Upcoming Auctions

[Timothy]

Don't you know it Magoo.   And I'm the one on this board who always preaches about never regretting paying for quality.  You'd think I'd follow my own advice.

"The sweet taste of low price is long gone,while the the bitter flavor of poor quality remains for ever."

(or variations of the same)

I bought some Xecilite tools for electronics work when I was a teenager.  It cost me all my savings.  The store employees encouraged me to spend the extra money and that I'd never regret it.   I remember most the sign they had  above the cash register.  Something like this:

We sell fresh, top quality oats.    If you find our prices too high, we also sell, at a much lower cost, oats that have been processed by our horses.

Well said Alf!

Xecilite, Snap-on, Kennedy!  I've supplemented my tool boxes with lesser quality stuff over the years but the stuff I still have thirty five years later is still better and still going strong!

[alfsauve]

Meant to add, I still have those Xceilite socket and screwdriver sets after ...  45 years.

[blackwolfe]

I have a Snap on set that I got in high school.  It was a special promotion in high school auto shop.  I've had a screw driver tip or two go bad and an open end wrench that spread.  All replaced free by Snap On.  This set has been supplemented by Sears Craftsman mostly since then and for the most part they have held up OK.  I won't buy Sear electrical tools though.  I have an assortment of those.  Makita, Black and Decker pro series, Porter Cable, and Skil worm drive saw.  Saw a Milwaukee hole shooter get dunking, shook the water out of it, let it sit in the sun to dry it out and it ran fine the next day.  The only problem I've had with any of those was a Porter Cable circular saw that feel two stories off a roof.  It still runs, but not right and the base plate is all bent up.  Not the saw's fault though.

[Timothy]

Meant to add, I still have those Xceilite socket and screwdriver sets after ...  45 years.

When I was working as a service tech traveling to nuclear plants, I begged and pleaded with the company to buy one of those Xcelite brief case type tool boxes.  It traveled with me for five or six years to thirty four different plants and I still had every tool I started with!  Not a small accomplishment considering you're working in a radioactively contaminated environment!

I left the employ of the company for 15 months while my Dad was sick and went back when I couldn't find work in Michigan.  My travel kit had been raided, lost and misplaced in less than a year and a half!  The cost to replace the missing tools was cost prohibitive and I had to settle for lesser quality tools!

[Rastus]

I figured they would leave a bad taste in your mouth.  I bought one of their lasers for the wife's Glock 19 (eewwww) so she could try it before buying an expensive laser.  The dang thing drifts all over and is rarely on or very near target.

10-4 on the Milwaukee Hole Shooter...I used them offshore and they are the only drill to hold up to heavy use or to getting AC power from a welding machine.  Black and Decker industrials lasted maybe 10 days....the home variety about a day.  Other brands may last a month...but Milwaukee never failed and was only replaced when somebody stole it and brought it home.

Xceilite I did not know about...thanks.  I've had Snap-On and I buy Craftsman due to the replacement warranty..

[Sponsor]

[alfsauve]

Back to upcoming auctions:

April 20,21, 22  Rock Island Auction's Spring Premiere Auction.

Around 3,000 firearms (or related stuff).

• MANY MANY MANY Colt Revolvers from the earliest to the Anaconda
• Ainsworth Inspected U.S. Colt Model 1873 Cavalry Revolver with Kopec Letter
• 3 Singer 1911's   !!!!!  Think $50K + (http://www.rockislandauction.com/viewitem/aid/55/lid/3719)
• Rare Late WWII VG1.5 Volkssturmgewehr Semi-Automatic Rifle

Sorry, no High Standard Crusaders, but I have found a couple of S&W's I might keep my eye on.

http://www.rockislandauction.com/auction/aid/55

[alfsauve]

Last warning.   Starts this Friday, 4/20.   here's a link to their 16 page full color flyer (pdf).

If you look through this flyer and don't see anything you would like, then I respectfully suggest you drop your account in all the gun forums and join a forum on basket weaving.

My gosh, they've got an1883 COLT Gatling gun complete with carriage and casson?

My lot is #1906, with the good lady's permission I'm submitting pre-bid tomorrow and I'll keep my fingers crossed.  But there are many other things out their that are absolutely to die for.    How often do you see a Winslow Arms rifle?    How about a pair of consecutively numbered Winchester Model 21 SxS shotguns?

http://www.rockislandauction.com/pri/uploads/public/docs/RIAC-APRIL2012-MAILER.pdf

[Magoo541]

I have a Snap on set that I got in high school.

I have my grandpa's Snap-on roller cabinet he bought when he got back from WWII in my garage.  Drove 10 hours one way just to get it when the BITC...err my step-grandma passed away and her son was "gracious" enough to let me have it after I offered to buy it 8 years earlier.

[alfsauve]

For the curious about this weekend's RIA auction

The first of the Singer 1911's went for $70,000.  (plus 15% buyers fee)   And the second for $32,500.   A number early Colt and Remington Rand 1911 went for 5 digits as well.

There was also a historical Luger that brought $60,000.

[Big Frank]

I bet the Borchardt fetched a pretty penny too. That's one of those guns I haven't even seen in a museum. It's hard to imagine the price.