Buying used tools: spotting professional quality and avoiding bad buys

Good tools are built to last decades – which is exactly why the second-hand market is attractive here. A professional drill with ten years on the clock is often a better investment than a new DIY-store device at the same price. The key is placing quality and condition correctly.

Professional line or DIY line?

The big brands run separate lines, and the difference is real: professional tools (for example Bosch's blue line, Hilti, Festool, Makita LXT) have more robust gearboxes, better bearings and spare-parts supply for many years. DIY lines are cheap new – but rarely a good buy used, because residual value and repairability are low.

Rule of thumb: buying used pays off above all for professional tools. There, 40 to 60 percent of the new price for a well-kept device with accessories is a realistic range.

The battery-system trap

With cordless tools you are not buying a device but a system: batteries and chargers are not compatible across brands (and sometimes across series), and spare batteries are expensive. Commit to one platform before you buy, and factor in battery condition: a set with two tired batteries is really worth 100 to 200 francs less than it looks.

• ·Check the battery production date (printed on): lithium batteries over five years old are consumables.
• ·Original charger present and working?
• ·For bare tools without battery: research the price of an original battery first.

Checkpoints for power tools

• ·Running noise: an even hum is good; screeching, grinding or heavy vibration points to worn bearings.
• ·Corded tools: cable and plug without breaks or patch-ups, clean start-up behaviour, no shower of sparks from the vents (carbon brushes).
• ·Housing: drops leave traces; individual scratches are normal, cracked or glued housings are not.
• ·Chucks and guides: the chuck clamps concentrically, the saw shoe is straight, slides run without play.
• ·Agree a test under load – a serious seller has power and an offcut of wood ready.
• ·For measuring tools (lasers, spirit levels, callipers): a quick accuracy test against a known reference.

Provenance: take no fencing risk

Tools are classic loot from construction-site thefts. Buy only with a plausible story: receipt, business liquidation, abandoned hobby. Conspicuously new professional tools in quantity at rock-bottom prices with no provenance are a red flag – hands off. On shopitnow you can recognise commercial sellers by the verification badge (commercial-register check via Zefix); in workshop liquidations that is the strongest trust signal.

Price guidance

• ·Well-kept professional tool with accessories and case: 40 to 60 percent of the new price
• ·Professional tool with visible site wear, fully functional: 25 to 40 percent
• ·DIY tools: rarely above 30 percent, and considerably less without receipt and accessories
• ·Defective tools "for tinkerers": 10 to 20 percent, honestly declared