I haven't seen any reviews of the Time & Strike auction in Nashua, NH
this past weekend, so I thought I'd chime in with a few thoughts.

There was the usual set of parking lot vendors in attendance on both
Friday and Saturday morning.  I arrived at about 6:30 AM on Friday
to find things in full swing.  I clawed and shoved (not really) through
the throngs to view each of the tables and wares.  Rather than there
being lots of the same thing at each table (as I've noticed at some
past swap meets), there was a very wide variety of items for sale at
the particular vendors.  Prices were, in general, reasonable and I ended
up purchasing a lot, considering that I had promised myself to hold off
on purchases while the wallet recovers from its last bombing run.

There were lots of user grade tools, as well as a decent assortment of
collectibles.  There were three vendors who were only selling woodies,
something I haven't seen too much of in a while.  One vendor had a
blanket full of bottom feeder tools with a big sign that announced,
"None of the items on this blanket have been on ebay." To give you an
idea of the variety, here are the items that grabbed my belt loops and
followed me home.  Prices on most of them could qualify for minor
gloats, but no $5 #1's to be had at a meet with people in the know such
as this.

Stanley 605-1/2C type 4 in Good+ condition
Stanley 605 type 3 in Good+ condition
German made adjustable jewelers saw with extra blades
Unmarked 2" steel machinist square
Small US made pipe vise with chain clamping fixture
Pexto adjustable sheet metal pliers
Signed 3/16" woodie dado in Good+ condition
Unsigned 3/8" woodie dado in Good condition
Unsigned 1/4" boxed center bead in Fair condition
   (used to be bead and follow, but someone cut off the boxed follow).
Very nice 8" swing brace with great rosewood (I forget the maker)
small dental pick
Stanley #5 type 11 in Fine condition
Stanley #3 type 11 in Good+ condition
Signed 1/4" woodie boxed reeding plane in Good+ condition
Signed 3/4" woodie ogee in Good condition
Unsigned 3/4" by 10" infill shoulder plane in Good+ condition

Obviously my accumulation gene is a party animal that has already
downed a full pint of tequila and is looking to tap a fresh keg.
I think I'm all set for jack planes at this point, although I'm sure
one of our list moms would disagree.

Some of the nice items I passed on included a mint signed 1" dado
woodie.  The price was somewhat higher than I could stomach and I
couldn't, for the life of me, think of what kind of project would
require a dado that wide.  Believe me, I tried.  One gentleman had
about ten nice Stanley pre-lateral smoothers for big bucks.  There
were a good number of Bedrocks, tons of nice chisels and gouges,
a few big crown moulding woodies, lots of combination planes, several
boring machines, etc, etc,...

There were only a couple of dealers with saws.  I found one in particular
that had a couple of nice Disstons which got me excited until I checked
them further.  The first was a nice thumbhole D8 5-1/2 pt rip. Then I
noticed a couple broken teeth.  Then I noticed it had been set like a
two-man crosscut saw (really wide) and more of the teeth had fractures.
For $20, maybe it was worth removing the teeth and filing new ones, but
I didn't feel up to it.  The same guy had a really old Disston crosscut
where I noticed the sunken medallion with only the Disston name, and
then the stamped blade (as opposed to etched).  I was excited about
this one too until I noticed the $125. price tag.  That's about 25 times
more than I've ever paid for an old saw.

Finally there are the two days of auctions.  I expect someone else can
expound on that more than I, as I only caught the last 2/3rds of the
Saturday version.  From talking to a couple of dealers, the auction
company was very late getting catalogs and notices out to people who
pay a yearly fee for that service.  A lot of them were pissed off and
they let everybody know with their wallet.  Most of the lots went
cheap.  The second dealer that mentioned this to me said they had
consigned six lots of reasonably rare tools and ended up losing money
on every one of them.  I know a bit about how everyone felt, because
although I am on their mailing list (verified when I signed in), I
never got a notice at all.  This resulted in my missing the inspection
and the first hour of the Saturday auction because I thought it started
at the same time as the Friday auction.

I really only remember the prices paid for the woodies and slicks.
The slicks went for reasonable money, ranging from $25 for unsigned
with dogmeat handle to about $150 (?) for a really beautiful 3" Witherby
(or was it the Underhill).  Guess I don't remember them as well as I
thought.

Unlike the last Crane auction I attended, pretty much every woodie
in this auction was in really nice condition.  The planes were for
the most part still lightly colored beech with no checks or noticeable
wear, and the original wedges and irons.  This wasn't necessarily true
for the really rare marks, but it was for the smaller, less expensive
lots. They had two sets of matched 18 pc hollows and rounds that both
went to the same guy for what I thought was big bucks.  When you figure
in the buyers premium, I think he paid about $34 per plane.  I assume
he was a dealer, and am wondering what kind of markup he can really get
on these.  If he charges a reasonable markup, why would anyone buy a
set from him instead of a new set of Clark & Williams fame?  I bought
several of the smaller woodie lots including about 5 matched pairs of
signed hollows and rounds, a set of 3 dados, a nice boxed center bead,
and some random match planes from the same maker as my partial h&r's
in great condition.  Prices were very good on these items compared to
what I'm used to paying.  Basically I'm trying to fill some holes in
my own hollows and rounds given that I was unsuccessful purchasing one
of the half sets.  The dealer behind me purchased most of the single,
signed h&r specimens for not much more than pocket change.

Well, that's my dump.  I'm still sorting through all the stuff I brought
home and trying to figure out what I'm going to sell to be able to
afford all these additions to my tool family.  I expect I'll be posting
a FS some time soon.  Good thing there isn't another one of these
locally until Feb.

Cheers,
--Dave Shepard