The fruitless search for locks to pick

[Thanshin]

While I progress through my cutout repinnable lock (I'm at 3/6 spools) I continue my search for locks to pick.

I've tried locksmiths in case they had discarded locks. Most are just key copiers and the one true locksmith place I found told me to try again in a month.
I've tried the large flea market, but the locksmith I found there precisely sold reconditioned locks, so he'd be more interested in buying discarded locks rather than selling them
I'm now searching on various second hand sale web sites like ebay, and others.

What other ideas do you have? Where do you find your locks? How much do you expect to pay for standard locks to play with?

[Thanshin]

I've now found a place where I can buy 20 used locks for 80€. (various brands: tesa ezcurra cvl azbe)

I have no idea whether that's a reasonable price.

[Squelchtone]

I've now found a place where I can buy 20 used locks for 80€. (various brands: tesa ezcurra cvl azbe)

I have no idea whether that's a reasonable price.

That sounds very reasonable!

[Thanshin]

I've now found a place where I can buy 20 used locks for 80€. (various brands: tesa ezcurra cvl azbe)

I have no idea whether that's a reasonable price.

That sounds very reasonable!

Thank you.

I'll take this chance to get locks to play with. Maybe by the time I've opened them all I'll have to learn to recognize a locks value by name.

[GWiens2001]

Most lock brands have several models of locks. Some, such as EVVA, you know will be good. Some, such as Fichet, vary in quality from very low to extremely high.

Also, the bitting of an individual lock can make a lock very easy to pick or extremely difficult to pick.

So you probably will not be able to determine how good a lock is by picking one or two locks from that brand. But you WILL be able to learn other important things, such as "does this brand use security pins, and if so, how good are they".

You can also take locks that you can get in Spain, and trade them with other people in Australia, Canada, Germany or the United States, since the brands and locks you can get may not be available in other countries, and vice versa.

Gordon

[Thanshin]

Also, the bitting of an individual lock can make a lock very easy to pick or extremely difficult to pick.

So you probably will not be able to determine how good a lock is by picking one or two locks from that brand. But you WILL be able to learn other important things, such as "does this brand use security pins, and if so, how good are they".

I count on repinning them. The limitation of the one lock I'm learning with is that it's always the same plug+casing, so I already know the picking order and I already got accustomed to that particular keyway shape (hard as it is).

I hope I'll be able to get value from even the worst locks by filling them with spools and serrated pins. (I'm not really sure whether that works or you need a high quality core to build upon).

You can also take locks that you can get in Spain, and trade them with other people in Australia, Canada, Germany or the United States, since the brands and locks you can get may not be available in other countries, and vice versa.

I'll keep that in mind. I think the seller is a locksmith who simply refurbishes discarded locks and sells them, so I suppose he will have an endless amount of such locks.

Also, once I've played with them, I won't have any use for most, so it makes sense to simply pass them along to some other forumite.

[Devhad]

There are a lot of businesses/non-profits popping up that sell used, salvaged house fixtures. Doors, windows, cabinets etc. I found one in my area that was reselling locks with keys for $2 a piece and scrapping the locks without keys. I talked to the manager and he was very excited to find someone willing to pay for the locks w/o keys. they even let me take the locks off a bunch of old doors they had in there inventory. I got some good ones and some junk but I now have a nice bucket full of locks for cheap.

[Fredo the Crow]

Some, such as Fichet, vary in quality from very low to extremely high.

I'm curious about what particular Fichet model you have in mind that qualify as "very low quality"? Unless you are talking about destructive entry resistance and/or very antique stuff.

[Knots]

If you are near any indiir/outdoor storage centers or store it yourself places, the kind with the rows of garages people rent individually? Well if you're near any if those (I have 7 within 20 miles of me) you can call and ask them. When they have to open a unit due to payment failure they have to cut the locks, sometimes they are the crappy storage unit ones you can pick with a paperclip and a pop can top, but others are whatever the owner of the unit buys. A lot of storage places will toss these in a scrap bin, when they get a few pounds they take them to a scrap yard. I've gotten lucky a few times where they had 10 or 15 locks and they sell them to me for the price they would get for scrapping them, a couple bucks ar most. Usually they have been cut, which is fine for us as we don't intend to use them. At least not in the normal sense.
Fun story; there was an old building that used to be a post office. It had been closed for 5 years or so, mostly gutted and the new post office was a gleaming Beacon a shining verisimilitude of postal glory. The old husk had little value and was a target for riff raft and graffiti. One night I took a walk through the dilapidated structure and meandered through its central thoroughfare. Nothing in there but cobwebs, dust and the occasional sound of some small creature scurrying somewhere in the vicinity. No doubt to escape the lumbering human blindly making his way in the dark with tumultuous footfalls wreaking havoc on the rotted corpses of once pristine shelving units. I passed what must have been where the old counters stood, a partition between the often rude, always annoyed postal workers and the equally annoying scores of humanity sending and receiving parcels. I came then upon a wall that held for most nothing of interest but for me an intrinsic trove of treasure. Old and rusted though many of them were I found the post offices section of post office boxes. From here let's just assume I followed the letter of the law, that I made the appropriate calls and ensured that I could remove them legally.
I acquired maybe a dozen of the boxes, many of the slots that have the outer locks were broken and worthless. But the boxes themselves for the most part were intact. I built a shelf to house the six of them and it sits now in my basement, I've since fabricated keys for all six but I used to practice on them. They were fun but simple locks. All 5 pin, standard no safety or spool pins, but still fun. Anyway, I digress. Go on Craigslist, say "Wanted, locks, deadbolts etc. Will pay cash". If you don't get a response in the first two days I'll be surprised.

[Thanshin]

If you are near any indiir/outdoor storage centers or store it yourself places, the kind with the rows of garages people rent individually?

Thanks for the ideas. I don't think we have storage centers in Spain, though. I mostly know about them from the movies.

Anyway, I found a constant source of locks at about 3~4€ each, that's essentially composed of home main door locks, so a large proportion are high security. I bought the first 33 and I'm already advancing through them.

[kwoswalt99-]

Some, such as Fichet, vary in quality from very low to extremely high.

I'm curious about what particular Fichet model you have in mind that qualify as "very low quality"? Unless you are talking about destructive entry resistance and/or very antique stuff.

Maybe he means Vachette? Though Vachette doesn't have any products that I would call extremely high quality.

[Fredo the Crow]

Radial NT+ and Axi'Home ain't too shabby though! And Assa Abloy rarely invest in bad companies...

[WestCoastPicks]

Amazon has some locks. Ebay has some locks. Any locksmith ship should sell american clones abus clones or straight up american and abus.

You can go through home depot, rona, whatever hardware store.
Dollar stores. Car shops.

It might be easier to tell us what kind of locks you're looking for. If you're willing to spend money, it shouldn't be hard to find locks.
Depending on what kind of lock I'm buying I pay anywhere from $5 to $150 per lock.

Any standard abus or american padlock should go for $15 - $20. Anything mul-t-lock starts at around $50 ad go up to $200. Medeco can be had for around $150. Depending on what kind of lock you are looking for will dictate the price range.

Most of us have to buy the locks we pick, some of us trade but you must have stock to trade first. If I were you I would start on the $20 american and abus padlocks. They are all over ebay and amazon for $20. Any locksmith shop should have them.

Or if you ask real nice, someone here might trade or sell you one.

[gademsky]

I am new, and I found best for me was to drive around town on a Saturday morning and stop at all the garage sales. While most didn't have any locks out for sale, I politely told the sellers I was learning to pick locks and did they have any, even without keys that I could buy to practice on.

Many people said yes, ran inside and brought me a few locks. Most without keys and many people just gave those to me. Last Saturday I got about 20 with 3 hours effort. Nothing was high security, but all were good for me to practice on. Already opened 7, not including the warded locks(all of those I opened very quickly).

[Shifty1]

I just stick to regional lock brands. There are just to many varieties of lock to become overly involved. Plugs and pins are all that count...and lots of practice. Peace out and pick a lock