Buying Hand Planes on e-Bay

[Ken Muldrew]

A $10 dollar reserve for a beauty like that? Seems a little low to me.

Ken Muldrew [e-mail] (remove all letters after y in the alphabet)

[Silvan]

"Both wood pieces are painted black."

Yeah. Black as in *plastic*.

Unless I'm the idiot and someone who knows more about these than I do can tell me that they were manufactured with black lacquered wooden handles in the '70s or something.

[Ken Muldrew]

The handle and tote on my Stanley #7 are black lacquered wood. It's older than a 70s model but nobody would have used plastic handles in the 70s; that particular improvement is much more recent.

Ken Muldrew [e-mail] (remove all letters after y in the alphabet)

[John Thomas]

Silvan wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Mike,

I think the MIE ones are typically ok. The 'kidney hole' lever cap isn't a sign of badness, per se; it's just a really easy way to identify older vs newer planes, and it's a really easy thing to point out via pictures (ie, shopping on ebay, or as a way to help identify rough age if you find something at a flea market, yard sale, what have you); and it's also based on the assumption that the plane is completely of the same vintage (IOW, that someone hasn't just thrown a bunch of pieces from random planes together). (The hole shape changed from 'straight' to 'kidney' ca 1940 or so; in 'type speak' it's the demarcation between a type 15, and type 16 plane s-- which brings up a whole 'nother issue. Do a google search for 'stanley plane dating' and you'll turn up a number of different websites that have slightly different ways to ID how old a given plane is. It's an 'art', rather than a 'science').

As for the flatness of the sole, just lay a straightedge along the sole; if you don't see big honkin' gaps underneath, you're most likely ok. Don't stress over 'slivers' of light, especially if away from the mouth.

The mouth on the Buck Bros plane I've got is visibly depressed around the edges -- it's clearly really hosed. It looks almost like it was punched out of the sole, rather than cast in, it's that bad, and that visible.

Hang in there ...

Regards,

JT

[Patrick Olguin (O'Deen)]

Ok, I can see a lot of corn-fusion here. Although the seller isn't a genius at explaining that the tote and knob (those pieces of wood) are painted black, he's almost certainly correct in the description. That is, planes of the apparent variety pictured (type 18, 1946-47) did indeed have hardwood knob/tote painted black.

This picture looks like painted wood:

the $10 is not the reserve, but the opening bid. Opening bids really don't mean squat on ebay, except when they're stupidly high.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Oh yeah. I'm a plane guy. ;)

O'Deen

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[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 26 Sep 2003 18:56:18 GMT, [e-mail] (Ken Muldrew) pixelated:

It's not a $10 reserve. It's a start price and has nothing to do with the reserve price he has set. The reserve is likely $40 or $50. And it's not a real beauty, at least not to me, though it's hard to tell from his bad pictures. Something about it feels too "new". Those knobs may be plastic.

-- Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ---- --Unknown

[dave]

I just contacted the seller off-line about his tools after checking his ratings on eBay, standard disclaimer. He has NO negatives and better than 600 positives. He seeems to be a helpful and reasonable sort. He has a mild interest in tools although his main interests are in trains and other toys. Since he says that the handles are "painted", I suspect that they are, plastic is pretty obvious, look at any Corsair. I have some "old" Stanleys with painted knobs and totes. My older ones don't. Write him and ask if you are curious, his e-mail is therailfence at dcr dot net

Dave in Fairfax

[JackD]

It isn't that hard. If the blade is new and sharp, you don't need to do a whole lot of sharpening to get it in decent shape.

Next time you buy, mention about feedback in your followup message. Tell the seller you will leave feedback after you get the item and check it out and you would appreciate them leaving feedback as well. After 90 days the option to leave feedback expires. If you really want I'll sell you some the rare

1997 penny I happen to have in my pocket for a couple cents and you can get some glowing feedback. I also have an ultra-rare only been used to buy gum 2001 nickel that I'm planning on listing with a reserve of five cents. Let me know if you are interested and we can set this up.

Sniping is the most logical way to buy. It is the equivalent of a sealed bid auction. The presence or absence of snipers on an auction should not change the price you are willing to pay. The winner is always the person who is willing to pay the most for it.

-Jack

[Steve Turner]

Yeah, I don't think the handles on that particular plane are plastic; the plane doesn't look new enough. If you inspect the third picture close enough the tote looks wood to me. Of course the front knob could be a plastic replacement.

At some po> Silvan wrote:

[Steve Turner]

This seller is one whose intelligence I'd be more inclined to question:

description doesn't suck completely, and the seller seems to know he has a fairly desirable plane for sale, but those pictures are a friggin JOKE, and the initial asking price is just ridiculous.

Patrick Olgu> Silvan wrote:

[John F]

> The description doesn't suck completely, and the seller seems to know he has a

Someone did an analysis once of the prices on Ebay auctions, and I believe they found that the auctions that generated the highest prices were ones that had an initial bid of $1. I guess it's sort of like test driving a car, once you do you have an emotional attachment. If you are winning for a low price for a few days, you start to think of the item as "yours", then you are willing to bid high at the end of the auction in the excitement. So, the seller is probably doing the smart thing from his point of view.

[Leon]

Since he says that the handles are "painted", I suspect

Could be painted plastic.... ;~)

[Joe Wells]

Just curious, did you leave positive feedback for the sellers in the auctions that you won? Leaving your feedback first would probably remind them to reciprocate. I usually don't check to see if the seller has left feedback before I leave mine. If all is OK, I just do it. Most of the time I get the feedback one way or another.

Did those sellers have big feedback numbers, or were they newbies? If the seller isn't experienced, they may forget, not understand the feedback system, or just not understand how important it is. A friendly e-mail can do wonders here. I usually send an e-mail when the item arrives and I've had a chance to check it out. That's a pretty good time to bring up feedback.

Remember, you're really dealing with individuals, not eBay.

[Tim Foecke]

The ones with the $1 starting bid are most likely to be shilled, too.

[Silvan]

OK then, I'll go on record once and for all and admit that *I* am the idiot here, and I owe the guy an apology.

[Silvan]

Yeah, but I've demonstrated that I suck at sharpening plane irons freehand, even a little. I round them over, and they don't cut worth a damn when I'm through with them. I've been experimenting with a low quality block plane, and the more I fool with it, the worse it gets. I've ground off 1/4 of the iron and still haven't gotten it right.

I ordered the Veritas jig Friday, thanks to lovely SWMBO for sharing some of her craft show money with me (she made $400 this year at a one day show, which was pretty cool!), so hopefully really soon now I'll be sharpening everything perfectly. Sometimes you really just need to suck it up and buy the right tool for the job.

I've done that. Nobody bothered to hold up their end of the deal.

Heh... We could do this if I ever really need to be able to bid one one of those items that require a minimum level of feedback. I really appreciate the offer, but for the moment I'm broke, and I'm going to be broke for a good bit yet, so I'm not seriously looking at buying anything anyway.

All true. Snipers are just annoying because they make you think you're really going to get it that cheap, and then whammo, somebody comes along to pay a more reasonable, or sometimes an extraordinarily unreasonable price at the last second.

Also because auctions almost never end when I will actually be around to snipe them myself. ;)

[Ken Muldrew]

Around here, those puppies are rare and expensive. I had to look for ages just to find one that was cracked and welded, and I had to pay quite a bit for it too.

BTW, thanks to you and O'Deen for the ebay lesson.

Ken Muldrew [e-mail] (remove all letters after y in the alphabet)