The Old Town canoe with serial number 137843 is a 16 foot long, CS (common sense or standard) grade HW (heavy water) model with open spruce gunwales, ash seats, decks and thwarts, and equipped with a keel, floor rack, and sponsons. It was built between June and September 1943. The original exterior paint color was bright red . It was shipped to Holyoke, Massachusetts on September 15, 1943. A scan of this build record can be found by following the link behind the thumbnail image attached below.
This scan and several hundred thousand others were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at
http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you will join or renew your membership to the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See
http://www.wcha.org/about-the-wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and
http://store.wcha.org/WCHA-New-Membership.html to join.
It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.
I am sorry to say that the question of what a canoe is worth is not an easy one -- there are good reasons for why you have found prices "all over the place," and why people here are loathe to offer anything except the most general information about prices.
It is difficult to make any kind of comment without knowing the condition of the canoe and its location. Your statement that it is in "very good condition" is, with all respect, virtually worthless. We do not know what, if anything, you know about canoes, and if as seems likely, you have little or no knowledge, you may easily have overlooked something substantial. From a distance, and without even photographs, there is no way to accurately judge condition.
A couple of questions present themselves at once. When was the canoe repainted? At that time, was it re-canvased or were any repairs or alterations made at that time? For example, does it still have its sponsons, or were they removed? Some people like them, but a good many do not.
Virtually no knowledgeable person would give an estimate without inspecting the canoe personally, and without knowing where the canoe is located. Even with such information, it is difficult to make a value estimate -- for a discussion of determining value, see the post at:
http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.ph...en-canoe-worth
See also:
http://wcha.org/legacypages/catalogs/old-town/guide/
Wooden canoes in apparent good shape, like many attractive objects, do attract a lot of casual interest, but that sort of interest does not necessarily indicate a willingness to part with money.
Greg Nolan
