Fix em up or part em out? That is the question.

[dall]

i usually buy saws or parts saws and rebuild and then resale they are just a hobby for me and the money i get from a saw goes back into other saws i dont sell on ebay but i have sold a couple on craigslist but most are from word of mouth

 

[smokey7]

There is some money in it. I am not getting rich at it either. I usually buy parts saws that have use able parts that will fit the saws of my common customers or will fit a saw that I have in for repair at that time. I don't have alot of space in my garage so I am not able to just buy lots of saws. I usually target only what I need at that time or will need in the near future.

 

[Tor R]

I stock up on everything when it goes to Husky, Stihls goes right in the bin, missing lots of parts to my Husky projects. That said, I could probleby done some money by selling out 2xx xpg parts

When I am done to build up my projects I will go through what I have and exchange parts with Dave. I'll give him a list of what I have and he can pick what he want to have.

I wont go on ebay, not many buyers are interested to pay for the shipping cost from Norway myself doesnt buy much used parts on ebay anymore.
If I lived in US I belive it's worth the effort to split a part saw and sell them out, your guys have traditions to build saws while we in Norway have traditions to trow saws in the bin.

 

[67L36Driver]

Just drag them Remys down to River City Mark.

I see one top right that made the trip.

After

 

[Definitive Dave]

What I found in selling used parts on Ebay was a few things will bring great money and many items wouldn't sell at any price.
We started selling parts from the Store we bought a few years back.
New old stock stuff sold pretty well from all brands as long as we knew what saw it fit to put in the title line.
Stihl and Husqvarna were the kings of the castle new or used, but many models were duds like the 09, 10, 11, 12, 15, 020AV, 031, 032, 030, 041, 040, 050.
Lots of guys wanted parts for partner and pioneer saws at about 1/3 of our asking price
Coils, nice (perfect) plastics or mag covers, carburetors, cylinders and crankshafts well pretty well from most models.
I once bought a Skil and took it down to bare pieces and listed them all.
paid 20 for rough running saw at pawn shop, varnish smelling gas
Sold crank for 30, coil for 35, carburetor for 35, cylinder and piston for 45, eventually recycled everything else. so probably quadrupled my money after fees shipping etc.
Our experience selling used parts on Ebay led us to today where we refuse to sell a used part
Dave

 

[fearofpavement]

There's money in fixing saws?

Sure, you just have to be willing to work for $2.00 per hour. I almost never lose money on a saw, just work really cheap. Like I said in the OP, I do it as a hobby, if I needed to generate cash to live on, it wouldn't be via that method.

 

[fearofpavement]

I have a Stihl 011, it was mostly there but was missing the carb, air filter etc. It was already partially disassembled but I was able to hold pieces together long enough to prime it and verify everything worked. (it obviously didn't run long with no carb but sounded good.)
I decided that I wasn't interested in owning a saw of that era, knew it wouldn't bring over $100 on a good day and decided to smallerize it. I've sold the coil and electronic ignition components for $15, Sold the nice 4 bolt cylinder with piston, rings, and piston pin for $35 and sold the hardware, isolators, etc for $10. So I've got $60 back. Some of that will go to eBay and paypal so probably netted $50ish bucks. I still have several parts listed and some of those will eventually sell. So I can probably get my $100 out of the saw with no additional investment of parts. It is a hassle though (to me) but I can see where money could be made via that route.

 

[Mastermind]

I wind up giving parts away to fix my customers saws. I look at it like this......someone is willing to send a saw half way across the nation to get it ported....and it needs some small parts. I'm not gonna hit them up for a few bucks more to replace a 10 dollar part. That means that my projects sometimes never get done though.

 

[lwn9186]

I am at the same crossroads with an Echo CS-8000 I bought. Piston and cylinder are scored beyond saving. The saw also needs several other parts which I don't know if I want to spend the money on. Don't really need another 80cc saw so it may go for parts.

 

[fearofpavement]

I wind up giving parts away to fix my customers saws. I look at it like this......someone is willing to send a saw half way across the nation to get it ported....and it needs some small parts. I'm not gonna hit them up for a few bucks more to replace a 10 dollar part. That means that my projects sometimes never get done though.

Well that's nice of you but I would expect that most people would understand that things that need replacing could be found during a complete workover and wouldn't/shouldn't balk at funding those parts.

 

[ny15]

I wind up giving parts away to fix my customers saws. I look at it like this......someone is willing to send a saw half way across the nation to get it ported....and it needs some small parts. I'm not gonna hit them up for a few bucks more to replace a 10 dollar part. That means that my projects sometimes never get done though.

Great customer service.

 

[beaglebriar]

I prefer to fix them rather than part em out.

 

[Wagnerwerks]

I parted saws on ebay for 2 years. It was pretty decent, but you have to be streamlined. I bought out 2 shops in my area for very good prices, but by the time you sort and clean old stock, you have days and weeks into it. I made out well, but have tons of stuff left over that I hate to chuck, but it's just in the way. I need to list some of it on here for some of you weirdos that like old saws..lol.

Now I fix the random saw for friends and family and my saws need to be right. I still hoard more than I need, but it's hard to throw it out. Stuff everywhere..... Ugh.

 

[fearofpavement]

I sold a saw today finally. Went the entire saw sales season, which from here runs about Oct through Jan and now all of a sudden I'm starting to gain some interest. Maybe it's people getting their income tax checks. Beats me.
This guy had a Husky 141 he wanted to give me in trade. It was locked up and the pull rope was half out. I told him I would take a look at it but it wasn't worth much to me since it's an orange Poulan. He liked that saw, loaned it out and got it back like that.
Well, I couldn't get the muffler off because the deep holes were packed by mud daubers and I couldn't clear the bolt heads (later I finished cleaning it and got it off)
Anyway, I pulled off the clutch cover and was able to turn the engine a wee bit by twisting the clutch so I pulled off the recoil cover (easy since most of the screws were missing) and found the rope all twisted up in the flywheel and outside of the pulley. Engine wasn't locked up after all. He left with his new saw and I told him I would see if I could straighten out his Husky. I did get it running later today and was just buttoning everything up when the pull rope messed up again. I may need to rig it a bit as the rope retainer clip on the pulley is missing and a knot isn't really the solution.

 

[Agrarian]

I do a little selling on ebay and mostly parts that I have too much of. I buy a fair number of carcasses on ebay and strip them down for donor part of the saws that I am restoring. But after accumulating about 12 flywheels for the 254xp/262xp series, I decided I probably didn't need them all so it was time to start selling. And that is the way it has gone for the rest of the parts I sell. The money though is in nice plastics, cylinders, carbs, mufflers (if chinese ones are not available). Coincidently, these are the same parts I need for my restorations so I don't make much money selling - but hey its a hobby for me. Also, parts for the smaller saws (42, 242xp, 246) move very very slowly but parts for the 272xp and up seem to move much quicker.

So I buy a fair amount of used stuff, I don't sell much, I build up a number of them and don't sell any. A lot of stuff coming in, little going out. You may have guessed this is a recipe for a very crowded workroom!