# Pen Blanks and turning wood



## Its Catchy

There is a guy on craigslist who has hundreds and hundreds of pen blanks and turning wood left in his home by the previous owner. Just thought I would give you guys the heads up. Might be the deal of a lifetime for some of you turners. Call this guy and offer to take it all off his hands....

http://houston.craigslist.org/art/4832950602.html

"Selling high quality raw wood and pen blanks. Plenty of raw wood for a wood turning lathe. Left in house by previous owner and must sell! Plenty of uses! Can be cut down with a table saw, router or made in to signs or pictures with a laser cutter. Examples of wood on hand include: Burled Walnut, Maple, Pecan, American oak, and plenty of exotics! I easily have over 300 types of wood in pen blanks, plus acrylics, please inquire! Plenty of plastic totes filled with wood blanks. $ Prices will be for contents only, exotics and larger pieces are negotiable. Each container varies in number and exotic count slightly. I have rough inventories, so I can look for specific wood types and "build" totes to order."


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## speckle-catcher

he must have either sold them - or doesn't want to sell them.

doesn't reply to emails.


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## Viking48

We've emailed back and forth a few times and I made him an offer last night but haven't heard back from him. We'll see.


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## speckle-catcher

he finally emailed me this morning

I had said I might be interested in purchasing the whole thing.

he said he'd rather piece it out and make more money.


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## bill

"Left in house by previous owner and must sell!"

MUST SELL turned into Highest offer LOL


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## speckle-catcher

he's gonna screw around taking his time to answer emails and nobody will want to deal with him.


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## glennkoks

By the time he is done fielding dozens of phone calls from "tire kickers" on craigslist he is going to wish he sold the entire lot for a decent profit. I bet he re-posts several times and then is ready to sell the entire lot...


We will see


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## Viking48

Yeah, I think he's trying to get retail for something he got for free. He's going to be surprised when he sells all the good stuff and gets stuck with the leftovers. He's going to have a hassle with a bunch of folks coming by and picking through his stuff.


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## Viking48

Update - got another reply from him. Turned down my trade offer (wanted retail for his and cut mine in half). Came back again and like Speckle-Catcher said, he'd rather sell everything by the piece. He feels he can get over $1,000 for the larger slabs but that's the only price he's mentioned. I wished him luck and, like on the Shark Tank, I'M OUT. PS, anybody got a load of termites we could give him?


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## JS Fog

He never even returned my email


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## Its Catchy

He never returned my email either. But let him deal with a bunch more emails, and phone calls from scammers on Craigslist for a while and his attitude will change.

I was hoping someone on here was going to walk away with a "steal" but it looks like this guy thinks he won the lotto.


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## speckle-catcher

he did finally return my email. I'm going out there on Saturday.

Foggy - you wanna go with? I may swing by and pick up George.


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## Its Catchy

speckle-catcher said:


> he did finally return my email. I'm going out there on Saturday.
> 
> Foggy - you wanna go with? I may swing by and pick up George.


Make me proud and get a great deal on all of it!!!!!


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## Viking48

speckle-catcher said:


> he did finally return my email. I'm going out there on Saturday.
> 
> Foggy - you wanna go with? I may swing by and pick up George.


Do you know if he has sold any of it? The impression I got was that he hasn't sold a single stick. Good luck to you and looking forward to hearing your results.


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## speckle-catcher

Don't know - he takes a very long time to respond to emails. 

He works in a restaurant - because he mentioned having to work brunch on Sunday.

I'm hoping he'll see cash and take an offer on the whole lot.


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## Viking48

He might but it may take more cash than you're willing to part with. He thinks he's sitting on the mother lode and is expecting to get over a grand for the big slabs alone. He's supposed to have around 300 pen blanks that range from $1.00 to astronomical. I just got tired of dealing with him since he wouldn't quote a price (other than for the slabs) and acted like he expected retail for everything. It will be interesting to see how you come out.


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## bill

I'm sure he is thinking big $$$$ Even changed his post.

Selling high quality raw wood and pen blanks. Plenty of raw wood for a wood turning lathe. Left in house by previous owner and must sell! Plenty of uses! Can be cut down with a table saw, router or made in to signs or pictures with a laser cutter. Examples of wood on hand include: Burled Walnut, Maple, Pecan, American oak, and some exotics! I easily have over 200 types of wood in pen blanks. Plenty of plastic totes filled with pen blanks. $ Prices $ will be for contents only. Pen blanks are generally $1 each, but may be more depending on burls, spalted, etc.* I am not looking to sell the entire lot in one sale. *I have built plenty of boxes to order depending on the amount someone wished to spend.

Pen blanks are generally $1 each---how would he know what they generally are priced at?

I still think there was no previous owner. I bet talking with him would result in the truth in less than 30 minutes.


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## speckle-catcher

yeah, I thought originally he said he would consider selling the whole thing.


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## Viking48

So now you tell him how much you want to spend and he tells you which box you can have? Lot of questions about this guy.


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## Its Catchy

Viking48 said:


> So now you tell him how much you want to spend and he tells you which box you can have? Lot of questions about this guy.


I don't doubt his story. He probably just started searching the internet, added up all the + signs and came up with a retail number.

Nobody pays "retail" on Craigslist and it is not worth anyones time to deal with this guy if he is going to charge retail.

Once again this guy is going to get tired of selling this for 10.00 here and 20.00 there really, really quick.

My bet is he spends a month gets sick of it and sells the remaining bulk on the cheap...


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## Viking48

Yeah, it takes a lot of 10 and 20 dollar bills to make up $100,000 which I think he believes the stuff is worth.


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## bill

hope you kick him in the nads for getting people excited and then wasting time


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## Viking48

Well Spec - We're waiting on your report or are you still unloading boxes and boxes of wood?


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## speckle-catcher

still unloading.


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## Viking48

Don't leave us in suspense - did you buy the whole lot?


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## speckle-catcher

no, and I wouldn't have wanted the whole thing.

I bought easily 150 pen blanks (almost all were larger pen blanks), another friend bought 100, then someone else bought 300+ more

and there's still a bunch there...but most of them are slimline 1/2 - 5/8" size blanks. I just don't turn enough small pens to justify buying that many slim blanks.

There are hundreds (thousands?) left - each bin is full of ziploc bags. Each bag is labeled with the type of blank in it. There is an enormous variety - too many to list. There is one box in particular that has A LOT of curly koa slims, and other hawaiian woods: lechee, monkeypod, guava, milo, mango

in addition to the pen blanks I bought, I also bought some 2" and 3" figured/curly/burly maple, some african blackwood, bocote and curly koa.

There's a few bowl blanks left (one is a black locust burl that I really should have grabbed), and still plenty of pen blanks.

there's also quite a few pieces of flat stock (or that could be cut into decent size pen blanks).

He's not giving it away, but he's also not counting exactly how many blanks you get either. I got complete bags of a type of wood, he'd eyeball it and say - that looks like 12 blanks - and he'd tally up $10 for the bag. In the end - he threw in some stuff too.

So I feel like I got a reasonable deal.


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## Viking48

So was he selling the pen blanks for a buck a stick or less? That would be a good deal.


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## Its Catchy

I'm glad you got a deal. I was hoping someone would get a really, really good deal but as long as you are happy.


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## speckle-catcher

I have a feeling someone else may have gotten a deal on something.


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## JS Fog

*Pen blanks left*

I would have loved to have seen it before it got picked over. I got all the boards and blocks that were left today. I got a lot of pen blanks but he still has I would guess over 1000 pen blanks left. Most of them are under 3/4". He still has some 3/4" maple, walnut and other native woods. If you can get with him go during the day because garage does not have good lighting.


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## Its Catchy

Wow! It looks like he purchased/rented the right house! Why would someone leave all that behind? Did the previous tenant die?


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## speckle-catcher

yes, the deceased was his uncle.


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## bill

Does he have plans for the tools?


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## speckle-catcher

he said they had not found any tools.

they found 3 lathes (likely minis) and had sold 2 of them a year ago. The 3rd lathe was a little pen lathe - black in color. I didn't recognize the brand. It was pretty beat up.


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## bill

There are several in those last pics that would bring in easy money. Dewalt, Jet..paint (pressure pots and cylinders) would go quick..and the different supplies I can see tells me there are even more tools unseen.


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## JS Fog

Bill that is my shop. The wood on the floor and on the bench is what I bought from him.


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## speckle-catcher

bill's trying to buy your stuff! LOL


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## bill

JS Fog said:


> Bill that is my shop. The wood on the floor and on the bench is what I bought from him.


LMAO!!! I thought you were showing us the pic's of the leftovers.


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## JS Fog

That was the left overs. That's why I said that it would have been nice to have been the first. I can only imagine what was there for the first buyers.


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