A question for all you Neander guys.......

[Mike Svoma]

My brother-in-law has approximately 100 planes of various number and manufacturers that he would like me to catalog and price for sale. I will be compiling the list with pictures sometime in the near future but I have no idea how to price them. Any suggestions on pricing information would be helpful.

Thanks.

Mike

[David Weaver]

completed auctions on ebay, and err on the low side if you want to sell them vs. making a list and fielding tire kickers' offers. Avoid text price guides, Jim Bode's site or Bob Kaune or any of the other sellers who ...never mind, I won't go into it. Just don't use their prices as a guide.

[Jim Koepke]

The pricing of old tools depends on many factors.

First would be what is being sold. Most common planes like a Stanley/Bailey #4 or #5 are common and some from particular years may bring a bit more, most go for prices in the $20-$30 range if they are not from a reputable dealer who stands behind what they are selling. Just this last weekend I passed on one that was marked at $10 because of a few problems, not the least of which is that there are already four of this size in my shop.

If you have some of the less common sizes like a #1 or #2, then condition and date of manufacture are important factors. My interest in these has waned in the last few years, but last time I looked the #1 was still in the $1,000 range and the #2 was still in the $200+ range.

Condition is very important for most people. Though a few times what certainly seemed like junk getting my low bid turned out to be good users. My intention was to get some parts. Often in the world of used tools it is cheaper to buy a broken tool for parts than to buy the parts by themselves.

So to learn the value, you need to know what is being sold.

Here is a post with a lot of links to help you understand what planes you have.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?104945-Plane-information

Patrick Leach (Supertool.com) has a monthly price list that can help with the pricing of some tools. His prices are at the higher end, but so are the tools he sells and stands behind.

Send me a PM and if you want links to some of his recent monthly listings.

Ebay's completed listings will show what items have sold for in recent auctions.

A few of the other online seller's pricing may also help you with pricing.

It also depends on where you plan to sell your collection. If you want to sell it all to the same person, it will be faster but will likely have to be discounted as they will likely want to resell a lot of the items.

If you are selling them at a yard sale or flea market, remember it is always easier to lower a price than to raise it. Also remember that there will be a lot of folks who will offer a lower price. Sometimes it is just to see if you will deal. This is one of my "buying techniques" used to find out more about sellers.

Also remember some tools are parts of sets. It may be possible to break up an item like a Stanley 45 into various parts and try to sell them individually. If it is priced properly as a complete item it will likely be easier to sell.

Good luck and if you like, send me a PM and if you have difficulty with figuring out what something might be I will try to help.

Currently I am not really in the market for more tools. Of course, that can always change if the right tool happens along.

jtk

[Jim Neeley]

+1 on David's post.

As for price guides, as David says, be careful if you want to actually sell them.

If you've ever had jewelry "appraised" and then tried to sell it for the appraisal value, you will know what I'm talking about. In the case of most jewelry, 50% is a better guideline. In the case of tools, completed auctions. When you see a completed auction at a high price be cautious as there are many, many things similarly priced out there for auction that never get a taker.

If on the other hand he wants to spend 6 months or more selling them and isn't in any rush, he can start high and keep dropping the price until they sell. It all depends on the amount of effort he wants to invest.

Just my $0.02.. YMMV.

Jim

[Jim Matthews]

Unless it's one of the Stanley mitering planes, he might be expecting the moon and the stars for what amounts to grains of sand on the beach.

Get him his own copy of the Leach catalog to do a little homework.
If you're the one telling him about actual sales value (and it's less than he anticipated) there might be hard feelings.

My two cents (having brokered musical instrument sales in the past) - everybody expects to get the top dollar value as at an auction house.
It's a recipe for keeping stuff in the basement, instead of sold...

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Be honest - you're the guy with the set of Millers Falls on eBay, just coming around to your senses, aren't you?

Just joking - good advice all around here.

If you go the eBay route, I've sold some questionable tools on there for good prices by taking the time to document any flaws and condition well, and be honest about things, and include lots of photos, be available to answer questions, and take returns. That makes your auctions less of a risk over someon else A lot of folks would rather pay a little more for a plane and know what their getting than take a chance on that plane with one photo and two-sentence description (which is invariably wrong) that might be perfect or might have a huge crack on the other side.

I'd rather have a dozen poorly-taken photos showing every surface I could care about than 2 great "beauty" shots in front of a white sheet.

[Gary Herrmann]

If there are a lot of Stanleys, go to the library and see if they have John Walters' Stanley Tools book. That's another way of getting values.

Good luck.

[Mel Miller]

David's advice is right on. It's the easiest and most accurate way to see what things are actually selling for. If they are reasonable common there will be lots of examples in the completed listings for comparison.
If there happens to be some early scarce pieces, I could help give you an idea as I have collected that stuff for years.

Mel

[Mike Svoma]

Not worth the time and effort to go through them all. I told him that he should just sell them all in a garage sale. A lot of Stanley 4, 5, Craftsman, Ward, and so on. Nothing special.

255658

[Brian Thornock]

Holy Cow!:eek: I'll take a couple!:D

[David Weaver]

Garage sale is tough. If you could rent a booth at a local flea market and price them at something like 50-75% of ebay prices, you could unload a lot of them. There will always be tool flippers at any fairly large flea market. They will try to get them for nothing from you, but a garage sale is a good way to get people trying to buy them for a quarter.

Piles of bench planes are like having a thousand boat anchors. There's no easy quick way to get the market value back out of them.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I second David's comments on flea-market's vs. garage sales. Another approach may be to talk to someone at an antique mall or something along those lines - if there's someone with a booth that sells primarily tools, they might be willing to offer you some change for the whole lot. You won't get as much in the end, but if you calculate out what your time is worth to you, it might be a better price to you in the end.

Certainly, I wouldn't spend a lot of effort on trying to move no-name #4's and #5's, but jointer planes always seem to get enough money that I'd think about selling those on the ebay, just make sure you figure out what shipping is going to cost you so you don't get bit on that end.

double check there aren't anything like a #1 size (or even #2 size can get some good money) or like a corrugated #5 1/4.

If you were close to me, I'd offer to grab a few!