Stanley foam rubber saw and United electric fabric shears, $5.

EZE, Chandler, Bosch and Stanley make the most popular brands of foam rubber cutters. You should make it a point to learn as much as you can about industry-specific specialty tools like electric foam rubber saws and electric fabric shears. They cost a bundle to buy new and they sell very well on eBay. But most importantly, they are out there waiting for you to come and find them!

These two items were in a box together, a five-dollar purchase at a local thrift shop. They probably came in to the shop together, too, likely from a furniture shop, or maybe from a shop that worked on automotive or marine interiors.

This was a no-brainer buy based on limited supply. Think about it - you can't just go into your local Walmart or other super discount store and get either of these items, simply because the store wouldn't be able to sell enough of them to pay for their shelf space. How many of these heavy duty, American-made, industrial-strength cloth cutters do you think Walmart could sell, as compared to cheapo Chinese-made cordless electric scissors?

And as for the Stanley foam rubber saw, just how often does the average person have to cut through 6" thick slabs of foam rubber? How often do most folks have the occasion to require anything even vaguely similar to the job this foam saw is designed to perform? Right - never.

So there you have it. With specialized tools like these, we often see relatively low production numbers, which correlates directly with higher per unit costs. And as for thir age, well, it's obvious that these tools weren't made yesterday. But there's little rocket science in the job they perform, which means that they'd be in constant use in any upholstery shop they were found in.

The Stanley foam cutter sold on eBay for $122, but a comparable Bosch foam cutter unit may bring twice that amount. The United Fabric cloth cutter sold on eBay for $52.50