Average used axe/hatchet prices in your region

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gben

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Here in NorthWest Pennsylvania at garage-sales, estate-sales and junk-shops the average price of an old USA-made axe/hatchet head is about $3-$4, figured from buying dozens of axes or just axe-heads over the last 5-10 years.

I started this thread because I keep seeing people asking about what new axe they should by for $100 give or take, and I just can't wrap my head around it. I am sure some people spend hundreds on a new axe, and I am sure none of them are any better quality than the many axe heads that can be had laying around for pocket-change.

So maybe in many parts of the country, North America or the planet old axe heads are hard to find and are much more expensive than in my region. If you have any data for your area please post it up. Thank-you.
 
a lot
i barely get them anymore, it's easier to hit up estate sales cause they dont give a crap about some old axe head you found under a trailer, or in a wood pile.
at flea markets its usually 15-35 and that sucks.
the only times recently iv spent more than 10 on an axe it was 25 for a kentucky spiller last year, 15 on a flint edge that was barely used. and 25 for a kelly perfect on a good handle and with barely any use. the market's dying off soon, we're at peak price right now and the only thing keeping the prices up is the sellers that dont know what's actually going on. there are keen kutters in meh condition going for ridiculous prices at swap meets. i'v seen modern collins axes from the 90's marked at 35.

for us that stay in the hobby it'll be great in a few more years, all the value in our junk is gonna go down but i think we all knew we'd never sell the stuff we kept anyway. it's "worth" 80 bucks now, but nobody's gonna buy it for 80 and you're sure as hell aint gonna sell it cause you got an $80 axe for a killer deal and are never gonna pay for another one
 
I don't have the time or fortitude to go to yard sales, so I'm sure I'm missing out on deals. antique stores around here generally have worn out heads that aren't anything special to begin with priced at $15 - $50. occasionally there will be a semi-gem mixed in that are worth the asking price, and I've picked up a couple that I didn't feel too bad about.
 
I am in north central Kansas. You cannot find axes in my area - flea markets, antique stores, garage sales - I never have any luck and have had to resort to the bay. I took a brief respite from acquiring new heads for a while - too busy at work and home but want to start looking - have given a number of what I have picked up and refurbished/re-handled away and need to replenish. In answer to your question, I don't have the slightest idea. I did find what I initially thought was a gold mine - was at an antique store close to home and found a box of heads. I started looking at the prices - they had been worked over - poorly - and were ranging from 100.00 to 150.00 each. You would typically see them on the bay for 15.00-30.00. Ouch.
 
SteveWest, I can understand Kansas being short on tools, isn't most of it open and flat for farming and grazing? What part of the country are Flint77 and phantomknives from?

I can see how my being in Penn's Woods would mean lots of old axes laying around, as one of it's industries has always been logging, plus it is one of the 13 original states so it has had industry and steel production before the rest of the country. A lot of the East and North are covered with trees, and the Midwest, South and SouthWest are more barren to barren so I can see wood tools being scarce in those areas. Then again, in areas that are more barren the demand for old or any axe today would have to be low, I guess people in those areas must have other things to collect that the population in their areas did use daily, cultivating and cattle tools maybe?
 
Makes since Pennsylvania being full of axes had more than a couple big mfgrs.In Minnesota and have found all kind the majority of the old ones have been beat all to hell,no toe left types.Come across more than a couple from i believe the 60s and 70s that have never been used.Any shop besides goodwill wants internet prices and the local net stuff is flooded with people selling rehandled stuff for a150.Following sale signs and buying other stuff off craigslist,like tool boxes and grinders has been my best deals.5 and 10 dollar axes are pretty common at the sales i have seen.
 
There is such a large variety of axes and the price range is equally large so the “average price for an axe” is hard to say but it strays well out of the $3-4 range.
I was offered $1000 for an axe in my collection a couple weeks ago that I had paid $400 for when I got it. As generous as the offer was, I could not bring myself to let it go.

If we are just looking at the “average” axe and calling that something like a
a late 1970’s or 80’s decent maker with a plain stamp then the price in the NW is pretty consistent with other regions.... I was at a consignment shop the other day when I picked up that 4lb Sub Zero swamper for $20 and he had plenty of other $10-25 axes but he also had the best condition Weed broadaxe I have ever seen priced at $195.
Sure you can get an unmarked Kelly or Collins for $5 at a garage sale.

I’m attempting to be a little selective about what I collect, trying not to buy a bunch of cheap axes just to have crates of steel slabs. But sometimes I think this may be an errant decision and I’ll live to regret not buying everyone I find and stockpiling them all. o_O
 
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stevewest said:
I am in north central Kansas. You cannot find axes in my area - flea markets, antique stores, garage sales - I never have any luck and have had to resort to the bay. I took a brief respite from acquiring new heads for a while - too busy at work and home but want to start looking - have given a number of what I have picked up and refurbished/re-handled away and need to replenish. In answer to your question, I don't have the slightest idea. I did find what I initially thought was a gold mine - was at an antique store close to home and found a box of heads. I started looking at the prices - they had been worked over - poorly - and were ranging from 100.00 to 150.00 each. You would typically see them on the bay for 15.00-30.00. Ouch.
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Keep your eye on Craigslist. There is a guy that pops up every couple months up by Manhattan that sells them for $4-$5. It is too far for me too drive, but it drives me insane seeing them on there. I travel a lot, so I keep an eye on CL wherever I pass through. Unfortunately the timing has not lined up for me yet.
 
They range...$5-$20....then once the stamp is recognized and or recognized to be something more than just a tool for sale...the prices go up.

I dont feel the values we hold will decrease, nor do i feel prices are dropping. We as collectors and user collectors still need to get to saturation point. When supply doesnt meet demand, and prices sky rocket...we are not there yet. In My Humble Opinion.
 
$5-$250, though the ones at the high end are usually things like broad axes being sold by people who think they have the moon, and I suspect they don't sell often at that price, if at all. Condition varies wildly, as do the prices. It's always a crapshoot. You have to be thrice lucky to find a good deal: once that you find axes at all, twice that what you find is in good condition, and thrice that it's at a fair price.
 
I hardly ever find anything at yardsales around here in my rural part of norcal, but at my nearest swap meet prices seem to be between $5 and $30.

Last weekend I picked up a plumb scout style hatchet for $5, while someone else wanted $15 for a rusty estwing sportsman that i didn't pay.
There was a bunch of beat and worn no name half hatchets and riggers axes that i didn't even bother to ask about, and one guy had about 4 axes i didn't bother to ask about either.
Knowing what he wanted for everything else I'm sure he wanted too much or I might have considered something.
A couple worn out no names, a decent shape late collins Michigan DB, and a worn 80's Collins commander DB which I spotted a mile away.
Nothing decent in a good enough condition for me and no boys axes or cruisers so I didn't even bother to ask.
 
Yardsales are the bargains around here but you have to go to so many to find anything good. Estate used to be great until sellers realized people wanted axes and started checking prices. You can still get an OK deal at an estate sale if you show up early. But it ain't like it used to be. Perfects and Flint Edges used to be $5 a piece. Now they're 25 or 30 or more.
 
Nice to have all the input, but some of you need to edit your post and let people know what part of the world you are in?

I feel sorry for the guys who are in dry parts of the country or world who just want an axe, maul or hatchet to use but can't find them in their area, that sucks.

I am sure that almost any axe ever made is of good enough quality to be a very, very useful tool, so I am not picky about what I buy, if it can be had for pocket change then I will usually buy it if I have room to store it, if it has some interesting marking on it that is just a bonus, not a deal breaker.
 
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Today for $4 I bought a broad hatchet marked "C. Hammond, Phila, Cast Steel", which is a perfectly typical price for any old hand-tool at an estate sale on the south-shore of Lake Erie.
 
Sorry in advance if this is long winded.

I purchased 40 year old Plumb axes in that are still in good working condition for $5-$25 at Estate sales in upstate NY, and newly made $100+ Hulta Fors axes. The situations/locations that determine the pricing span the breath of purpose from being tools, collectors items, and someones junk (if they don't even have trees or have garage with an electric chainsaw). The pricing differences of the axes between the old and the new axes have very little to do the quality of the materials but more to do with differences in productions costs and material costs from one point in time versus another.

Collecting old tools / axe heads are surely an effort of passion and regard for a period of time and the tool itself. In the times of chainsaws and massive tree removing machines, the demand/need for a high quality Axe at low price is less in favor for the mainstream axe consumer market. So what you mostly see is low quality functional blocks poorly heat treated axes at your big box shops used to do minor construction chores and gardening, and the other part of the production scale are higher quality axes for over $100 for those that appreciate a tool that is purposefully made to last a lifetime to which they MAY or may not use regularly depending on where they are located #bringinthehipster with skinny jeans and sporting the well groomed Abe Lincoln beards!

I think if I spent the time to restore the $5-15 dollar axes, they'd surely fetch 5-10x what I paid for them, in general, but I still have to keep in mind how much time I actually had to spend on restoring such items, and that is also part of the value and cost to it. So in this regard, the $100 hultafors isn't so crazy price wise comparatively speaking, unless you're someone that still works with tools and maintains their own tools regularly, and in this regard maintaining and restoring the tools is just part of usage and ownership.
 
Tony_001 said:
I think if I spent the time to restore the $5-15 dollar axes, they'd surely fetch 5-10x what I paid for them, in general, but I still have to keep in mind how much time I actually had to spend on restoring such items, and that is also part of the value and cost to it. So in this regard, the $100 hultafors isn't so crazy price wise comparatively speaking,
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Part false-equivalency, part assumption. Not all axes and hatches made from WWII into the 1970s that can be bought for a few dollars need you to "restore" them for them to be put to work. I have bought dozens of axes and hatches of high quality, and I include the common True-Temper woodslasher and Plumb, Mann, Collins etc. products, for a few dollars each that needed nothing done to them at all.

That was my reason for starting this thread in the first place, because at least in my area of the USA it makes Zero sense to buy any new axe or hatchet if you need one for practical reasons. But if someone lives in a part of the USA or the planet Earth where old tools are not laying around to be had very cheaply, then the premium they have to pay for a used axe after a dealer/picker makes a profit on it and they pay for shipping would put the vintage axe on equal footing in cost to a new axe.

I still would doubt that ANY newly manufactured axe is any better than the cheapest common True Temper product that was sold from WWII into the 1970s.
 
gben said:
Part false-equivalency, part assumption. Not all axes and hatches made from WWII into the 1970s that can be bought for a few dollars need you to "restore" them for them to be put to work. I have bought dozens of axes and hatches of high quality, and I include the common True-Temper woodslasher and Plumb, Mann, Collins etc. products, for a few dollars each that needed nothing done to them at all.

That was my reason for starting this thread in the first place, because at least in my area of the USA it makes Zero sense to buy any new axe or hatchet if you need one for practical reasons. But if someone lives in a part of the USA or the planet Earth where old tools are not laying around to be had very cheaply, then the premium they have to pay for a used axe after a dealer/picker makes a profit on it and they pay for shipping would put the vintage axe on equal footing in cost to a new axe.

I still would doubt that ANY newly manufactured axe is any better than the cheapest common True Temper product that was sold from WWII into the 1970s.
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I'm speaking in general terms, so I'm not making any verdict of equivalency, just assumptions yes. Heck, if axes are so readily available of this type of condition, quality, and price maybe you can sell some some to us for a sweet deal I don't be a fool pay $100 dollars for this new garbage.
 
Tony_001 said:
Heck, if axes are so readily available of this type of condition, quality, and price maybe you can sell some some to us for a sweet deal I don't be a fool pay $100 dollars for this new garbage.
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Apparently how it goes is that different things are cheap in different parts of the USA and the entire planet, and where you live is going to dictate what you can buy cheaply and what you have to pay a premium for.

If I lived in an area that had no old axes and hatchets cheaply, then I would not own more than I could use, I would have one maul, one axe and one hatchet, and maybe not even all of those, and I would probably be collecting whatever WAS cheap in my area. It makes sense for everyone to participate in whatever they can locally.

I have given many dozens of old tools away to people, even shipped them hundreds and thousands of miles away, but I can not spend all of my time saving the world because someone living in a desert has decided they want to collect axes. If they needed one for practical purposes or survival I would be sympathetic, but I could care less about those who need to collect something expensive so they can participate in a fashion trend.

The other option is trading with someone in a different region and exchanging what is abundant in each area, so figure out whatever is laying around your part of the world that can be had for little or no money that is fashionable in another part of the world and do some trading. So tell us, what does your area have in abundance that other areas do not?
 
gben said:
Apparently how it goes is that different things are cheap in different parts of the USA and the entire planet, and where you live is going to dictate what you can buy cheaply and what you have to pay a premium for.

If I lived in an area that had no old axes and hatchets cheaply, then I would not own more than I could use, I would have one maul, one axe and one hatchet, and maybe not even all of those, and I would probably be collecting whatever WAS cheap in my area. It makes sense for everyone to participate in whatever they can locally.

I have given many dozens of old tools away to people, even shipped them hundreds and thousands of miles away, but I can not spend all of my time saving the world because someone living in a desert has decided they want to collect axes. If they needed one for practical purposes or survival I would be sympathetic, but I could care less about those who need to collect something expensive so they can participate in a fashion trend.

The other option is trading with someone in a different region and exchanging what is abundant in each area, so figure out whatever is laying around your part of the world that can be had for little or no money that is fashionable in another part of the world and do some trading. So tell us, what does your area have in abundance that other areas do not?
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In NJ I see abundance of Disston hand saws vs non-existent Atkins ones
No problem finding hammers or hammer heads. Got too many Braces, Stanley Planes, and Bench Vises.
Total lack of Puget Sound, Wedge, Cruiser, Rafting, Cedar, Rockaway, Broad Hewing, Mortising, and Pulaski patterns.
No luck finding Leg Vise, Peavey, Log Dogs or Slicks.
It has been long time since I hit garage sales. I had more luck finding interesting stuff on fleabay (I was spending way too much on gasoline and finding same stuff I had already owned.)
 
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