Tom makes some great points.

For me every plane purchase was a balance of the price tag, how much the seller might budge, how much work and/or cost of parts were going to go into putting it in good working order.

A few times this thought process also considered the value of the individual parts if they had to be sold separately to make back my money if the plane was a junker.

Turning a sow's ear into a silk purse may not always be possible, but sometimes you can come close or put a good deal of cash back into your purse.

One of my experiences with this was a #5 plane that looked like a piece of junk on ebay. I wanted it for the low style knob and tote. Turned out the pictures were terrible and the plane was actually a pretty good buy for less than a blade set was getting on ebay at the time (less than $17 iirc). That plane is still in my shop and is one of my go to jack planes.

jtk