Buying CI

[CPorter]

Just a little rant, In my experience so far is some sellers see griswold or wagner and think its worth its weight in gold and won't budge on price no matter what the piece and regardless of condition. Other sellers expect full retail price for heavily crusted CI that may even have obvious damage and when you try negotiating they quote blue book prices not considering the work that goes into restoration of a piece. Blue book states at the very beginning in bold letters "These values are for items in excellent condition, with no rust , chips or cracks". Then there are sellers who prey on new collectors by misrepresenting a piece or over charging, I dealt with a few of these kind, you can usually negotiate a reasonable price when they realize you actually do know what you are looking at. And last are the sellers who are completely clueless to what they have and give you a great deal that you almost feel guilty about, these are usually yard sales flea market vendors that don't specialize in CI. So to sum it up in my opinion there are far more over priced pieces than there are deals and the decently priced ones often need a lot of restoration. What sources other than the blue book and red book are there for price guides and what percentage should be deducted from the price for something that is in need of heavy restoration?

 

[Ken Davis]

I feel much the same way, even as a new collector. It's difficult to find fair, let alone good prices for stuff worth having.

As to real value, as the old saying goes, "It's worth exactly what someone is willing to pay." And on that line, what about actual auction prices? Past eBay sale prices (taking into consideration the number of eBay sales items that are repros, fakes and grossly over priced)?

When I see a piece I want that is over priced and the seller will not budge, I leave it for another visit. The longer it stays on the seller's shelf, the more the value drops. Risky but it works often enough.

 

[TyHiggins]

I see a lot of absurdly priced CI, but I've also stolen my fair share of it. A recent booth that was full of ridiculously high CI still yielded a Wardway waffle iron for $22. I don't have many skillets that I paid over $10 for, some only $2 to $5. Sometimes I'll pay what I think is a fair price, like $40 for my Wapak #9 that looked flawless and spotless. Just keep hunting, the finds are still out there.