Collectable production guns

[tg]

I was really surprised to see an unfired "Hatfield rifle" with a price tag of 1499.00 bucks, I wish I would have bought a few of them 20+ years ago as an investment, hard for me to believe anyone would pay that much for that particular gun....maybe no one will?

 

[Stumpkiller]

You just never know. I have seen things sell on that big bay auction site for amounts that astonished me. When someone wants something bad enough . . .

 

[BrownBear]

A shop in Anchorage had a well used AH capper in the rack for $1600 as I recall. The guy behind the counter gave me a real pitch about how rare they are and aren't made any more.

 

[smo]

A shop in Anchorage had a well used AH capper in the rack for $1600 as I recall. The guy behind the counter gave me a real pitch about how rare they are and aren't made any more.

:rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

He must have thought you were born on one of those long Alaskan nights. :grin: :v

 

[BrownBear]

Actually I think that's what happened to him! :wink: He's a good guy and a straight shooter, so I'm betting the shop bought it on a customer's sales pitch, without knowing what in the heck they were doing. It was the only ML in a shop with hundreds of guns. I didn't have the heart to bust his bubble, in any case. :surrender:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

See the price of a Jonathan Browning mountain rifle in good shape? A CVA Flint mountain rifle brings more now than new.

There are some repro revolver collectors who will pay a high price for odd ball make repros.

Dixie Southern Mountain Rifles are holding their value at about new price.

Hopkins and Allen underhammer pistols are going for about 2 or 3 times new price.

I have an old Southgate, I would have figured it would be worth something. A plain cobbled back action lock 38 cal half stock. Aint worth squat.

Years ago, I went to interarms in Alexandria VA and purchased a half dozen long lever Martini Enfields for $80 each. They had them stacked like 2x4;s at the lumber yard. I only bought a dozen and flipped all but two within a week at BPCR matches. I remember buying Remington Rolling Block rifles at yeard sales and flea markets for less than $50 each. At one time I had almost 100 of them. Made a tidy profit on them over the years. Certainly wish I had bought more.

 

[Mike Brooks]

TC Cherokees seem to bring alot of money. :idunno:

 

[F.G. Ford]

Parker Hales are gathering speed as well.
Mowrey rifles are doing well also.
Most production rifle manufacturers of the 70's & 80's have disappeared. Uberti and Pedersoli are still strong.
Wish I still had my Shiloh Sharps rifle
Fred

 

[Rifleman1776]

TC Cherokees seem to bring alot of money. :idunno:

My target Seneca is for sale for only $15,000.00.
I want to buy a motorcycle.

 

[KHickam]

Green River Rifle Works is getting up there too

 

[tg]

I guess I should have held on to the 2 dozen or so production guns of 1970-80's vintage. I could by an original Beck or Haines gun in mint condition now if I had them to sell.I probably should have kept my '65 GTO and used the trunk to store the guns :shake:

 

[Dave K]

You know what they are asking, but the only thing I am concerned with, is that will it sell for. Anyone can ask any price they want.Once there is a history of sales that would show them to be legitimate sales and not shell buyers, then you have my attention.

 

[tg]

I understand how the market factors work, I was just a bit surprised at what someone thought these guns were worth or what they thought others might think they were worth.

 

[DOUBLEDEUCE 1]

TG,
Do you mean you no longer have your '65 GTO??? :youcrazy: :idunno:

Major uncool thing man... :shake:

 

[RedFeather]

Zimmerstutzen, you must have been at Potomac Arms well and deeply into the last century. That was my favorite lunch time venue. I even rode my bike down there when I was a kid and remember handling the big old Bonehill Martini conversions. Later on they got a lot of my money. Super prices but awful if you were on the selling/trading side. Gone but not forgotten. I think they started out as Hunter's Lodge. Not a lot of BP stuff though.

Last weekend's big gun show had an AH and Hatfield, both for well-inflated prices. I can remember the Hatfield's going for reasonable back in the late 90's as sold by Cabela's. A lot of the rise in resale value has been driven by the steady increase in the Italian repro prices. Kodiak doubles which cost about $500 are running over $1000. Even the plainer Pedersoli Kentucky style rifles are costing well over what the fully dressed models used to go for.

Here's the odd thing. The last couple of gun shows I went to, I picked up three T/C Hawkens, one like new and the other was new, for a song. Go figure.

 

[F.G. Ford]

And just to think I "GAVE" my very accurate TC Seneca .36 to a sweet young lady, because she thought she would like to get into BP shooting.
Now I wish I had "MY" Seneca back, she doesn't shoot BP and can't remember where she left "MY" Seneca.
See what a pretty lady will do to your head!
True story!

Fred

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Red Feather. I moved to Arlington in 1978 and moved back North 1997. I don't remember most of the names of the shops I went to other than Potomac Arms in Alexandria and Atlantic Guns in Rockville. There was one in Annandale, one in Falls Church, One in an industrial park between Alexandria and Annandale. I got some really good deals at National Pawn in Arlington before they closed. (A Ruger Old Army for $100) But Potomac Arms aka "Ye Olde Hunter"
was by far the wonderland of them. Surplus guns stuffed in barrels and bins everywhere. WW1 & WW2 Artillery in the old parking lot. The other place was Clark Brothers in Warrenton before the fire. (why the guy was welding near the powder was a mystery) They had cases of old US 1880's 45-70 cartridges for 10 cents a pound. For a brief time they had surplus 43 Spanish cartridges. I paid $10 for 200 but they were Berdan primed.

Odin Inc down near the train yard bought all the guns from Mexico after the Mexican gun grab. I bought rollers and lever guns from them about 1982 for $40 each in lots of 12. And I paid $65 a piece for trapdoor parts guns. Ahh those were the days.

 

[Coot]

I remember buying my first black powder gun at Ye Olde Hunter in 1965. It was a Navy Arms '51 Navy. They always had amazing stuff.

 

[ihuntsnook]

Let the buyer beware. There are sure enough bargains out there, but when you buy a gun online, you better know what you are doing. There was a very sad story on this forum a week ago and it has since disappeared. I think the powers that be should have left it up. I know it has made me more careful about what I buy online.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

In my business, we speak of clients who have unrealistic expectations. Used car salesmen, no angels by reputation, are so subject to the consumer trying to get them first, that there is an expression, "buyers are liars"

I drive a car. Not a sacred shrine. Some folks are so "felix unger" about their cars that they won't drive them for fear of accumulating miles. Some folks expect the absolute unblemished most pristine item when buying on line. I sure as heck don't. i don't want any closet queens. I suspect that there was a little "unrealistic expectation on one side and a little too much puffing on the other. It led to a serious misunderstanding.

Ever see a guy who built his first production kit gun. The stock shaper marks are still evident on the stock. Screw heads buggered up, stain applied unevenly and steel wool lint in the varnish finish. File marks on the barrel and a gap between the barrel flat and the lock.

That sure is a wonderful job there bubba, You sure spent alot of time on it. How did you get that fake curley maple raised grain finish on a straight grain birch stock. You'll have to show me how, some time. And I have never quite seen a bluing like that. Did ya get those fancy streaks by using q-tips? I bought such a gun for parts on line. Didn't have the heart to tell the guy I was gonna strip it.