Advice sought regarding selling an old coal stove?

Hello. I just joined. I am an older woman, not very mechanically inclined, so forgive me for any stupidity herein! I tried to use your search engine (upper right corner) for my question: I used the advanced search feature and used forum, post time, topic title, hand fired coal stoves & furnaces, anthracite coal heating residential and commercial, etc. I was just trying to find out if this old coal stove would have any resale value.

I have an old, rusted but otherwise totally intact Gilbralter coal burning stove in my basement. It is not rusted thru anywhere; just surface rust. The glass is intact and the stove never had many burn hours into it, so the cast iron is not wearing thru. I would estimate this thing is approx. 15-20 years old.

It was my intention to clean it up real good and sell it - (my neighbor has an electric sander of some sort, and I also have some steel brushes to use on a battery operated drill and a wire brush. Afterwards I was going to use a special refinishing product I purchased on Amazon that got good reviews and is for use on coal stoves/cast iron.

My question is, do you think this stove has much value to it (once cleaned up and polished) or should I just give it away? How do I ascertain what it is worth once cleaned up? I was thinking at least a few hundred $200-$300, but have NO clue.

Thank you for your anticipated help, or at least telling me that it's not worth anything.

Are you able to post any pics?

Aren't Gibralter's fairly good stoves?

Gibraltar stoves are excellent. Strong and heavy. Looking good and complete, I think 300 or better. The stove body is steel.

Yes, I could supply some pics, but they would be of the "before" state, not wire brushed, sanded or repainted. TY Franco b for your input as well. I thought it was cast iron! Oh, well. But good to know it is a quality stove and made of steel. I know that timing is everything, so I was hoping to get this cleaned up and advertise it for sale during COLD weather! TY again!

Snickie wrote: ↑

Fri. Dec. 11, 2020 11:50 pm

Yes, I could supply some pics, but they would be of the "before" state, not wire brushed, sanded or repainted. TY Franco b for your input as well. I thought it was cast iron! Oh, well. But good to know it is a quality stove and made of steel. I know that timing is everything, so I was hoping to get this cleaned up and advertise it for sale during COLD weather! TY again!

You really should consider in keeping it, once you put the time and part of yourself in it. That's if you have a place to set it up in. We use our stove as a primary heat source during the winter. Costs less than $700.00 a year to keep warm, and once you get it down, maintaining the stove and fire are easy. If you live in a poorly insulated and leaky house like we do, it's the only way to go. I just hope the coal prices don't go thru the roof. But if they do we have plenty of firewood on the property, so we could always burn wood. Remember you can always burn wood in a coal stove, but you shouldn't burn coal in a wood stove.

The thread gives me cancer without pix.

Here are the pictures you requested. It obviously is in it’s sad, unrefurbished state. I will sand/wire brush it down sometime & refinish it with stone paint.

That's a damn nice stove. What state do you live in?

Is it actually a coal stove? I don’t see the shaker handle.

Tbh I’m not sure all the elbow grease that needs to go into that to brighten it will yield much more then it would bring in its current condition. If you look at what people are asking for stoves in similar condition.

If it were me I’d just flog it on marketplace for whatever price I wanted in a brightened up state and let them work their way from there.

That’s a nice stove. Not sure what your price should be. From my observation, used coal stoves aren’t selling very well or commanding the money they were 2 years ago. Not sure if it’s because of the new government administration promising to abolish coal and all fossil fuels or not. I have a refurbished stove used stove listed in multiple places and haven’t gotten many responses. Maybe my price is too high. 2 years ago it would have been gone within a couple days.

Yea I am wondering what's in store for us in the future? I really don't like other people telling me what to do, or what's good for me.
I think that should be my decision!

fig wrote: ↑

Fri. Dec. 18, 2020 12:27 pm

Is it actually a coal stove? I don’t see the shaker handle.

Just inside the ash door near the top edge of the opening is a fitting the shaker handle attaches to if I recall correctly.
They are very good stoves.

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, it is definitely a coal stove. My late husband and I purchased it many years ago. The stove has been disconnected and the chimney was converted to LP gas. I won't put tons of effort into trying to fix it up; I'm just going to try to sand/wire brush it off and then put the stove black on it. It has sat there unused for a number of years now; time to get it out of the way. TY.

Spacecadet wrote: ↑

Fri. Dec. 18, 2020 4:32 pm

That’s a nice stove. Not sure what your price should be. From my observation, used coal stoves aren’t selling very well or commanding the money they were 2 years ago. Not sure if it’s because of the new government administration promising to abolish coal and all fossil fuels or not. I have a refurbished stove used stove listed in multiple places and haven’t gotten many responses. Maybe my price is too high. 2 years ago it would have been gone within a couple days.

What are you selling?