Prices, my goodness!

ErichL

New member
Hi folks,

New to the cast iron scene, even though I've been cooking with cast iron for many years.

I've been through sets of Calphalon, All Clad, and other sets of pans through the years, but I always come back to my good old cast iron pans passed down to me by my grandmother. Now, that's all I use. Well, them and some enameled cast iron dutch ovens.

Recently, I've taken an interest in vintage cast iron. I live in Scottsdale, AZ and a store in Payson, AZ had a corner full of old cast iron. I found a Favorite Piqua with a smiley face that is just fantastic. It is so much lighter than my new Lodge, and even lighter than my grandma's pans!

I paid $40 bucks for it, took it home and cleaned/seasoned it and I love it.

I began researching in earnest. This site as well as others, and I began searching for cast iron online.

I also began to visit other antique and thrift stores in northern AZ. What I found was it is slim pickings folks!! I mean, wow, cast iron must be very popular in Arizona because good collectables are as rare as hens teeth! Where on earth do AZ people find collectable cast iron?

So, I began looking online. I'm not averse to spending money on quality things. But holy smokes..... The prices of cleaned and seasoned collectable cast iron is just breathtaking!

Prices ranging from $100 to $400 for individual pieces are common! Yikes! When did these prices spike? I've seen pans on posts from just a few years ago bought for a fraction of these prices, so I wonder, did cast iron suddenly become really popular?
 
The shortage of locally available iron may be directly related to local people running online "boutique" iron shops where they price single pieces at $400.
If you check auction sites like ebay.com, you will find the prices, though somewhat high, are much more realistic. And with a little patience you can get good quality pans in the $30 to $80 range; Cheaper than your All Clad.
The other great option is to hound out flea markets and yard sales, but remember the same people with online shops that clean out all the antique shops do the same thing, so you need to get there before they do. That usually means getting to yard sales before they start!
And the spike in prices, that is probably related to the trendiness of cast iron in contemporary hipster culture combined with the now widely published findings that synthetic cookware coatings containg/produce toxic and/or hormone disrupting chemicals.
That's my two cents.
Benjamin
 
You can still get some good deals if you try. I will admit one of my most productive weekends was while traveling 700 miles from home last summer, but yielded some very nice pieces at some very reasonable prices. I keep a spreadsheet of my collection, what I paid, where it came from. The last 200 pieces, cost including any tax or shipping, averaged just over $27 each. The least expensive price-wise was a WWSO #3 pie logo for $2.99 (plus $10 shipping). But also in there were #10 Wagners, a#10 Griswold LBL HR, a Griswold#27 wheat stick pan, a #12 Favorite Piqua, and several Wagner and Griswold toy CI cookware pieces, to name a few.
 
I spent the last few days in the upper peninsular of MI. I was taken back on how expensive the CI was up there.

The same #3 Griswold that I paid $10 for ant an antique shop in southern WI, was going consistently for $40 up there and there was a bunch of them.
 
I found a Griswold Iron mountain #3 at a yard sale yesterday for $2. I had to ask the person if they had any cast iron, he said he had one tiny pan. He had to go get it and I sure didn't argue when he asked $2 for it. :)
 
Erich L, I see what you mean! According to some searching I did online today, I own some "valuable" pieces of CI. Now anything is only worth what someone will give you for it, so I think some online sellers are very optimistic! I know we had astounding luck at finding good stuff for low prices, but I'm appreciating the collection even more now.
 
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