310 Tools on Fleabay Have Gone NUTZ!!

A friend suggested I look at a listing on everybody’s “favorite” auction site for a particular 310 tool he had seen listed. While I was there I went through the three pages of listings, mostly from about 2-3 dealers who seem to have taken several sets and listed the handles and each die separately at mildly to wildly exorbitant prices, then turned around and listed the EMPTY BOXES at prices that would make a crooked politician blush. I can’t help but wonder whether they make very many sales of these items or just keep waiting for one desperate sucker to come along and “make their day.” I got into using 310 tools over 40 years ago, in part because it was economical. NO MORE! As with many hobbies, it seems that rampant speculation has ruined it. [smilie=b:

Oh well, I’m glad I’ve already got what I need for my reloading, but I sure feel sorry for those who will never have the same opportunity I did. :sad: Rant over.

Green Frog

Congratulate yourself, GF, on being able to spot value where those around you only see junk. Better test of basic smarts than being “woke” any day of the week.

Gun shows now have their semi-permanent “stores” where the tableholder runs through the place before it opens to the public, buying everything loose and cheap that he can, and putting it on his table at a healthy markup for the suckers.

The Entrepreneurial Spirit can’t be suppressed. I wonder if “investment grade” 310 sets will be next, with a “letter” from a handwriting expert to certify that Elihu Lyman himself wrote the caliber on the end of the box.

Can’t muster a lot of sympathy for the latecomers, though. As the old song goes, “I Got Mine.”

Yes Sir Mr Frog,

I've kept track of four or five vendors about a year now, they all seem to have adapted the same philosophy, separate everything you can and sell each piece.
The prices were on the up tick at the beginning of this year at about 20% increase, but between the pandemic and word of mouth that Lyman "stop producing" the product, the prices are now stupid.

I keep watching for deals that I can share with my friends, but it appears those are few and far between opportunities nowadays.

Scott

I’m thinking high could sell off some of my high end, desirable 310 stuff and take up golf. It’s probably more politically correct to defend home and hearth with a nine iron than a wicked old gun anyway, right?

Then again maybe I should just get one of those signs that say, “Due to the increased cost of reloading, the homeowner will no longer give warning shots.” I’ll probably get arrested for that anti-PC attitude, but at least I’ll be assured of “3 hots and a cot.” [smilie=l:

Froggie

Thanks for pointing this out. I have a 22 caliber set which didn't sell a while back. I should move it on to some prepper.

Green Frog - I think you have assessed it all very well. I take a look once in a while and it blows my mind what they want for individual dies that are not that "special". I often wonder if it is because Lyman announced they are no longer going to make the 310 sets and because of that, these sellers think that they now have something that is 'highly collectible". I have dabbled in the 310 sets for al long time. I have been able to accumulate die sets and tongs for the calibers I want to load with them at times as I do enjoy using them. But, the fun of finding a nice set, at least for me, is now gone. If you watch the listings on that site - it seems to me that very few ever "move".

A good example - I (like a lot of folks) got hooked on the 223 Remington cartridge thanks to a fellow I shoot with so I bought a bolt rifle and got set up to reload. I don't like using the FL sizing die with the primer punch/expander ball so I pull the stem (Lee dies) - deprime all my brass with a universal depriving die (Lee) and use a separate neck expanding die. I have some of my 310 sets with me here in AZ - the others back in Michigan. I have a 310 pushing to 7/8 - 14 so I figured I would take a look on the favorite site you speak of and see if I could find a 310 expander body with a .222 our .223 expanding stem. Well golly gee . . . when I looked, I saw that there sere two of them listed - at about a dollar less than what Ii could buy a new Lyman M die for shipped - I opted for the Lyman M die as I refused to pay the price for the 310 die.

I suppose that it's like any other "hobby". If you are new to it and in a lot of cases, young, you look and those are the prices you see so you assume that they are worth that . . . kind of human nature. But if you've been at it for a while, you kind of know what the value of them should be dictated by experience and common sense. And I'm not being critical of anyone when I say that.

I have "collected" for many years - my wife calls it something else. LOL At one time, I put together a collection of milsurp rifles - I didn't reload or shoot them but I enjoyed collecting them. I had a nice assortment of Jax Arisaka and SMLE 303 Infields as well as others. I remember going to a monthly gun show that I always attended and walking in to see a fellow with three tables piled with a variety of SMLE rifles - most in cosmolene and boxes. At the time, I was looking for one with a World War I date and he helped me go through them. We located one with a 1914 date - it looked pretty nice but like all of them showed some good honest wear. At that time,I paid him $14.95 for that rifle. Today? I have o idea of what it would cost but with inflation, a new generation of folks collecting and shooting, what we considered used military surplus rifles the new generation now considers highly collectible military antiques. It happens and I guess a person can enjoy collecting the 310 tools while it's feasible and affordable to do so but at some point, their prices are going to increase. But . . I still look once in a while on that site and i end up just shaking my head at times. Something is only as worth what a willing buyer is willing to pay at the the time of purchase and I just question how many of those dies, die sets and tongs "move" and how many keep getting resisted and resisted in hopes that someone will come along that has more money than sense?

Green Frog - you think 310 prices are off the wall, a fella on eBay bought a Paul Jones Creedmoor mold for $520 big ones. Paul' invoice for mine was $175

A few sellers on there with "no ethics". Just out to soak the unwary with super high prices and a fancy write up with "rare" moulds you could buy from Lyman.

Like the sellers at gun shows. "That's the best one I've ever seen". Told him he must not have seen very many. The man got mad at me as I walked away.

I'd never make a business man. No way I could "gull" anyone./beagle

Hey bedbugbilly, did you ever get 310 dies for that SMLE? Contact me via PM if you want to have me find you a set... They're not big sellers. :roll:

Froggie

Mr beagle, long time no hear from. I was just getting ready to send you an e-mail to make sure you were still doing OK. How's the weather out your way?

Your Phriendly 'Phibian

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Originally Posted by beagle

I'd never make a business man. No way I could "gull" anyone./beagle

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Actually, you might make a very successful and enduring businessman. The con artists and grifters can appear to do well, but are most often just riding the wave between cons, frauds, and/or bankruptcies.

Real businessman strive for all to walk away contentedly and with added value from the exchange in their hands. How do you feel about your favorite reloading tool company? They're real businessmen!

I understand this greed is really overtaking fleabay.
When was the last time you saw an H&G mold for sale WITH handles attached.
Check the sellers other listings, chances are you'll find the handles listed separately.

Just today I was looking at some Pipes. I've been a Pipe Smoker for 50yrs, off and on.
Listed under "Estate". A euphemism for old dirty and used.
There are a couple of Sellers that take such pipes and clean, restore and sanitize them.
Other people just list old dirty junk at prices over 10x what these drug store pipes sold for.
No concept of ...???? Heck I don't know what.

Looks like these prices are making it here to the S&S area as well...

The last half way deal I found on Ebay was a steel set of handles marked 257. They will work fine to go with any of my .473 size cases. $50 shipped.
When I see something I think I want I set my max bid at what it's worth to me then ignore it till they tell me I won or lost.
Quite often the thing I bid $20 on goes for more like $80.
It's the people that think of these as collector items with no sense of their true worth that drive the prices up.
Those of us that use them as they were made to be used understand their true worth. This often prevents us from getting the things we need.
To often these things set on some collectors shelf.
It saddens the heart.
Leo

The real driver, leave us face it, is cheap, giveaway money; more abundant all the time.

On the other hand, there is only a finite number of discontinued items, whether they be acreage, Van Gogh paintings or Lyman 310 sets. It only stand to reason that it will take more inflated shin-plasters to buy the same stuff as relatively few of them could buy 20 or 40 years ago.

Wow. When I was a kid, we used to say “Fahhrty yurrs ago” in cracked, reedy voices like Gabby Hayes. Never seemed like that much time could pass. Guess we learned. But I still walk around in a constant state of sticker-shock when looking at “collectibles”.

I guess I've been lucky the last few months on ebay. Got a set of 32-20 dies for my 310, another set of 32-20 dies for my Tru-line (brand new in the boxes) and a NIB 32 Special set to load 32 Rem with.

I paid about half the price of what a new set of Lee dies would cost. This is my benchmark for used dies, they aren't worth more (to me) than what a new set of Lee dies costs. Lee dies have always given me as good a service and loaded as accurate ammunition as anyone's.

I'm just setting up reloading a couple of my vintage rifles with vintage tools, because that's what I want to do.

Most of the fixed price dies on ebay never sell. Just because someone wants a certain amount for something, doesn't make it worth it. I got my dies with bids.

Curdog007, the only problem you are likely to run into is the need to FL resize your cases. Unless your TL Jr set came with the FL die (which must use lubed cases in a press, not the tong tool) you might want to look for one of the push in dies Lyman made back then. They aren’t all that abundant, but I’ve found a couple over the years.

Froggie

I just got one of those off ebay, too.
I'm making up an "antique" reloading set like a man would have carried in a saddlebag for his Winchester carbine.
I bought a nice Modern Bond tool with a 32-20 die in it, just need to make the rest of the stuff.
I am not new to making this stuff.
Now figuring out how to post pictures of it whenever I get it done - now that's a different story altogether!

prices are crazy on fleabay, but there isn't any arm twistin' when the guys bid crazy money...

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Originally Posted by armstrong

prices are crazy on fleabay, but there isn't any arm twistin' when the guys bid crazy money...

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I’m just getting tired of seeing the same stuff posted over and over again at crazy prices by these dreamers as I do my regular search for any unusual calibers etc. The guys trying to sell a “rare” 30-06 neck sizing and decapping die for $29.95 plus shipping should get the message after 6 months that it’s priced too high, but I have to wade through dozens such ads every time I do a search. Rant over.

Froggie