Lie Nielsen White Bronze 102 Block Plane

[jon_p]

Hi,

I have a 1998 Lie Nielsen 102 white Bronze Block Plane. brand new - never used in it's original box with receipt etc.
one side is engraved Lie Nielsen 1998 (This was from the factory). I'm trying to figure what this is worth. I bought it
as sort of an investment when I had a little spare cash. I'm lucky to have the 'ordinary' 102 that I use and love.
I've really not followed the trends in tool prices for years so don't know if it's gone up or down. Anyone have any ideas?
I'm not trying to sell it here - just looking for some info.
I've attached 3 photos. Many thanks for any info you can share and best regards,

Jon.

 

[D_W]

The only thing close in the sold history on Ebay is a woodcraft white bronze 80th anniversary 102 (2008 year) which appears to have sold for $260 US or something close to that.

You could probably comfortably estimate your plane a little bit above that in value. Caveat with this story:

Years ago, I sold a Jem 10th guitar. It was a young man's guitar, and I'm not a young man, but was when I bought it. Strikes me as tasteless kitsch now. At the time, you could get more money selling to a dealer than an individual because he could get a lot (specialized in the type). So, I sold a 10 year-old guitar that I'd bought new for $1,999 to a dealer for $3,250 and was very pleased after striking out at less than that on the person to person market. The dealer listed it the day he got it for $5k, moaned that it had a little more fretwear than he expected, and then said "there aren't any for sale anywhere right now, and I usually have a few. I like to keep one in stock, so I'm going to list it high. When there's only one, you list it high." He sold it for $5k the next day, and sent me an email and said "maybe it should've been higher, but we both did well on this deal". The price he got was as high as anyone had gotten previously for one that was *unused*, and about 50% above the prior sales history of a used one.

Point being, if none are for sale anywhere, you just really don't know what the value is, but there is more than one woodcraft anniversary plane (which is probably less desirable) that's sold in the high $200's or has an ask of $300. I'd ask high if I were going to sell an example like yours until or unless a few float out to the brown auctions, etc, and establish an average value (maybe someone who pays to get the prior sale prices of collector's items will know if that's already occurred). If you're just supposing for fantasy, $400-$500 would seem to be a reasonable fantasy, but you can dream whatever you'd like, too.

 

[jon_p]

Hi,

Many thanks for the response. Definitley food for thought !

Best regards,

Jon.