That vintage tool restoration trend is overrated - tried it for 6 months and lost my shirt

Last spring I jumped on the bandwagon of restoring old hand planes and saws to sell on Etsy. Everyone in the groups swears by it, says there's good money in bringing old tools back to life. I spent about $800 on old Stanley planes and Disston saws at flea markets around Portland over 3 months. After sanding, flattening, sharpening, and replacing handles, I maybe made $300 total. People want that beat up patina look, not a shiny restored tool. Plus the time sink was brutal - some of those planes took me 4 evenings to get right. Has anyone else found this trend to be a money pit?

2 comments

2 Comments

paige_bell8114d ago

That's the thing with a lot of these "easy money" side hustles right now. People see the top results on Pinterest or Instagram and think it's a simple path to profit, but they don't see the hours of work and the stuff that sits unsold. Same thing happened with people refinishing old furniture, or that whole resin art craze where everyone was making coasters. It's like the market gets flooded overnight with people doing the same thing, and the buyers get really picky about what they actually want. The patina look is a good point too, sometimes restoring something too much takes away the whole charm that made it valuable in the first place. Maybe the real secret is just knowing what people actually want to buy before you sink a bunch of time and money into it.

anthony_jackson3114d ago

My neighbor bought a whole pallet of those flip-flop sandals from the pink drink craze thinking she'd make bank and now they're just sitting in her garage. It's like every time something blows up on social media, everyone jumps in at the same time and the bubble pops before most people even get their stuff listed.