Superb Stanley (Wards) 45 on the Auction Site

I was just looking at the auction site, and there is a Wards combination plane for sale. It is clearly a Stanley 45, and the frame even has "45" cast in it.

The plane looks like it is brand new and has not been used. There are no irons, but I don't think you will ever find a nicer one. The original bill of sale is included, and the date is 1948, the price back then was $19.50.

It is not mint, as I see a bit of what appears to be very thin surface corrosion in a tiny number of spots.

It is listed as "buy it now," the price is $225, with the shipping of $21.95.

If you want a user and don't care that it is marked Wards instead of Stanley I don't think you will find a nicer one, but again you will need to buy irons for it.

It is sold as is with only those parts shown, whether any are missing, I have not taken the time to determine.

At any rate, it looks darned nice. If you do a search for Stanley 45 Montgomery Ward plane it should show up. It is certainly a lot nicer than the 45 I have, but since I have one 45, I am not needing a second, at least not at this time.

Regards,

Stew

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It is listed as "buy it now," the price is $225, with the shipping of $21.95.

If you want a user and don't care that it is marked Wards instead of Stanley I don't think you will find a nicer one, but again you will need to buy irons for it.

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Even at today's prices that doesn't seem to be a bargain.

I got real lucky on my last #45 find > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?299499

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Cost me $39 in Oregon, no sales tax.

jtk

Last weekend I ran across a Wards 45 at an antique store. It looked almost brand new and came with the original box, instructions, and a full box of cutters. It was marked at $320. I didn't bother with an offer considering how far apart we were.

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Originally Posted by Nathan Johnson

Last weekend I ran across a Wards 45 at an antique store. It looked almost brand new and came with the original box, instructions, and a full box of cutters. It was marked at $320. I didn't bother with an offer considering how far apart we were.

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Funny, I found a Stanley 45, without the wards stamp, with no box, but it had cutters, for $360 at a antique store. What is going on?

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Originally Posted by Jason Buresh

Funny, I found a Stanley 45, without the wards stamp, with no box, but it had cutters, for $360 at a antique store. What is going on?

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It seems some of the people setting prices for items sold at antique and second hand stores research prices on ebay. Then using reasoning of ebay being for bargain hunters look at the highest prices and doubling them to derive their "retail price."

Maybe they Google combination plane and see what the Veritas goes for and think, "this is an antique, it must be worth more."

Some of my best deals on ebay were due to poor quality images. There also used to be more sellers who would buy all kinds of stuff at yard sales to resell without knowing much about what they had. This was when a lot of my time was spent constantly searching ebay for bargains. Sometimes a misspelling was used in the search, turning up an occasional good deal.

One of the Stanley #45 searches brought me this:

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One of the planes is a Wards Master. At the time many #45 buyers only wanted the "real deal."

I placed my bid at $225 and held my breath. Lucky me, no one else bid on it with the high starting bid.

What a lot of people may not have noticed with the poor image quality was this item had every blade made for the #45. Sets of special cutters for the #45 & #55 rarely show up. At about that time a set of special cutters for the #55 (4 boxes) was listed at a BIN price of ~$1600. It was about 1:00 or 2:00 am (at the time my work shift ended at midnight). I wanted to wake up Candy to make sure it would be okay with her. Instead I waited until morning to not get her upset at me. By the time she woke, the blades were sold.

jtk

In my accumulation of combo planes, I have a Stanley 45 w/patent dates, a late model Stanley 45 and a Sargent equivalent. All are complete, all purchased in the last 20 years. Combined total of all three was less than $300.00!

There were several on the recent MJD auction in Avoca, NY a few weeks ago and Martin’s sale estimates were well under $300.00.

If you want a combo plane, don’t buy the first you come across, but search for a while!

I got mine from Ebay a bunch of years ago. I wanted one since the 1970s but never came across one in the wild. At least not for what I could afford. But on Ebay I bought an "opportunity box" from the family of a pattern maker who was selling off his tools in lots. The listing said this lot included an old 45 that had a box of cutters but might be missing some parts. The photo was bad but it looked as if all the important parts were there, there was a bunch of stuff I couldn't see, so I took a chance. I won the auction with a bid just shy of $200.00.

When I received the box, it had the 45, and the only thing missing was the short rods (I made a pair) and the screwdriver. Even the original box was there and some of the paper inserts. It also had in it several old chisels, a Stanley router (an old one), and several things that look like they were from a woodworking machine tool, but I've never been able to identify.

I rarely get good deals. But this one was one. The seller contacted me directly and offered to sell me the rest of the tool set and I jumped on that. Another 300 and I wound up with a whole lot of very nice tools. It was her Grandfather's tools and nobody in the family had any interest in them. It was too bad, really. They were all very well cared for. There was also a tool chest that the man (T. Fromme) made, that she did keep and used as a coffee table, or a blanket chest. I forget now.

But like Jim said above, these days, those deals are few and far between. People seem to know what things sell for and hold out for the best price or sell the tools to a dealer who makes a lowball bid for the collection and then retails it.

One of my three boys is interested in woodworking, so he will get a nice set of the tools I actually use, and that he remembers me using. But I will divest myself of the other fancy things and collector tools so nobody has to deal with the sharks ;-)

DC

There's a pretty nice one "Complete with all the cutters" on Albuquerque's CL for $125 right now.

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Originally Posted by Bruce Page

There's a pretty nice one "Complete with all the cutters" on Albuquerque's CL for $125 right now.

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The one listed in Albuquerque's CL looks like the Wards or Sears version. Notice the adjusters for the blade and depth stop are painted red and the sliding section for the blade support has the word "STANLEY" ground off.

This plane is every bit as good as any other Stanley #45 and from what I can see it is complete.

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IMO, $125 is a fair price.

Many years ago I dated a young woman whose mother worked for a manufacturer who supplied Sears with their product. She claimed they made an effort to make those products as flawless as possible since it was a large buyer they wanted to keep satisfied.

jtk