Anvil weights in listings and a question of ethics

[Donal Harris]

If someone is listing an anvil as being 127 lbs. but they obviously don’t know about the hundred weight system used for old English anvils, should I tell them they have seriously under priced the thing before I buy it? 

[Cedar Crest Forge]

Ethics aside for a minute, a listed, underpriced anvil is rare these days. What makes you think it is truly underpriced?

[Donal Harris]

Doh!!! I just read here that Hay Budden’s are American and not English made.  The weight marking would be the actual weight. It seems to be priced reasonably with a little room for dickering. I really need to buy a copy of that book. 

I need/want an anvil that weighs around 170 pounds.  I already have one that is just shy of a hundred pounds. 127 isn’t all that much larger than the one I have. 

I had decided I was going to tell the seller I thought he was reading the weight wrong. It would have been perfectly OK for me to have not done so, but not for me.  I like fair deals.  Had it actually weighed 176 instead of 127, I would have felt as if I wasn’t being fair to him.

 

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

IF it is priced right I would get it anyways. It can become trading material, or use it as a loaner like I do with some of mine. 127# is a decent size, and yes size wise it is a good step over 100# I have a 95# HB, and a 125# JHM Journeyman, and next to each other they are quite different in size. Or, buy it, and sell off the 100ish one you have. Slowly step up in size, or the 127# may be enough for you.

[ThomasPowers]

However knowing the real weight is not solely based on knowing that Brooklyn NY is in the USA or in knowing the esoteric stone weight system for English Anvils.  It is as simple as putting it on a bathroom scale.  If a seller is not worried about getting it correct to even do that simple test, I wouldn't worry about it.  In my experience, 38 years now, anvils tend to have their weights overestimated by sellers;  sometimes grossly overestimated!