Money-Saving Tip: Buy and Resell Tools

If you’re looking for the right tool for the job and want to save money or make some money while reducing clutter, your new best friend might be Retool of Rockford, 3622 E. State St.

The business buys, sells, and trades new and used tools.

Owner Dave Stenberg is observing his 20th year in business and says Rockford is an ideal community for what he offers.

“There are enough people who want to sell things and enough people who realize that secondhand tools are just as good as new ones, to keep me in business,” he says.

He offers used tools at about half the price of the original retail cost and everything in the store has a 30-day warranty for parts and labor. He’ll also buy back what he sells for 60 percent of the cost.

Many do-it-yourselfers and contractors purchase expensive power tools and hand tools for a specific job only to use them once or twice and then put them away forever. By selling what you don’t need, to ReTool, you not only make space for what you do need, you also make money and help someone else get what they need at a discount, he says.

The inventory includes hand tools, power tools and automotive tools as well as saws, bench grinders, drill presses, micrometers, calipers, levels, gauges, ladders, nail guns and much more.

Within the past five years, ReTool has begun stocking new items, mainly cordless products.

“Repairing a tool or machine is not cheap and is not always the best answer. Sometimes it costs more to fix something than to get another one,” he says.

Stenberg has always worked in retail and enjoys helping people.

“Part of the fun is helping people to find what they’re looking for because they know what they want to do, but don’t always know how to do it,” he says.

ReTool is open from 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mon., Tues. and Thurs.; 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed. and Fri.; and from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call Dave at (815) 398-4900. ❚