I will just leave this here


 
In my high school, they put in vending machines. One kid was there for a drivers Ed class later in the evening. He decided he would stick his arm up and grab some chips. He did and he pulled a couple of those twisted wire rails that hold the chips and candy bars and trashed them. He tried one too many times and got his arm stuck in the machine. It took two hours for the vendor to send someone out late in the evening to get the kid out. Not only did he have to endure two hours of laughing and snickering and a royal A$$ chewing by the administration, but he had to pay several hundred dollars in damages.
 
Joe Anshien said:
Can someone tell me what I am looking at? It looks like a late model Q3x with a custom charcoal insert? I am confused. Where was this pic found btw?
Thanks
Joe
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Joe, that is a CharQ. Weber made them for about a two year run about ten years ago. They never really caught on but they are highly sought after now.
They are the same size as a Q200.
 
Bruce said:
In my high school, they put in vending machines. One kid was there for a drivers Ed class later in the evening. He decided he would stick his arm up and grab some chips. He did and he pulled a couple of those twisted wire rails that hold the chips and candy bars and trashed them. He tried one too many times and got his arm stuck in the machine. It took two hours for the vendor to send someone out late in the evening to get the kid out. Not only did he have to endure two hours of laughing and snickering and a royal A$$ chewing by the administration, but he had to pay several hundred dollars in damages.
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The dumb stuff we did as kids.... Lucky we are mostly still alive with all fingers and toes.
 
Jim Owen said:
Yeah I figured it wouldn't be a flipper. Looks like this one is from 2006, I think. It looks like you can still get burners, heat diffusers, and grates for it. They want $50 and I'm sure I could probably negotiate down at least a little.
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I have seen quite a bunch of these for sale and wondered the same thing. They look nice, but they stay on sale for ever and go really cheap. I never saw anywhere mention that they were 304. The reviews were quite mixed when I read up on them. I think they are very attractive grills, and wondered about giving one a go some time. With a few parts and a good shine it may sell. People are generally drawn to shiny objects.
 
I sold mine for $225 with a cart....one of those fold up kind. They guy drove over 200 miles to meet me to pick it up.
 
Bruce said:
I sold mine for $225 with a cart....one of those fold up kind. They guy drove over 200 miles to meet me to pick it up.
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Nice going! I think I would have mail ordered a new PKGO instead if I were him, but I am not a collector, just a cheap BBQer.
 
Jon Tofte said:
I am mostly a collector who flips to fuel my habit :coolkettle: . I think most of us would agree that when you factor in ALL the time you spend getting grills, disassembling, etc., organizing and obtaining parts, doing all the cleaning, painting and putting it all back together - only then to have to babysit online sale sites - that your return per hour is generally not very stellar. I think Dave in KC has the business end of this down the best of any I have seen on our board. He has a very good read of the pulse of his market and has learned how to spy out winners. He does great work but also avoids the sentimental, time consuming minor stuff that bogs me down and makes it hard to get a decent return. He wisely saves that for his personal collection grills.

I am sure we all would agree that having a decent sized shop with good lighting, temperature control, and ventilation would be a big help. Up until now I have never really been able to have my parts in an organized, dry place where each job can be done efficiently. My new house has two sheds, the larger of which is not totally adequate but the closest I am like to have toward this goal. I hope to have some stuff to post about that soon.

Finally, having decent tools is a must. That is another cost if you don't already have that. If you can go more exotic, it would be dream come true to be able to sand blast your own stuff. From what I can see that would be prohibitively expensive, though.

All in all, this is a fun hobby if you like working with your hands and seeing something old and ugly become beautiful and useful again. That's the real reward in my mind. Enjoying grilling and a little bit about the history of Weber (and other companies) also helps. I wouldn't advocate quitting a day job to restore grills - even Dave doesn't do that. However, you CAN make some money and have fun at the same time.
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I am really so glad to have found this group. This is such a fun hobby, but not nearly as fun if I was: A) vegetarian or B) Not making some $$. I do try to aim for $15 to $20 per hour on a grill. Sometimes its more, sometimes less. My best was about a $400 profit on a Summit that just needed cleaning up. I broke even on at performer I used to satisfy my smoking a brisket and turkey urge when I decided to go back to charcoal again. I now have a nice Performer with SS pop up shelf ($50). I have never lost money on a grill! If you count some of the non-Weber grills I started out on that I had to make new burner mounts and some sheet metal stuff, I am sure it came down to pennies an hour. I don't have any parts grills. As soon as I pickup a grill, I order the least expensive parts I can find on Amazon, clean it up, tested, photos, and get it listed on FB, Nextdoor, and CL in about 3-5 days thanks to Prime. I have been paying $7 for casters (finally can fix most of them now) $24 for grates, $16 for drip pan and holder, $8 for igniter, $20 for Burner tube sets, and $20 - $30 for Flavorizers. With the flavorizers most only need one or 2 so I do keep the salvageable ones and replace just what is needed. I find people don't care about the mm of grates or even materials. Sometimes I spend about 5 minutes touching them up with some high temp paint, a lot of times I don't. They just want a fairly clean, totally working Weber. I pick them up from $0 - $30 usually, and just replace what is not salvageable or working. I almost never have more than $60 invested after parts. I sell the grills for $120 - $150 ( a little more in peak season) and try not to have more than 2-3 hours of work on them. I am selling clean, fulling functioning, reliable grills that will outlast almost any new grill out there, at a fraction of the price. They are not new, they are not museum pieces. They are meant to cook and get greasy. Oh almost forgot to mention I through in a new grease trey liner in with each grill! I also give them some good advice, like keep the grill covered and take it apart and clean it at least once / year if they want it to last. I think of it as a public service really;-)
 
Joe, I am with you. It is a hobby for me. I cannot call it a source of income, because I could probably make as much changing oil at Walmart.
If I didn't enjoy doing it and get fulfillment out of bringing a curb alert grill back to a $300 grill, I wouldn't do it.
 
I am really a collector who does rehabs to fuel his habit. I see the merits in keeping things simple and working on increasing profits. I hope to try doing that some. But, I am also with Bruce that my real joy comes from restoring old, classic Webers and bringing them back to new. It’s fun to share a true American classic with people who have become used to throwaway import grills that flood the front of big box stores every Spring. I have parts to make several first generation Genesis grills. I hope to sell them at a high enough price to make the extra effort worthwhile.
 
Jon Tofte said:
I am really a collector who does rehabs to fuel his habit. I see the merits in keeping things simple and working on increasing profits. I hope to try doing that some. But, I am also with Bruce that my real joy comes from restoring old, classic Webers and bringing them back to new. It’s fun to share a true American classic with people who have become used to throwaway import grills that flood the front of big box stores every Spring. I have parts to make several first generation Genesis grills. I hope to sell them at a high enough price to make the extra effort worthwhile.
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Jon - I have been in awe of some of the rebuilds I have seen on this forum. I can not believe the level of detail in the restores I have seen and really enjoy them. Since I am basically unemployable in my career in computers at this age of 59, I really wanted to find a hobby I enjoy and can make money at. I have found that people around here are willing to only pay so much for an old Weber, no matter how great it comes out. They will actually pay more for a newer one that is an "upgrade" for them. It maybe that there are a lot of young folks moving in, and with student loans and home prices, I am not sure how much they are willing to dish out for a grill. I like fixing things and hate to see waste. So far I have fixed up and sold 38 grills and 48 sofas and pieces of leather furniture, as well as some lawn mowers, microwaves, mini fridges, vacuums, etc. In the last 2 years I have saved a lot of stuff from the landfill, and made over $15K. The amount of sofas probably will drop off as they are getting harder for my wife and I to move. Attached is a pic one of my leather sofas
 

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Got a neighbor around the corner. He's an old body/fender guy. Was doing a pretty big business out of his own garage. Then about 4 or 5 years ago I don't notice the stream of bent vehicles outside. So walking by I stopped and chatted. Seems he's using his painting and finishing skills to fix up old tables (mostly dining room tables) and hutches and stuff. He only finds heirloom quality wood pieces that are beat and neglected. He then uses his body shop equipment and skills to refinish those pieces. Went in his basement and he's got a regular furniture store down there. He said he's making very good money and it's easier work than metal
 
After a few medical problems and age, it is easier to roll grills around then move furniture, especially by yourself. I have lots of dollies now, but getting the furniture out of peoples homes and into the van is not something that I look forward to. We may be moving in a year or so and thought about a hoist system in the next garage. It sounds like he is doing better than me. I aim for $500 - $700 per month but sometime less and sometimes more - depending on how lucky at finding stuff I am.
 
I also did this as a hobby and it was kind of fun while it lasted. But I stopped restoring grills mainly because of the dirty work and time I spent. Cleaning out fireboxes down to bare metal with a wire brush just takes time and is nasty work with all that dust. And scraping the inside of lids to make them shiny as new was no fun either. With the complete dis-assembly of frame, lid, burners, ... the cleaning and the painting of frame, firebox, lid panels, ... I probably spent way more than 10h per grill. On top of that at least $60 on parts for grates, burners, flavorizer bars, caster wheels, igniters, ... And then trying to sell them for $200+ had become a challenge. But the final straw was finding the grills. Just for curiosity I am still checking all the usual pages but cheap old Weber grills for less than $30-50 don't seem to exist anymore. At least where I live. In the past 18 months or so I may have come across 3-5 potential rehab candidates. All the others are way too expensive to make any profit at all. Not sure what changed.
 
Stefan H said:
I also did this as a hobby and it was kind of fun while it lasted. But I stopped restoring grills mainly because of the dirty work and time I spent. Cleaning out fireboxes down to bare metal with a wire brush just takes time and is nasty work with all that dust. And scraping the inside of lids to make them shiny as new was no fun either. With the complete dis-assembly of frame, lid, burners, ... the cleaning and the painting of frame, firebox, lid panels, ... I probably spent way more than 10h per grill. On top of that at least $60 on parts for grates, burners, flavorizer bars, caster wheels, igniters, ... And then trying to sell them for $200+ had become a challenge. But the final straw was finding the grills. Just for curiosity I am still checking all the usual pages but cheap old Weber grills for less than $30-50 don't seem to exist anymore. At least where I live. In the past 18 months or so I may have come across 3-5 potential rehab candidates. All the others are way too expensive to make any profit at all. Not sure what changed.
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Stephan, I think in my area they seen the refurbished ones going for $200 to $300 and think their old junker is worth $100 or more. No cheap ones here anymore either.
 
I definitely think more people are asking higher prices, but in my area it is all over the place. Still see some reasonable candidates for $25 or so but also plenty of junk for $250-$300.
 
I am seeing it right now with mixers. People asking insane prices for broken down junk. Beat to hell, missing accessories and so on. It's really cutting into my inventory of salable units. Right now I am down to 2 6qt machines pre sold. One I have to build and one is done, I just have to "detail" it to get all my paw marks off it and any residue from my daughter giving it a test bake. So it will leave me with one 6qt machine not built yet and one 5qt tilt head Artisan I just went to Madison to get on Wednesday that I need to rebuild yet. That one will cut a bit into profit. Owner said it was making a "noise". Usually just a minor issue. This time I have to replace the entire motor internals (armature and field coils). Thankfully I have a good stock of those items. I bought out a dealer and got a whole box full of each for the cost of one. But that's how you turn a buck. If I hadn't had them, I would have to part this one out and sell it for scrap. Nice unit otherwise though.
But sadly once these are gone it'll be a loooong time before I have anything to sell again. This hoarding culture has people thinking that these old machines are made of gold. And if they slap the word "antique" on it the price doubles. I guess I could hold out. Renege on the pre solds and raise the asking prices but I totally refuse to do that. I will close my shop before I turn to thieving
 
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