I did some digging, made some phone calls, and was lucky enough to get a one-time, one-day-only opportunity to pick through this collection. As I kind of expected, many of the skillets were in rough shape-Very rusty, covered in too much crud to see possible cracks, and many with obvious cracks. He had a pretty good idea of the going price for clean pieces, and was holding pretty firm on asking about half that price, regardless of condition. That's a big gamble to take on pieces that you couldn't be sure of. He said he had a pretty good offer on the whole lot and was reluctant to part out too much of it before letting that person see them all first. I was going to take a #14 LBL for $200, but just couldn't gamble with the amount of crud on it. It was the best of the 4 I looked at. He had 2 other rooms with cast iron other than Griswold, and said he could make me better deals with those. probably 800 pieces. Also in rough shape. Lots of Wagner and Gate marked stuff, but some Wapak, Favorite Ware, Puritan, plus others. To make a LONG story short, I ended up with 41 pieces- non very high end, but some very unusual. Here's what I got:
#14 CAST IRON SKILLET 15 1/4" - I've seen it called unmarked Griswold
#10 GRISWOLD LBL Heat Ring
#10 GRISWOLD LBL smooth bottom
#10 Favorite Ware Piqua
#10 "WAGNER" straight line in the middle of the pan
#9 SMART - Brockville ONT
#9 Favorite Ware Piqua - Smiley Logo- outside HR
#9 GRISWOLD small logo, grooved handle
#9 WAPAK - straight line letters - outside HR
#9 VICTOR The Griswold MFG
#9 PURITAN outside HR
#9 PURITAN 1505, inset HR
#8 WAGNER SIDNEY O Arc logo, outside HR
#8 WAGNER SIDNEY O Arc logo, outside HR
#8 "WAGNER" Arc logo
#8 SIDNEY script logo
#8 Good Health by Griswold 658
#8 PURITAN inset HR
#8 VICTOR inset HR
#8 MARTIN STOVE & RANGE FLORENCE ALA. - not hamburger log
#8 SUPERIOR - CLEVELAND 208
#8 Favorite Ware - " THE BEST TO COOK IN "
#8 Favorite Ware Piqua - Smiley Logo - outside HR
#8 Favorite Ware Piqua- arc logo- outside HR
#8 Favorite Ware Piqua - arc logo with bolted on handle (I think added on)
#7 GRISWOLD small logo - grooved handle - 701
#7 GRISWOLD small logo - grooved handle - 701 I
#7 Griswold Iron Mountain 1032 B
#7 Favorite Ware Piqua - Smiley Logo - 7A
#6 WAPAK - straight letters across top - outside HR
#6 Good Health by Griswold 656
#4 GRISWOLD small logo - grooved handle 702 A
#3 WAGNER WARE SIDNEY O - "Pie Logo"
#3 Good Health by Griswold 653
#3 CHICAGO HOWE FDRY CO - FAVORITE COOKWARE - No. Chicago ILL
#3 3 inside a diamond - CHF or Favorite ?
GRISWOLD AMERICAN NO 8 Waffle Iron Paddles 885/886
#12 Skillet Lid - I believe LODGE
#10 Skillet Lid - I believe LODGE
#10 GRISWOLD Lid - unmarked - 2553
#7 Skillet Lid marked LODGE / NO 7 / SKILLET / LID
Sorry for the long post, but I just had to share with people that I knew could appreciate the opportunity I had. Wish I could have done better- I'm sure many of you on here would have- but I'm pretty pleased with the pieces I got for the price I paid.