Stanley by numbers 

© Hans Brunner

 Not an Australian type study and not your definitive oeuvre on anything Stanley. There are more detailed lists around. However, there are only a handful of  tool dealers  who move these planes in numbers and I happen to be one of them.  So feel free to help yourself to whatever you can use and disregard whatever you don't like - just don't pass it on as your own, like the idiot who recently lifted my pictures to sell his 164 on eBay.

 I'm not interested in type study mumbo-jumbo and endless disputations about the perfect screw in the perfect slot.  I'm a professional tool dealer and these are some of my observations with real tools in the real world.

Values:  Nobody ever listens, you give a seller two figures for value and he/she will only hear the higher one. It's human nature. We can't handle choice. But I have to give you something or the emails will never stop. So I decided to give you what I think is a  middle of the range value for Stanley planes in good or better condition,  sold in Australia in Australian dollars - because whatever I give you, you'll probably think it's too low when you're selling or too high when you're buying. That's human nature, too! Please remember that the variances can be huge. If a plane hardly ever shows up, somebody is more likely to go crazy and raid the kid's trust fund to get hold of it. On the other hand, one of the most common tools like a Stanley number 4 can fetch many times its normal value at any tool sale and it all comes down to

Condition, condition, condition.

And that's where the trouble starts. Every tool schlepper on the internet is an expert these days. They've  just spent two hundred bucks on an outdated, pre-eBay Walter Stanley price guide so they have to show off their newly acquired knowledge with the fitting jargon. Fair enough, we don't have to listen. But the real problem is this: How do they know their plane is in good condition if they have only ever had one? They just bought it in a boxed lot at an estate sale, looked up  the number and decided this plane was complete, perfect, better than anything ever sold and extremely rare too! How do they know?  Unless there is a dormant Stanley gene in every man I have to conclude that it all comes down to comparison and learning from mistakes. It's the only thing I know for certain: the next mistake is just around the corner and if I avoid that one I'll walk right into the next. I hope these pages can guide you through some of the pitfalls of tool collecting and avoid some of the costly mistakes along the way.

this is a work in progress......

time permitted I'll add more details, more pictures and more of everything

Whilst I hate the way type studies are abused, I'm the first to acknowledge  that they provide invaluable information for every serious collector. They represent the sum of knowledge accumulated by some of the sharpest tools in the shed like  Sellens, Smith, Walter, Leach or the pioneers of tool auctions like Brown, Eaton, Blanchard, Stanley, Donnelly, Murland as well as the combined efforts of many thousands of past and present members from tool clubs the world over.

For Stanley by numbers I will use some of the fundamentals from Alvin Sellens "The Stanley Plane", Roger Smith "Patented Transitional & Metallic Planes in America" and John Walter "Antique & Collectible Stanley Tools" Unfortunately, all of them are out of print at this time but there is always hope that John Walter will finally squeeze a new edition through a maze of what I understand are legal settlement obstacles. His guide is often referred to as the Stanley bible. When Walter launched his last edition in Harrisburg in 1996 I should have bought 100 copies instead of one! A Stanley # 1 costs about the same today as it did back in 1996. John Walter's book on the other hand is now worth 5 times its original cover price. We're always smarter in hindsight, so let's hope these pages will mature over time, too. I always welcome your comments, even the ones that tell me which screw goes in what slot.

Terms used: I use "offered" for the approximate years of manufacture. Unless somebody unearths the complete Stanley shop floor production reports for the last 150 years we simply can't be sure. We can, however, check the Stanley tool catalogues, many of which are available in reprints. Unless Stanley sat on a lot of excess stock it's fair to assume that the manufacturing time ran parallel with the catalogue listing time. I use English terms for some plane parts i.e. a handle is not a tote down under. If in doubt I let the "Dictionary of Woodworking Tools" by R.A. Salaman be the higher authority.

Value: Based on current or past Australian transactions for a plane in good or better condition.  Prices for some of the more common USA made planes are substantially higher in Australia. eBay has drastically narrowed the margin but the very high postage costs will make sure that there will always  be a gap. On the other hand, some rare USA made planes used to be a lot more common and therefore cheaper down under.( i.e. 10 1/4, 54, 72 etc.) This has changed too, but not in favour of the buyers. eBay has managed to make them available world-wide  and prices have adjusted accordingly. Overall, prices are now lower than they were 10 years ago with the top end of the market suffering most. Pre-internet, rare tools like a Stanley 340, 196, 444, 164 etc. hardly ever showed up and when they did the demand pushed prices up.  These days if one of them shows up on eBay you can be sure that the next one is just around the corner - especially if the first listing produced a good result. And not surprising, prices go down with every new listing.  However, this is a new medium dealing with an old commodity in finite numbers. Once they are all flushed out of those sheds, basements and attics there won't be any more. Grab them while you can.

PS: Of course I'm aware of Pat Leach's detailed Stanley study called Blood and Gore. I know that static web page contents are a smart way of attracting search engine recognition - as a passionate web site builder, this has been on my agenda for years - in fact, ever since I built my first tool site in 1997.  I sell tools for a living. Some people find it hard to believe that this is a normal job, with long hours and plenty of joy and sorrow - but it's one I would not swap for any other. I spend a lot of time answering emails and phone calls from people I don't know - as well as some from people I don't want to know. A lot of them simply call to find out how much their plane is worth, others want dates, parts, where did I get it or the name of my dog.....seriously, the list is endless. I know that this won't give you all the answers but it's a good start. I never read Leach's study in detail  but when I did browse through it recently I was not surprised to find some similarities - even the odd similar turn of phrase. But neither of us has invented the wheel, we can only pass on what we have picked up along the way. If that inspires us to a similar prose, so be it. After 14 published novels I came to realise that there is nothing new to be said, but, to use a phrase from the Aussie movie "The Castle" : it's the way you cook it!

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