How much to discount a plane

[Luis Reyes]

Hi Luis, what are your plane plans?

Some like Charles like the minimal approach to their shops and only want to work wood, not remove rust. Yes, they can do it all with just three bench planes and a block plane on the side.

Others enjoy the work of removing rust and bringing old tools back to life and using them, giving them away or selling them. Many of my expensive tools were paid for by restoring old tools. All that time spent and still being able to do woodworking when desired.

Still others like to be surrounded by a plethora of tools. If one gets dull, there is another on the shelf. One plane can be set up as a fine smoother another as a scrub plane while one more is set up in between. All kinds of possibilities.

My own choice on planes was to try to stay with one maker. The duds were stripped for parts for the ones that could be restored to a serviceable condition. This is easier than trying to keep separate storage for parts from different makers.

jtk

Jim, that's a great question!

I really want to do woodworking, however with a two year old at home I usually have limited time to do projects (I'm not very fast yet). I started hand planning so I could save money at the lumber yard and have quite enjoyed it. I may be going a little crazy in getting some hand planes but the part I enjoy about them is that it (a) is something I can do for a few minutes and then come back and continue and (b) perhaps have a couple of spare ones for parts laying around.

The question came up because there was a Millers falls no 9 with a broken handle that had been repaired and I was interested in buying it to have as a spare but then the seller wanted the same price that I had paid for my other no 9. I wanted to try and negotiate but I also wasn't sure what a fair price was.

[Jim Koepke]

Negotiating price can be tricky. The other person can always say no. At worst you might insult them if you are not careful.

That is where you need to develop tactics. Of course an important tactic is to know what the items you are buying are selling for on ebay and other places.

One tactic for me is if the person's price is more than double what my feeling of its worth is to say, "that is much more than I was expecting to pay." This doesn't make them feel like you are hitting them with a low ball price. Wait for them to ask what you were thinking of paying. Sometimes having different bills in different pockets can work. Pull out a five, ten or twenty and say, "this is all I have." Of course you can't do that and then try to buy more stuff from the same person. But you can pull out a bill and ask if they will take that.

Sometimes just a grimace will get them to lower their price. Don't be too quick to accept or reject a price. I have dealt with more than one person who would keep lowering their price as long as I stayed quiet.

Just be careful, one time in a junk shop there was an 8" sweep Stanley brace without a price tag. When asking about it, the person asked me what I would pay. I told her that I would likely only want to spend $2 on it. She said, "it's yours." She got me. I think that brace went to my grandson. It could surely have been sold for a good profit if I felt like taking on the task of selling it.

Remember, a lot of sellers will ask for a higher price because they know everyone is going to try and bargain with them for a lower price.

jtk

[steven c newman]

Usually...each defect I find, I subtract $5 - $10 off the asking price.....if both handles are cracked =$10....each missing part = depends on how much I would need to spend to buy a replacement part. FrankenPlanes? I'll offer $5....depending on how much I will need the various parts for the planes I have back in the shop....and go from there.