pre-1870 Spear & Jackson rip saw.  Since I do Civil War reenactments as an artificer, I was drooling.  But I found it as I was walking out with only $5 in my pocket.  The guy wanted $10, firm.   I had to leave it behind.  I was complaining to my wife about having to leave it (no ATM at the flea market) and she said she thought we could drive back to Santa Rosa to an ATM...  An hour later, we were back.  The seller was packing up to leave, but I waved the $10 at him and he unpacked it.  Whew!

Another time, somebody had three genuine African masks.  The real thing (I really like masks!).   They were really cheap -- $25 to #45 -- but no ATM.
I had to leave them.  But I educated the fellow on their  potential value (somewhere between $150 and $500) and told him where he could sell them in San Francisco.   Still wish I could have picked them up.

[scottg]

 This is a rather cruel thread for me. I gasp to remember what I've left behind.
All my life I have had the knack of being at the right place, at the right time (natural born scrounge)
          but with no money. 
 
  I have seen so much stuff, from Oklahoma to California.
  Yard sales, swap meets, junk shops and antique shops.  I have had regular reserved spaces at swap meets where I shopped yard sales and sold at the meet. I was first customer at innumerable yard sales (when the best deals of all happen) and I was at the swap meet, in the dark, for dealer setup time.
  I had a junk shop of my own. I have put unmentionable miles on old wreck cars and trucks traveling and looking. I go to swap meets and junk shops on vacation! My truck engine fails to run in the presence of a yard sale sign. It simply won't move!~

  I was wanting/trying to collect tools before hardy anyone collected tools, and prices were for dirt.
   But never cheap enough for me. 

   Oh I always came home with something. There was always some little goodie I could afford. I have hundreds, maybe thousands of cool little things to show for my life.
 But the auction catalog cover tools, or anything I could sell for more than a few hundred each?

 I saw them alright. All for sale, and for a fraction of their true value.
  But bring them home and call them my own?
       Slim to none, is my lifetime record.

 Now you know why I began to make tools from scratch.  It was the only way I could have anything great.
     yours Scott
 

[Ken W.]

I passed up a Snap On 3/4 drive ratchet head and the screw on handle for $50.00 because the guy selling it was such a jerk. He told me not to pick it up unless I was serious about buying it. I was not in the best of moods that day having to follow my then girlfriend around this flea market looking at wicker baskets and carrying a pile of them.  So I told him where to go. I should have just paid for it and left. Oh well. Now , if I see a tool that I know I should take home I do not hesitate unless I have no cash.

[fflintstone]

I passed up a Snap On 3/4 drive ratchet head and the screw on handle for $50.00 because the guy selling it was such a jerk. He told me not to pick it up unless I was serious about buying it. I was not in the best of moods that day having to follow my then girlfriend around this flea market looking at wicker baskets and carrying a pile of them.  So I told him where to go. I should have just paid for it and left. Oh well. Now , if I see a tool that I know I should take home I do not hesitate unless I have no cash.

NO! jerks can keep their stuff. I dont loose sleep over it.

[HeelSpur]

I passed up a Snap On 3/4 drive ratchet head and the screw on handle for $50.00 because the guy selling it was such a jerk. He told me not to pick it up unless I was serious about buying it. I was not in the best of moods that day having to follow my then girlfriend around this flea market looking at wicker baskets and carrying a pile of them.  So I told him where to go. I should have just paid for it and left. Oh well. Now , if I see a tool that I know I should take home I do not hesitate unless I have no cash.

That reminds me of a guy who had a small old school bell for sale and my buddy was interested in it. On both sides there was some dark areas with some brassy color showing thru. I told my buddy it looked like it was brazed at one time and he started touching the area and the owner bought came unglued. Hollowering about how old it was and don't be picking at it. There was definitely an attempt to cover a fix and we spotted it, guess he didn't like that.

[Wrenchmensch]

I used to hit the Sunday "flaumarkt" at the Schaumankai in Frankfurt am Main whenever I went to Germany on business. There were always all kinds of pickers there, and a wealth of things not seen in American flea markets.  One Sunday, I met a Polish fellow who regularly drove down from Gdansk with items to sell at the Schaumankai.  This time he had a clock off a Soviet submarine.  It was a beaut, alive with Soviet decoration and affordable.  My abiding interest being in wrenches, I passed on the clock.  When I went back the next time, a year or so later, my Polish friend had no Soviet sub clocks.  That time, I found a 19th c. French carriage wrench 8 1/4-inches in length. It was stamped "19", Tout Acier (all steel), and Goldenberg (probably the Alsatian manufacturer's name). 

[1930]

I passed up a Snap On 3/4 drive ratchet head and the screw on handle for $50.00 because the guy selling it was such a jerk. He told me not to pick it up unless I was serious about buying it. I was not in the best of moods that day having to follow my then girlfriend around this flea market looking at wicker baskets and carrying a pile of them.  So I told him where to go. I should have just paid for it and left. Oh well. Now , if I see a tool that I know I should take home I do not hesitate unless I have no cash.

NO! jerks can keep their stuff. I dont loose sleep over it.

Amen to that

[amertrac]

ONE OF THE LAST TRIPS TO A FLEA MARKET ,I SAW AN ATHOL 5 INCH ADJUSTABLE WRENCH.IT WAS IN NEAR PERFECT CONDITION. I PICKED IT UP AND IT FIT MY HAND . THE PRICE WAS 30 DOLLARS . I LEFT THE TABLE WITHOUT THE WRENCH. THOUGHT ABOUT IT WHILE I WALKED AROUND  . WENT BACK TO BUY IT AND IT WAS GONE BEEN KICKING MY SELF EVER SINCE
  BOB W.

[Batz]

I was looking at a very nice torch on ebay earlier this year, this was a special torch, unused and still in the original box. I had decided then and there I was going to own this torch.
Now it just happened that it was only a week or so until my birthday and my son was home for a visit, he walked past me and looked at the computer.
All my family get a laugh at me looking at blow torches, he looked and said "hey you want me to buy that for your birthday?"
Of course I did and I watched in anticipation as the bidding ended, I was so happy as it finished at least $30.00 less than I would have paid.
I did not know my sons ebay name but I was sure he had bought it at that price. He later told me he had forgotten to bid on it...I've never seen another one like it.  :(