My first flip grill of the season


 

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I don't plan to post every small project I do. If Dave in KC did that our site would be overrun!!! However, I am excited and relieved to finally be starting on my enormous backlog of projects. It will be a long, busy summer and fall...

I picked up this kettle for I think $25. Crudded up, but I went for it because it was the "Premium" model with the removable ash catcher and a thermometer. I failed to take pre-restore pictures, but I am sure you can believe that it was a filthy mess. Rusty grates, hopelessly jammed and corroded ash sweep - the usual.

I used a razor and the Sam's product to help with the worst stuff and then dropped down to safer Simple Green and 0000 steel wool. The wheels had the typical chunks missing from the whitewalls, so I turned them into blackwalls.

I had loaded up on Weber fold-up grates when our Target was doing their clearance sale in September, so that was a cheap OEM replacement. I did my usual and went online and printed out the schematic and user guide to include in a zip lock bag. What I didn't have was a replacement sweep assembly, so I broke down and went to Ace and bought one.

Does anybody have a recommendation for the lowest cost source for these ash sweep assemblies? They are very cheaply made, so any well used kettle will usually need a new set.

Anyway, for my first grill of the season, I was overall happy.

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It isn't perfect, but with Lowes now getting $165 ($176 with tax:p) for a new one, I would think mine with brand new Weber grates and ash sweep should be worth something.

Any recommendations what I should ask for this grill?
 
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Looks great. I would probably start at the $120 to $130 range level. I don’t have much experience with kettles either yet. In my area people normally want them cheap. I have two for sale myself and have not gotten any requests yet. One is the blue kettle and the other is a black Performer.
 
If they are going for $175 new, I think it will be tough to get more than $120 and you might wind up sitting on it a while. But then, who knows. I have been surprised quite a few times with grill sales.
 
Nice work Jon. Local Walmarts around here blew some of those out
for $99 recently. That is never good for our business. I sell those grills
for $90 to $100 here now, and have for the last 3 years in that type of
condition. The key word there is sell. Around here a $125 kettle
will be posted forever and never sell.
I also frequently include chimney starters and bags of charcoal with these
grills as well. Many times they come with the grills I am buying.
 
The joys of being a seller

Well, I decided to be a little bold and start out at $125 on OfferUp. Got my first reply right away - an "offer" of $20. No typo there:rolleyes:. I told him thanks but that he wasn't even close pointing out the new price at Lowe's. He said "that is new yours used" followed up with something that I guess was supposed to motivate me, "Cash." :rolleyes::rolleyes:

We will see. I plan to expand my listings as soon as I can. OfferUp is just so easy to post on.

https://offerup.com/item/detail/673728081/
 
LOL. Jon, I guess you can't blame the guy for trying. But when you have a fully rehabbed grill, it isn't something that most people just want to get rid of like they would an old, dirty grill taking up space in the garage. My guess is you paid more than $20 for that grill when you bought it dirty. I wouldn't be inclined to drop the price right now, but I would be prepared to take a little bit of a discounted offer probably. That thing is about as close to new as you will find.
 
That grill looks great Jon, very nice clean up. Can't help on the price as most people around here have gassers due to the summer fire restrictions. I know I've bought two performers and the platypus and a silver 22 kettle to make my kettle gasser. The silver I paid $25, one of the performers was $75 and the other was a never used blue 2011 performer I paid $100 and the platypus I got for $40. As you can see
not much demand for charcoal grills up here.
But comparing yours with a new one and with a new sweep and grate what's the difference really between yours and a new one.... not much. So I would hold out for awhile, your price seems fair.
 
it's a shame you weren't closer. Gladly would have paid $110 for it. we got a free 96 that i tried to fix up. All i need are the wooden handles but it is rough compared to what you got and I think i'm about $96-$100 deep in it lol.
 

 

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