No. 9 Plane in the Wild
Todd Hughes
>Went to my wed. auction yesterday getting there pretty early. Go inside and i see this" Tool Guy" that I sort of know from antiques shows I've never seen him here and we talk some and he tells me this is the first time he has been to the auction in about 5 years, wish him luck and i turn around and walk past this table and there setting right under a windsor chair is a Stanley no. 9 block Plane ! Complete with the hot dog side handle I didn't want to pick it up on the slim chance that this fellow hadn't seen it so i kept walking. Talked with my friend Dr. Jim who had seen it too and told me so have the other guy so we go and check it out. Plane is dirty and some surface rust but nothing major and would clean up to excellent condition I think. Guy says to me "are we going to lock horns?" I just smiled and said it is a nice plane.It was on the second table so we didn't have long to wait.Had Jim hold it up for the opening bid of $10 then he dropped out and the new tool guy and some other bidder go for a few bids till the other guy drops out at $60[!?] and then I got in. Bidding was steady and finally at $1,300 I droped out and it sold for $1,400 . Jim and me had agreed to go in as partners on it to sell and sort of talked about going to $1,000 but I figured I would hit it a couple more times.Dr. Jim said he almost hit it $1,500 but didn't. Was a nice plane that books for $1,700 - $2,000+ but I am not sure what I could have sold it for I was sort of thinking $17-$18 and just didn't think the profit margin was there to go any higher. Went and talked to the winner and he seemed like a nice enough guy , really no hard feelings and that is as it should be though we did kid that we sure wish the other guy had staid home that day! Think we both wish that we had flipped a coin or somthing. I do think if he wasn;t there I could have gotten it for less then a $100 and would have a record gloat.Was funny because the plane that sold for $1,400 was the talk of the auction and quite a few people came up to me and asked me what it was. I told them $1,400 !? I thought I was bidding $13.00 !.......Todd, who did sell a slide rule for $1,900+ that he found at this auction for nothing a few weeks ago!