billjustbill
Bronze Member
- #1
Thread Owner
Before heading to Mickey D's for breakfast biscuits at the end of going to all the local garage sales listed for Saturday, I stopped at one about 1/10 of mile from the county airport. It's almost 10:30 a.m. and I'm seeing a garage sale of 'what's left'... On a table was this open box displaying a specialized hand tool. It would come along with the biggest "Tool Tale" of the month.
As I opened the cardboard box wider, to the naked eye one would think it's a new hand tool. It was marked $50.00, but the seller-feller' said, "It's my sister's, but I'll take $25 for her." I thought I'd ask him what it was.... Contrary to older sellers and their slower way of being purely honest, the middle aged seller said, "She used it to go hunting diamonds in Arkansas. The morning she was there, it had rained the night before and a young boy found a HUGE diamond after the rain stopped. It was on the news. She bought that thing at the diamond mine and used it there, but not very much....." His voice was as smooth tongued as flowing honey; one would think tone of his words were coming out of the Gospel. All the while his voice was flowing, my eyes are scanning the whole tool, and other than some light surface scuff marks on the spray sealer covering the sharpened cutting edge, there are no eye-catching signs of it being used. The wooden handle isn't sealed and there isn't a trace of staining from just laying in "Diamond Dirt", much less scratches or scaring in the cutter head's black paint or on the unfinished, bare, and thick stocky wooden handle......
I put it back in the box, quickly flipped it over to see the seller's bold black "$50.00" price marked on it, and laid it back on the table.... About 3 or 4 minutes passed and I'm gradually remembering where I'd seen that brand name. I slowly began to recognize the brand name, because a long time back, I found a set of wood carving chisels and a newer draw knife with the "Pfiel" brand name. Just before another fellow picked it up and I was walking away, I remembered enough to turn around and asked if he would take "Fifteen for it?" The seller said, "Well, let me go ask her." As he came out of the house door, the other fellow is still holding the item and he asked, "How Much?" The seller said, "I'd have to have $20 for it, but the other fellow said he'd pay $15...." Then, the seller looked up at me and in a rather defensive tone, he said, "I have to get as much as I can....."
The fellow holding the item put it back into the cardboard box and shakes his head "No".. So, the seller takes the cardboard box from him and says, "Well, I guess it's yours...." I did walk up to the table rather fast as I was pulling out my wallet. I paid him, smiled, and said "Thank you."
On the way to the pickup, the seller's tall tale of a digging tool used to hunt diamonds still echoes in my mind. With rain clouds coming in from ihe West, I'm seeing a small white tag with fine print below the seller's bold price marked on the box....It's a Woodcraft store's price sticker:
Buy pfeil Swiss made Curved Head Adze at Woodcraft
Almost rained out, it's not the best weekend of treasure finds, but I found something I didn't have, and the weekend was both a profitable one and one ending with a unique Tall Texas Tale.....
As I opened the cardboard box wider, to the naked eye one would think it's a new hand tool. It was marked $50.00, but the seller-feller' said, "It's my sister's, but I'll take $25 for her." I thought I'd ask him what it was.... Contrary to older sellers and their slower way of being purely honest, the middle aged seller said, "She used it to go hunting diamonds in Arkansas. The morning she was there, it had rained the night before and a young boy found a HUGE diamond after the rain stopped. It was on the news. She bought that thing at the diamond mine and used it there, but not very much....." His voice was as smooth tongued as flowing honey; one would think tone of his words were coming out of the Gospel. All the while his voice was flowing, my eyes are scanning the whole tool, and other than some light surface scuff marks on the spray sealer covering the sharpened cutting edge, there are no eye-catching signs of it being used. The wooden handle isn't sealed and there isn't a trace of staining from just laying in "Diamond Dirt", much less scratches or scaring in the cutter head's black paint or on the unfinished, bare, and thick stocky wooden handle......
I put it back in the box, quickly flipped it over to see the seller's bold black "$50.00" price marked on it, and laid it back on the table.... About 3 or 4 minutes passed and I'm gradually remembering where I'd seen that brand name. I slowly began to recognize the brand name, because a long time back, I found a set of wood carving chisels and a newer draw knife with the "Pfiel" brand name. Just before another fellow picked it up and I was walking away, I remembered enough to turn around and asked if he would take "Fifteen for it?" The seller said, "Well, let me go ask her." As he came out of the house door, the other fellow is still holding the item and he asked, "How Much?" The seller said, "I'd have to have $20 for it, but the other fellow said he'd pay $15...." Then, the seller looked up at me and in a rather defensive tone, he said, "I have to get as much as I can....."
The fellow holding the item put it back into the cardboard box and shakes his head "No".. So, the seller takes the cardboard box from him and says, "Well, I guess it's yours...." I did walk up to the table rather fast as I was pulling out my wallet. I paid him, smiled, and said "Thank you."
On the way to the pickup, the seller's tall tale of a digging tool used to hunt diamonds still echoes in my mind. With rain clouds coming in from ihe West, I'm seeing a small white tag with fine print below the seller's bold price marked on the box....It's a Woodcraft store's price sticker:
Buy pfeil Swiss made Curved Head Adze at Woodcraft
Almost rained out, it's not the best weekend of treasure finds, but I found something I didn't have, and the weekend was both a profitable one and one ending with a unique Tall Texas Tale.....
