Every stolen tool has a buyer, and that is what makes stealing them worth doing. Take the buyers away and the vans stop getting broken into. This is the other half of tool theft, and it is the half a tradesperson can actually control, because you are the market.
It is also the half where you carry risk yourself. If a tool you bought turns out to be stolen, you lose the tool AND the money, you have no claim against the person who sold it to you, and depending on the circumstances you may have a bigger problem than that.
Why second-hand is worth doing anyway
We are not telling you to buy everything new. Good tools last decades, a used tool from a retiring tradesperson is often better value than a new one from a discount brand, and kitting out a first van at retail prices is how people end up on a credit card at 24%.
The used market is legitimate and most of it is honest. The point of this guide is to keep you in the honest part of it.
What you are risking
The tool goes back to its owner. If a serial number is traced, the tool goes back to the person it was stolen from. You are not compensated. Your money went to whoever sold it and they are not answering their phone.
Receiving stolen property is a crime everywhere in the United States. The word carrying the weight is "knowingly", and it is less protective than it sounds. Nobody has to prove you were told it was stolen. The facts around the purchase are what get weighed: a price far below anything reasonable, no paperwork, cash only, a stranger in a parking lot, a serial number ground off. A tradesperson buying a $600 tool for $80 with no box and no receipt is describing a set of facts that speaks for itself.
Your insurance will not help. A tools and equipment policy covers your tools. It does not cover money paid to a thief.
The checks, in the order that actually saves you
1. Ask for the serial number before you travel. This is the single best filter and it costs one message. A genuine seller reads it off the tool. A thief stalls, sends a photo with the plate cropped out, or says the tool is "already boxed up". You have learned what you needed to know without leaving the yard.
2. Look at the serial plate itself when you get there. Ground off, drilled out, scratched, or a fresh sticker over where it should be, and you walk. There is no innocent reason for a missing serial number.
3. Ask what it was used for and who used it. An honest seller has a story with a job in it. "It was my dad's", "I bought it and never used it", "it came with a job lot" told with no detail is the answer people give when they have not been supplied with a story.
4. Ask for the receipt or the box. Not conclusive, and plenty of legitimate sellers threw the box out years ago. But a receipt, a warranty card or the original case moves the odds a long way.
5. Look at the batteries. A cordless tool sold with no batteries and no charger has often been taken from a van where the batteries were on charge somewhere else. Mismatched brands on a matched tool is the same tell.
6. Be suspicious of a set. One tradesperson selling one tool is ordinary. One person selling five identical top-end tools, or a spread across four brands that nobody would own together, is a van's worth of somebody's living.
7. Think about the price honestly. Everyone wants a deal, and that is the exact instinct being exploited. A tool at a third of its value is not a bargain, it is a signal, and the seller is relying on you wanting it to be a bargain.
Where the safe second-hand tools actually come from
The good end of this market is not a stranger in a parking lot, and it is worth knowing where to look instead.
Retirement and closing-down sales. Someone leaving the trade after thirty years, selling a coherent kit they can tell you the history of. This is the best second-hand buying there is, and the tools have usually been looked after because they earned that person a living.
Auction houses and liquidators, where the lot has a documented chain of ownership and an invoice at the end of it.
Tool hire companies selling ex-fleet stock, which arrives serviced, with paperwork, and often with the service history.
Other tradespeople you actually know, changing brand or changing trade.
Every one of those comes with the two things a dodgy sale never has: a person who can tell you where the tool came from, and a piece of paper.
The one that catches good people
The dangerous purchase is not the obviously dodgy one in a parking lot at 9pm. It is the one from someone you half know. A mate of a mate, a laborer off a site, somebody who "does a bit of clearing".
That is where the checks feel rude and get skipped. Ask anyway. Anyone genuine will not mind, and the ones who do mind have told you something.
If you think a tool is stolen
Do not confront the seller and do not try to recover it yourself. Walk away, then note what you have: the listing, the profile name, the phone number, the meeting place, any photos, and the serial number if you saw it.
Report it. The tradesperson it was taken from is doing what you would be doing, which is checking marketplaces every night hoping to see their own kit.
The part that makes all of it work
None of these checks are possible unless owners record their serial numbers. A buyer who wants to check cannot check against nothing.
So the two halves of this are the same job. Photograph and record the serial number of every tool you own, before anything happens to it. Our Equipment Register at /tools/equipment-register will do it, and any spreadsheet will too. It is what makes your tool identifiable if it is taken, and it is what lets an honest buyer refuse it.
Stolen Tools UK, who we work with across this network, exist because of exactly this: a stolen tool is only worth stealing while it is easy to sell.
Common questions
Can I get in trouble for buying stolen tools by accident?
Receiving stolen property is a crime in every US state, and "knowingly" is judged on the facts around the purchase. A very low price, no paperwork, cash only and a missing serial number are the facts that get weighed against you.
How do I check if a used tool is stolen?
Ask for the serial number before you travel and look at the serial plate in person. A removed, ground-off or covered serial is the clearest signal there is. Ask for a receipt, the box or the original case as well.
What if I already bought a tool that turns out to be stolen?
It goes back to its owner and you are not compensated. You have no practical claim against the seller and your tool insurance does not cover money paid to a thief. Report what you know about the seller.
Is it safe to buy tools on Facebook Marketplace?
The platform is not the problem, the checks are. Ask for the serial before you travel, inspect the plate, ask what the tool was used for, and treat a price far below market as a warning rather than a win.
Why do cordless tools get sold without batteries?
Often innocently. But tools taken from a van are frequently taken while the batteries are on charge elsewhere, so a bare tool with no charger and mismatched battery brands is worth asking about.
How does recording my own serial numbers help?
It makes your tool identifiable if it is stolen, and it lets an honest buyer refuse it. A buyer who wants to check has nothing to check against unless owners record them first.
The honest bit
Almost every tradesperson has bought something second-hand and not asked too many questions. It is not usually greed. It is a good tool at a good price when money is tight, and a quiet decision not to think about it too hard.
We are not going to be sanctimonious about that. What we will say is that the person whose tools were taken is someone exactly like you, who lost a week's work and a deductible and the specific screwdriver they had used for eleven years, and the reason it happened to them is that somebody knew they could sell it.
You cannot stop tools being stolen. You can make them harder to sell, and that is the same thing eventually.
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