Buying and selling vintage tools online is difficult. Unless you have the right pictures at the right angles, you'll have no idea what to expect. When it comes to older tools, often they've been sitting in garages or barns for a time, they've been manhandled, forgotten, and abused. All of that can be difficult to condense into a description to sell online, so it can be helpful to come up with a 'grading scale' to use for these old tools. Things that have been better kept are worth more, but keep in mind that we are not collectors asking collector prices. We use these tools on a near-daily basis and teach all of our students to do the same, and our pricing is heavily based on usability. We won't sell a tool that we don't believe can be used.

Below you will find the Fine Tool Journal's classification system. We try to abide by it.