5 Tool Brands With Great Resale Value

When searching quality gear, tool buyers often target purchases that will deliver plenty of service time and more than enough power, feature enhancements, or ergonomic additions to make the equipment easy, or even fun to use. Sometimes this follows specific variants of a particular tool (seeking a combination hammer drill/driver rather than a basic power drill, for instance), but a buyer will typically explore within their preferred brands as well. In some cases, the importance of a tool brand can be boiled down to the hype surrounding it, hopefully built on a baseline of solid performance. However, across the market, there are tons of technological innovations that arrive with plenty of hype only to flop. 

One aspect that can help buyers make their decision with a bit more clarity is resale value. Purchasing equipment with good resale value will help you recoup a notable amount of the cost when it comes time to look for a replacement. This can be a serious help for shop equipment buyers that may already know they'll be reconfiguring their setup in the future. A tool that holds is value is often one that can provide multiple lifetimes of service. Buying a used piece of equipment from a brand like these can be a great way to get a bit of price relief on a high quality item.

DeWalt equipment is characterized by high durability and numerous performance enhancers that make the tools easy to operate and comfortable to use across a long day of operation. This is true for both DeWalt's hand tools and its powered options. Because the brand's longevity is a mainstay of its build quality it stands to reason that DeWalt gear would offer good value retention. Indeed, there is a robust resale market for DeWalt gear and numerous refurbished and used examples can be found at eBay and plenty of other digital marketplaces.

When looking for used DeWalt equipment, you'll likely want to shy away from the batteries themselves. Investing in used bare tools and pairing them up with new batteries will help ease any heartache that might come from a heavily used up battery that has trouble holding its charge. However, you'll often get good productivity out of the tools, even if they've seen plenty of use prior to your purchase. Corded tools are also a decent option, but you'll want to inspect the cord thoroughly before committing to buying the item (unless you're capable of avoiding common electrical work mistakes and are comfortable replacing power cords). Because of the sizeable resale market, this is also a tool brand that you can reliably purchase new and expect to sell on later when your needs change or a newer model will serve you better.

Stanley hand planes have been in production since the 1860s, and the Stanley badge ranks among the best hand tool brands on the market. Its products can be found in abundance online and in person at flea markets and elsewhere. Buying used gear can give you access to quality tools at a nice discount. However, the real gem in this world is the hand plane. Stanley began making metal hand planes that eventually came to supplant the existing paradigm of wooden-bodied planing tools. Traditional wood planes still exist, and many woodworkers prefer these old school implements. However, if you're looking for a modern hand plane, it largely imitates the form and functionality of the Stanley model brought into being over a century ago.

Vintage hand planes have been kept in all sorts of conditions, and so the market for these pieces of equipment can vary tremendously. However, restoring an aged hand plane isn't all that difficult, and examples that are tuned up and shiny sell for quite a bit more than rusty, worn out tools. These planes are more than capable of delivering decades of faithful service to their owners, but this is wholly dependent on how they are looked after. Restoring one in rough shape can ultimately net you a tidy profit if you turn around and resell it. This makes Stanley hand planes a neat addition to your shopping list, especially if you're browsing garage sales for tool bargains.

Standard power tools can be instrumental for performing woodworking tasks or home renovation projects, But shop equipment like the drill press (a tool that requires a bit of research before purchasing), jointer, or even something smaller like a bench grinder serves a different general purpose. These pieces of equipment are often fairly large, and they occupy something of a permanent position in many workshops. Even those working out of a garage or converted shed will typically find a home for their equipment inclusions or mount them on casters while generally keeping them stationary.

Workshop equipment provides coverage for specialized needs, and therefore purchases in this category are often a bit more expensive and feature additional considerations that don't go into your search for a new circular saw or impact wrench. While there are numerous brands to explore here (for instance, SawStop makes the best workshop-type table saw on the market), Delta and Powermatic stand out as brands that deliver plenty of user functionality while providing solid resale value, too. Both of these brands make high quality shop equipment that will serve a user admirably. They retain good levels of interest on the resale market, so finding a used piece to support your growing ambitions is often firmly in the cards. Similarly, as a seller, you can rest assured that any gear you own from either of these brands will likely return some cash to your pocket when it's time to upgrade.

The tool truck brands are all legendary makers, and often fetch solid resale prices, but the top dog among them has to be Snap-On. This brand is a class all on its own; it aggressively pursued professional tool users in the heyday of traveling salesmen, and the resale market is absolutely littered with old Snap-On gear. Snap-On has continued to stand at the pinnacle of the hand tool conversation, and it remains a company that makes impeccably shiny, eye-catching equipment. But more importantly, Snap-On tools are built to last. They come with a lifetime warranty, and service providers have been known to deliver on that promise even without a proof of purchase and for secondhand buyers who have come into possession of intensely used equipment (although this has seemingly changed some in recent years).

As to be expected, Snap-On is not only a brand that will cost you a pretty penny when buying gear straight from the dealer (or online), but also when exploring the used market. On eBay, there are over 62,000 results for "snap-on tools," with over 7,700 listings priced above $150. This is a lineup that you can reliably resell as a buyer seeking gear with that feature embedded in its build and brand. There's also an opportunity to find gear at garage sales and elsewhere for heavily discounted prices and then potentially flip the equipment on the digital marketplace.

Hazet is a name at the top of the German tool brand game. The company has made high quality hand tools (and now power tools, too) since 1868. It's a super-premium European tool brand in the same vein as the likes of Snap-On, Armstrong, or SK Tools. Hazet gear can be found at plenty of online outlets, and used equipment retains a high selling price. 

If you're buying Hazet tools, you are likely someone already in the know, since there are numerous other brands with far greater name recognition in the North American tool market. Buyers are people looking for a specific mark of quality and a toolmaker with a particular penchant for excellent value. A Hazet tool is likely one you can keep for the duration of your life as a tool user. But this also makes them a solid choice to buy used. Shopping the used marketplace will give you a tool with an established personality and history of value. It will also deliver a bit of price relief to get you working with some of the highest quality equipment around at a more favorable cost.

I have personal experience with some of these brands, and a good depth of knowledge surrounding the others. My personal experience using and shopping for tools (frequently on the used market when it comes to hand tools) helped inform some of the inclusions here. Beyond personal knowledge, users with additional direct experience with these brands have noted resale value and durability as key highlights of each brand listed. For further context, I found numerous examples on eBay and elsewhere with relatively high prices for used gear. Brands like DeWalt and the shop equipment names can be a good tool investment for buyers in the new market who might want to get something back for the gear when upgrading, others, like Stanley and Snap-On might make for an interesting opportunity to find cheaper prices to flip the products online after fixing them up since they tend to offer good resale value and are frequently sought-after tool makes.