Will they, I wonder, soon start appearing in the ‘for sale’ list?

The centres looked a bit Colchester like, someone recognised them and got them for £45 plus postage. I have occasionally stumbled upon items which others have missed and got bargains.

There's a fine line between value and junk. Those gears are only worth money if they're Colchester and at least two people want them! As I don't have a Colchester, or anything else the gears could be usefully modified to fit, their value to me is zero. (Be very annoying to buy them for a lathe, only to find they're specials from a 1938 sewage mincer.)

Bereavement sales are delicate areas. When the owner of a fine workshop dies, it's always possible his executors won't be interested in playing shops, or have the time needed to find appreciative buyers. They might call a House Clearance company, or a scrap merchant, as a way of clearing the house in the shortest possible time. One reason I like Far Eastern tools is I don't care what happens to them when I'm gone!

My dear old dad was a holy terror, completely unaware that books and objects might be valuable. Mum came home one day to find an heirloom bookcase and contents gone because Dad had decided the room was 'tidier' without them. Not sold as an antique in excellent condition, taken to the tip with a few hundred pounds worth of hardbacks. And then the room had to be redecorated because the un-faded wall-paper behind the bookcase didn't match the rest…

I'm afraid most people are barbarians!

Dave