Iron Pricing

D_Madden

Well-known member
I stopped at a little antique/consignment shop that I've found iron at before. It's about an hour away but I was in the area for other reasons. One booth had a stack of skillets... after going through them all most were asian, and rusty... there was a single notch lodge #7 with a raised 7 on the top of the handle, but the bottom was very pitted. There was another booth that had a locked glass case with a #0 griswold in it and one of the little tea size corn stick pans (both were marked at $94!) Then I found one booth that had 8 - 10 pieces of iron on a small shelf in the back of the booth. On the top shelf were a couple of corn stick pans, a griswold bread stick pan (no 22)... so they got my attention... good condition, not cleaned up but in decent shape... the bread stick pan was marked $70 and the griswold corn stick pan was marked $45... I almost stopped looking at the rest... noticed a couple of skillets on the bottom shelf and thought it would be good for a laugh to see what they had those priced at. smooth bottom large block logo #8 marked at $32 (fairly clean and flat) and the other one was a heat ring slant/erie #5 marked at $38. I have no idea where this guy was getting his prices from... anyway the #5 came home with me. (it will look good with my 3 and 4 slant eries.)
 
Some of the prices at antique stores amaze me. I've seen overpriced pieces, in stores I regularly stop in, that have been there for two years! Why not mark them down and generate some cash flow? Maybe they figure someday a guy will come along who needs that one piece to round out a collection and they will finally get their price. Ha!

And then you have the tiny little shop out a two lane highway, in the middle of nowhere, who thinks because a piece sold on eBay for some crazy amount, they should get that price too. When I ask them if they will take less, sometimes they will say, "That's what it goes for on ebay." I always remind them we are in Georgia and if they want to sell it at Yankee prices, they should list it on ebay and let somebody in New York buy it. Of course, I say it in a very polite, I'm just trying to help you out, kind of way. Ha!
 
I've only been into vintage CI for a year, so I know I've overpaid for my pieces. This is what I've spent.

$35 - Griswold no. 8 SBL grooved handle
$100 - Griswold no. 6 SBL early handle, Griswold no. 7 early handle, Griswold no. 8 SBL late handle
$18 - Griswold no. 3 LBL smooth bottom
$25 - Griswold no. 5 SBL grooved handle
$40 - Griswold no. 8 Slant EPU
$22 - fully marked Wagner/National no. 9 w/ heat ring
$20 - unmarked Wanger no. 8

At a grand total of $260, I've shelled out an average of $28.89 per pan. Not even close to the bargain prices I've read about, but not that far off from the cost of a modern Lodge. And way cheaper than the new artisanal pans from the likes of Smithey and Butter Pat. Given the local market I'm in (SF Bay Area) and my relative lack of effort, I don't think I've taken too bad a beating. I look at it as paying a slight premium for convenience.

Ultimately it comes down to how bad you want a pan and how much you are willing to spend.
 
Ultimately it comes down to how bad you want a pan and how much you are willing to spend.

This pretty much sums it up for me.
I also have not been collecting long, or as enthusiastically as most on here, but I will say that the only regrets I have so far are not paying the price on a couple of things I have wanted.
I have no regrets about any of the purchases I have made so far, and I think my average for pieces is a bit lower than yours.
 
just as a follow up... finished up the #5 and took a 'family photo' for the holidays. All 4 of these are amazingly clean and smooth.

https://imgur.com/a/JBweO

side note: the 3 is the only one with " ERIE "... the others are just plain ERIE... and the 4 and 5 have the size on top of the handle and the 3 and 8 don't.
 
I ran into a dealer the other day that says he figures out what the price is for a particular item on eBay and then he divided by two and sells it for that price. He realizes eBay prices are usually higher than most people that collect are willing to pay. There is a dealer at a flea market here in East Texas which happens to be the largest flea market in the United States. He has well over 6000 pieces of cast-iron at any particular time for sale. But he is always extremely high. I always seem to find better pieces and better prices at fleamarket’s other than the one I just mentioned then I do at antique stores.
 
D Madden,
Yes, most of us occasionally find some CI at fantasticly low prices but those low priced pans are seldom clean and easily inspected. I have a stack of cracked pans that looked good before the lye tank took off that layer of crud.

What I'm saying is that if the pans you are buying are clean enough that you can verify they have no cracks or other damage and sit flat, your average cost is fine. You are getting very desirable pans.

Those LSL pans are beautiful.

Jack
 
I've bought my share of cracked pans at auctions... I don't tend to pay a lot for them, given the risk I'm taking... my story above was pointing out that the one guy's pricing was all over the place.... his prices on corn stick and bread stick pans were easily double what they should have been but his prices on the skillets was close to half of what they would normally sell for in the condition they were in. the slant erie 5 that I bought for $38 was a bargain in my opinion... I just don't understand how he could have been so wrong (in both directions) on the items he had.
 
Having run an antiques mall for a while now I can say there are many reasons items like CI see such fluctuation in price. Its important to remember when you go into a an Antiques store you are usually buying from someone that rents a space. They have pay a rent and a portion of each sale to the store (some also charge additional fees). Another important fact is a large percentage of these vendors have little knowledge about the items they are selling. They tend to look at places like ebay, etsy, or other vendors and focus in on what people are asking for a price not what they actually sell for. Some also use the old ask a fortune and see if someone will bite method. In my area CI is hard to get at a low price with auctions often getting higher then retail price on named pieces, this causes the market price to also inch up. One thing to note is that most Antiques stores want sales and will often negotiate a discount of 10% or more if you simply ask, also many individuals will leave an offer on an item along with their Phone number and if the vendor wants to make a deal they will take your offer.
 
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