The Competition Can be Fierce

I found a fantastically beautiful #9 Victor Griswold skillet yesterday. It was locked up in a case in a store, it is very dirty and ugly and nasty. When I first got my hands on it all I knew it was a Griswold because that was all I could read. I knew it was different from a regular Griswold but wasn't sure how it was different. A woman immediately approached me asking me what kind of pan it was and I made the mistake of telling her that it was a Griswold.

Well this woman was all over me asking me the price and telling me it was too much money to pay for the pan. She kept watching me, hoping I would put the pan down, she even told me she was hoping I'd put the pan down! She asked me what I was going to do with the pan and I told her I was going to clean it and resell it. She got all upset and told me I didn't know what I was doing, that I was wrong and the pan should never be cleaned because all the "flavor" would be lost. I told her that I had no idea what the previous owner had done with the pan and that the price of the pan is at least 20% less when it is covered in grease like it is. She insisted that I was wrong, looking for help from other people in the store. Her husband said he didn't care about cast iron and I told her that the previous owner could have used the pan as a pot to go to the bathroom in on a camping trip for all I knew about it. My pot statement seemed to gross out her teenage son who told me that was disgusting. She left the store after haggling over prices in a charity shop.

I got into a conversation with a nice couple who were asking me questions about cast iron and if their pans were of any value. I had to tell the nice couple that there are so many variables in cast iron, condition, size, manufacturer, logos, that it was impossible to give them a price without seeing what they had. They told me they had a Griswold and a Wagner (which the woman pronounced Vagner because she was German). She actually said is it "Wagner" or "Vagner" because in Germany we pronounce it "Vagner". I told her that was understandable with the composer Wagner which is pronounced Vagner.

I pay for my pan and a book my wife found at the last minute. I go outside the store and the woman from earlier pops up again behind me and tells me she is watching me to see if I put the pan down. I told her that I had paid for the pan and I was going to put it down in my car when I got to it.

The lighting had been so bad in the store I didn't realize that the pan was a Victor until I got outside and could see it in the sunlight. Victor pans were manufactured by Griswold with the fully marked variety (which this one is) manufactured from 1920 to 1935.

It doesn't look like much does it?