Great Planes Trading Co. was founded in 1992 by Michael “Rat” Urness. GPTC is a licensed antique tool seller, auction management and consulting business based in Chesterfield (St. Louis County) Missouri.

A regular stock of antique carpenter tools and wrenches are usually on hand. Most sales are made at the semi-annual and regional meetings of the Midwest Tool Collectors Association as well as at meetings of the Southwest Tool Collectors Association and Missouri Valley Wrench Collectors, and Early American Industries Association. See the links section for links to these clubs and information on how you can become a member of these and several other tool collecting associations around the country and world.

Mike Urness, owner of GPTC, has been selling tools on the Internet since 1992 and on the eBay Internet Auction site for the past 12 years. In that time he has sold the complete collections of six different individuals and thousands of his own tools.

In 2005 GPTC was commissioned to sell the woodworking tool collection of Bill Hinz of Hutchinson, Kansas. This sale took place in Indianapolis, Indiana. Since that 2005 auction, GPTC has managed the sale of seven additional tool collections.

In May, 2009 GPTC Managed the 4th Annual Humboldt Tool Auction in Humboldt, Iowa. This auction has been held in the same building and on the same weekend as regional meeting of the Midwest Tool Collectors Association held in Humboldt. The 2009 Auction featured the woodworking tool collection of Bob Ahlrichs of Pocahontas, Iowa; the collection of the late Ira Wilson of St. James, Missouri and a select few consignments from collections in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

In 2007 Mike Urness & Donald “Bus” Haury were hired as consultants by the Parker-Braden Auction Co. of Carlesbad, New Mexico to help sort out, identify and lot the massive collection of wrenches and carpenter tools that had been part of the Elmo & Richard Rinehart RRR Museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Personal History:

Mike Urness is full time antique tool dealer, auction manager and consultant who lives in Chesterfield (St. Louis County) Missouri. He began collecting antique tools (first boring tools and eventually thumb or finger planes and other tools) when he was a student at the Saint Louis Community College at Meramec in 1991. By the time he graduated from UM-St. Louis in 1994, he had begun selling antique tools on the Internet and had decided to make a career of selling antique tools. Great Planes Trading Company was licensed in the State of Missouri in 1995.

Mike has served two terms as a Director of the Midwest Tool Collectors and two terms on that organization’s nominating committee. In 2005 Mike hosted the Semi-Annual Meeting of the Mid-West Tool Collectors Association at the Airport Marriott Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. He served a short stint as Newsletter Editor for the Southwest Tool Collectors Association.

In recent years, Mike has been doing patent research with an emphasis on U.S. Wrench Patents and the goal of publishing several books on United States wrench patents that were issued between 1905 and 1955. He currently has over 6000 patents for that time period. He also enjoys writing stories for the M-WTCA Gristmill Magazine.

Life outside of tools:

Prior to returning to school, Mike worked on Mississippi River towboats and tugs for 14 years in various capacities including deckhand, mate, oiler, tankerman. By the time he hung up his river shoes in 1989, he had earned Master Pilot's and Mate’s licenses thru the Coast Guard and a Tankerman's license issued by the Merchant's Marine.

In 1989 Mike went back to school at the St. Louis Community College at Meramec. While there he served at Editor of the student paper “The Montage.” In 1992 Mike transferred with an AA degree in General Transfer Studies from Meramec to the University of Missouri at St. Louis where he worked as a features writer and copy editor on that school’s paper “The Current.” In 1994 he graduated with a BA degree in Communications with an emphasis in print media and minor in psychology.

In addition to antique tools, Mike collects or has collected coins, stamps, beer cans, glass insulators, military insignias (patches), steamboat prints, & bullets. While the nickname, Rat, is associated with his River Rat past, it could just as easily apply to his Pack Rat lifestyle.

Other interests include folk, bluegrass, blues & reggae music, camping, canoeing and antique motorcycles. Mike currently serves as vice president of the St. Louis Chapter of the Antique Motorcycle Club.  

When he’s not working or riding, Mike can usually be found in the kitchen baking banana bread or rolling sushi.