whats up with rolling tool carts and prices?

allen levine

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new york city burbs
What makes a rolling tool cart worth 8000 dollars?
Does it boost the owners ego?
I bought a cart used for 200 bucks from a guy who rebuilds old autos for fun, sports cars, and he said hes never paid more than 600 dollars for a tool box.(maybe he told me 800, but it wasnt more than a thousand)
He sold me his old sears cart
Ive also seen some of the most talented craftsmen/mechanics I know use old paint buckets to hold their very expensive top of the line hand tools.
Are tool carts as addicting as tools?
But 6, 7 grand? Wow.
I see guys posting on craigs list, used carts that look banged up, and they are asking 3 -4 thousand saying they paid 6 or 7 new. Its a 4 foot tool cart that is waist high with 14 drawers or so. Is it lined with gold? How much could a good ball bearing slide cost?
 
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I can see where guys get hung up on them. I only have one of the cheap larger HF tool box stacks. I'd like to have 5 more of them just to organize all the stuff I have from A to Z. Have had good luck with it and could buy the other 5 for what some guys pay for just one. :dunno:
 
The neighbor across the street use to be a Snap-On tool salesman. He's got a huge Snap-On anniversary edition tool chest, painted in '50s era T-bird turquoise with black pinstriping and an airbrushed painting (probably a decal) on the inside of the lid. I don't remember what he said the retail price of it was, but he said the only reason he owned his was because he got it at a deep discount. Still, apparently there are some guys who are willing to fork out the cash for things like a fancy toolbox.
 
I agree it's crazy to spend several thousand, but if your opening the drawers 5-6 days a week , 100 or more times a day you need something better than the Craftsman I have. Mine is a 2 years old(?) and I have a draw slide that is already sticking sometimes. I can image everyday use by a mechanic would have worn it out by now.

But how is this any different than woodworkers with a garage full of 'upgraded' tools they barely use?
 
I agree Allen, on both points. I see a LOT of spending that I don't understand or agree with. A lot wood butchers have a lot of expensive tools they rarely use. Probably totals up pretty close.

But it is not my money.
 
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do the 5000$ price include all of the hand tools
I forgot to ask my doctor what his tool box-cabinet cost
 
If you use a tool box for a living it's a little different than your home garage. Most of the industrial duty boxes like that you can stand in adrawer and not hurt it. When you open the drawers 50x a day too, you need a lot heavier duty box to hold up through the years.

I work in a steel mill and we have some pretty big equipment and tools. It's not uncommon to have 40 lb wrenches to install something. Socket sets go up to to 5", some impacts probalby weigh 100 lbs each. Most of the mechanics out here have $5-10k tool boxes (box alone, no tools). I've seen some people get the $500-1000 sears type boxes and they're usually garbage in a couple years.

So yeah there's a real reason for them and a market for heavy duty roll arounds. I don't think many people need them at home, but if it makes you happy and you got the money, why not. As for the price, it's a mixture of better materials and a much smaller production quantity.
 
I so lucked out a couple of years ago. The company I work for auctioned off their "old" tool boxes. I placed two bids on two boxes and got them both for $50! You can put a truck on these boxes and not scratch them.

Our mechanics and techs put very heavy tools in them and the one's I bought required a pick-up to get home. I painted them up and now my sons are fighting over who gets which one when I die.

As in most things in life, you get what you pay for - and I paid $50!
 
Jeff and Jeb bring up good points. To a guy who uses one day in and day out, the toolbox is just another tool. May as well be a good one. And I also see what Jeb is saying about the cost...better materials and smaller production runs mean higher costs to the consumer.
 
Well can you imagine, some boneheads spend about $5000 on a table saw.... A freaking TABLESAW..... :eek:


(OK, mine cost me $5400..... :D )

Pride of ownership may be involved i the saw but the safety features alone could more than pay for that one in a single "duh" moment...
I probably haven't ran my saw 30 minutes in the last two years and still think I ought to get one. Of course I have a brother that had the "duh" moment on a RAS so I can see the result every time we visit... And he was lucky..

But when you look at the numbers they are real close..

500.00 dollars for a good craftsman tool box or table saw....
5000 dollars for a top of the line tool box or table saw....Of course I think we save a grand or two on shipping for the saw here..
 
Pride of ownership may be involved i the saw but the safety features alone could more than pay for that one in a single "duh" moment...
I probably haven't ran my saw 30 minutes in the last two years and still think I ought to get one. Of course I have a brother that had the "duh" moment on a RAS so I can see the result every time we visit... And he was lucky..

But when you look at the numbers they are real close..

500.00 dollars for a good craftsman tool box or table saw....
5000 dollars for a top of the line tool box or table saw....Of course I think we save a grand or two on shipping for the saw here..

Yes, you are correct.

Also that was in Canadian dollars and I got the saw when it was VERY low compared to the Yen. Shipping, all in was about $1850

:wave:
 
OK guys,
here's a comparison for you. As you know I'm tooling up my studio currently. I have a decent 'prosumer' camera Nikon D300S with a zoom lens (will let me do most shots at a wedding for example as is) Street price on that combination is $2600 new.

I also have a Mamiya RB67 which I bought Used 14 yrs ago, at the time I ponied up about $5000 for it. I used it every working day for 4 yrs straight, and it is still a Fine medium format film camera. At the time that camera New would have been about $10,000 with the lenses etc. that I have (three, plus a spare body, and different viewfinder).

Currently if I were to step up to a New Digital Mamiya, in order to be digital and have the same lens quality etc... I can go one of two ways:

Digital Back (which includes propietary software for image processing etc...) $4500 to 6000, which would simply replace the film back on the RB67. I would get something in the range of 20 Megapixels out of it and have an excellent Studio camera.

A New Mamiya Digital camera with the same software etc... and requiring new glass (lenses) would run me approximately $10,000 to $15,000. and I could use that just about anywhere that I can use my Nikon.

And let's not get into the bigger/better Nikon game my 'next step' nikon the D700s is $3000, uses the same glass I have now (or will buy in the 'near future') has a better sensor than my current body, but even that isn't the next 'better' body... for that I have to pony up $5000 to get the D3 which is pretty much the industry standard for wedding and event photography.

SO it comes down to how much do you want to pay to get the Tools that you are going to use day in day out for your job.

And oh by the way, None of said cameras listed above come with a case. I'll have to shell out another couple of bills for a new hard case when the time comes most likely, and keep the case I have now for my current camera.

the $5000 rolling tool carts take a ton of abuse and keep on protecting their multi thousand dollar contents.
 
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