Offered here is a Buff & Buff No. 2 transit from the estate of Mr. Charles R. Swart.
This is one of the five items featured in the thread I started on Monday 11 April. Having separate threads for each item will be easier for those interested to follow the item and to keep track of offers as they come in. Therefore, this thread will replace that earlier thread for purposes of this instrument.
A while back I offered to help Charles' widow dispose of several survey-related items that Charles had accumulated through the decades. I am doing this simply as a favor to Mrs. Swart.
Mrs. Swart has stated she will contribute 10 percent of the selling price (exclusive of shipping charges) to RPLS Today if this instrument sells through RPLS Today.
Charles Swart was the founding president of the Montana Association of Registered Land Surveyors and had land-surveying practices both in Bozeman, Montana and San Marcos, Texas. Kent McMillan mentioned his colleague and friend Charles in several posts to this forum; you can find those threads using the search function.
Charles' web site is still available at www.landsurveyor.info. Among the articles on that site is a particularly interesting history of the establishment of the initial point of the Principal Meridian of Montana.
The serial number is 4669. It is believed this instrument was manufactured in 1909 or earlier.
Rather than burn up a lot of Wendell's bandwidth on this forum, I have posted a detailed description and 21 large images on one of my download sites, along with PDFs of two vintage Buff & Buff catalogs (dated 1909 and 1916).
I have attempted to make the description complete and the images informative, but if you have questions on details beyond what I provided please post to this thread or send me a message via this forum's conversation/message system.
To access the description, images, and other related information, please point your web browser to
http://inlandwyo.com/inlandwyo/pub/Charles%20Swart%20Items/04%20Buff%20&%20Buff%20No.%202%20transit/http://inlandwyo.com/inlandwyo/pub/Charles%20Swart%20Items/04%20Buff%20&%20Buff%20No.%202%20transit/&apos ;"> http://inlandwyo.com/inlandwyo/pub/Charles%20Swart%20Items/04%20Buff%20&%20Buff%20No.%202%20transit
The file named "04 Index - Buff & Buff No. 2 transit.pdf" contains the description of the transit as well as an index to the various JPG image files found in the same folder.
From what I can determine via various informed sources, the market for this model instrument without a tripod has been running around $700 to $800.
As of this posting we have a $250 offer for this instrument from "dms330", along with a $50 donation (thanks, Dave!) to Wendell's RPLS Today.
Please post your offer to this thread unless you wish to make a private offer, in which case you can send me your offer in a message via this forum's message system. I will then post your offer in the thread without revealing your name.
To facilitate the process, let's use the following minimum offer increments:
-If the previous high offer is from $0 to $99, the next offer must be at least $10 higher than the previous high offer or an even $100, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $100 to $499, the next offer must be at least $25 higher than the previous high offer or an even $500, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $500 to $999, the next offer must be at least $50 higher than the previous high offer or an even $1,000, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $1,000 to $1,999, the next offer must be at least $100 higher than the previous high offer or an even $2,000, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $ 2,000 to $4,999, the next offer must be at least $250 higher than the previous high offer or an even $5,000, whichever is lower
-If the previous high offer is from $5,000 to $9,999, the next offer must be at least $500 higher than the previous high offer or an even $10,000, whichever is lower
So the next offer for this Buff & Buff No. 2 transit will need to be at least $275 but there is no upper limit if you would like to offer any amount higher than $275.
We have not set a closing date/time for this item. We will let any new highest offer stand for at least 24 hours from the time it is posted to this thread before accepting that offer. That way others interested in the item and following this thread will have ample opportunity to submit a new higher offer.
There will be no charge for packaging and handling. Shipping charges will be the actual charges as shown on receipt(s) from the carrier(s).
On 06 July 2016 I listed this instrument on eBay, it is eBay Item No. 322184224055 and it is presently offered at $995.00 fixed price with best-offer option.
Since the objective of this effort is to obtain a fair-market-value return to Mrs. Swart, I will convert the eBay listing to a seven-day no-reserve auction if offers received via RPLS Today do not seem to reflect estimated fair market value. The opening bid amount will be one offer increment (per the system described above) over the highest offer received via RPLS Today. If any bids are received on the eBay auction the item will go to the highest eBay bidder. If the eBay auction does not attract any bids the item will go to the person making the highest offer on RPLS Today.
It is hoped that this arrangement does not offend anyone in the RPLS Today community but it is my duty to do what I can to obtain fair market value for Mrs. Swart and that includes making certain the item is exposed to all appropriate markets. If the best market is here on RPLS Today then Wendell's forum gets its share; if eBay is a better market then they get their commission.
Finally, if anyone reading this has a better idea of how to handle sales like this I welcome your suggestions. Please post to this thread or send to me via a private conversation.
Mrs. Swart and I thank you for your interest!
GB
set a reserve so Mrs. Swart receives fair market value.. Besides having the seller pay a donation, the buyer matches the seller donation. 5-10% is fair.
avoid the ebay et all costs.
$250.00 is low. bidding should have started at $400.
per above: If it sold fro $400 then surveyconnect receives ($40-80 from the buyer/seller)
shipping and insurance has to be negotiated.
That is a nice transit.
I would avoid the one-day only sale.
Hi Robert -
Thanks for your suggestions.
Robert Hill, post: 380432, member: 378 wrote: set a reserve so Mrs. Swart receives fair market value.. Besides having the seller pay a donation, the buyer matches the seller donation. 5-10% is fair.
It's all about market discovery. I figure if an item is well-presented and exposed to the major market(s) for a reasonable time, say seven days or longer, the contemporaneous market value will be discovered.
Setting a buyer donation is something over which I have no control, so will leave that up to the prospective buyers.
Robert Hill, post: 380432, member: 378 wrote: avoid the ebay et all costs.
eBay can and (usually) does work well - that Gurley Reconnoissance transit brought $1k on eBay after the highest SurveyorConnect offer was $450.
Robert Hill, post: 380432, member: 378 wrote: $250.00 is low. bidding should have started at $400.
The "experts" say a lower starting bid builds bidder excitement, for whatever that is worth.
Here are a couple of pics that I should have put in the original post of this thread. To see more (and full-sized) images, follow the hyperlink in the original post.
GB
Glenn,
In my humble opinion the value of these instruments are in there Provenance...that the are from from Surveyor Swart's collection is what increases the value.
DDSM
Dan B. Robison, post: 380482, member: 34 wrote: Glenn,
In my humble opinion the value of these instruments are in their provenance...that they are from from Surveyor Swart's collection is what increases the value.
Anyone who ever met Charles most likely came away with a glimpse of another world. The photo below is one I took of Charles and Richard Abbott (aka RADU) on a field trip we made to see some old survey evidence in the vicinity of Kyle and San Marcos. Aside from not having his Filson vest on, that is exactly how Charles dressed for the field. The photo is probably from about 2002 because I was showing some old bearing trees that I'd found on a project I finished that year.
Charles collected old surveying instruments and nearly invariably chose with care. One of his finds was a brand-new Kern DKM1 that had evidently been purchased by the Texas Highway Department for some office in South Texas where it had never apparently seen even a day of service. It was absolutely immaculate.
Oh, for the record, Charles was in practice as "Charles R. Swart, Land Surveyor" , not Accu-Stone, Precision Boundary Metrics, or Rocky Mountain Professional Geomatics. When you retained Charles Swart, that was who you got, along with his assistants.
The eBay buy-it-now price for this instrument is now $695 and there are five watchers.
If no more offers come from RPLS Today members in the next 24 hours I will change the eBay listing to an auction with starting bid of $275.
Thanks for your interest!
GB
The eBay seven-day auction for this instrument will end today at 1243 hrs PDT.
The eBay Item for this auction is 322192518818.
Right now this auction has 16 watchers and one bidder.
Since someone has made a $275 bid on the eBay auction the item will now sell through eBay unless all eBay bids are cancelled.
Again, thanks for your interest and especially your offers!
GB
This instrument sold for $355 plus shipping on the eBay auction.
GB