10 Rusty Wrenches in Your Barn Worth Thousands! (Check the Patent Date Before You Scrap Them)

Forty years of picking barns and estate auctions across the Midwest taught me that the ugliest wrench in the coffee can is usually the one worth keeping. In this video I count down ten old wrenches sitting in barns, machine sheds, and garage drawers right now that sell for hundreds, and in one case sixteen thousand dollars — and I show you exactly how to tell them apart. We go through buggy and wagon wrenches, alligator wrenches, the H.D. Smith Perfect Handle, the patent combination tools, the Richards "Wizard" ratcheting wrench, the early patent adjustable nut wrenches from Merrick, Hewett and Billings & Spencer, the Massachusetts monkey wrench men — Coe's of Worcester and Bemis & Call of Springfield — the quick adjust patent wrenches including Axel Peterson's 1908 "Rapid Transit," the cutout implement wrenches from Planet Junior, International Harvester and David Bradley, and the rarest of them all: the John Deere Dain All-Wheel Drive tractor wrench. For every one of them I show you where to look and what you are looking at: the patent date stamped along the shank, the letters cut clean through the handle, the implement part number, the rivets in the grip, the mechanism that still clicks, and the small differences that separate a twenty dollar wrench from a serious collector piece. I will also give you the honest odds, because most old wrenches are just good wrenches that somebody wore out. Every price I mention comes from real sold auction results, not wishful listings. And I will tell you the mistakes that destroy value before a wrench ever reaches a buyer, including the one thing you should never do to a patent stamp. Before you clean out that machine shed or haul a coffee can of old iron to the scrap yard, turn every wrench over and read the handle. The markings tell you everything. Drop a comment telling me what you found and where you're watching from. I read and answer every single one. CHAPTERS (measured from the synced transcript — final) 0:00 The wrench in the coffee can 1:06 You and me over a tailgate 1:42 The honest odds 2:16 Why one man's idea is worth money 3:02 The three rules 4:16 #10 Buggy & wagon wrenches 5:43 #9 Alligator wrenches 6:48 #8 The Perfect Handle (H.D. Smith) 8:04 #7 Patent combination tools 9:21 #6 The Wizard ratchet - the one that got away 10:55 #5 Early patent adjustable wrenches 12:13 #4 Coe's & Bemis and Call 13:37 #3 Quick adjust - the Rapid Transit 15:00 #2 Cutout implement wrenches 16:24 #1 The John Deere Dain wrench 17:45 What kills the value 18:48 The information gap 19:11 Check your shed this weekend