Browning Hi-Power Value

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wachtelhund1

New member
Hello there is another post here asking a similar question, which I did not want to hijack. I'm trying to get the feel for the value of my Hi-Power. It is a Belgium Browning. I've had this since the early 80's. I picked it up in a trade. It has adjustable rear sight and a gold color trigger. The sight is factory. I believe the trigger was added in a trigger job, as the trigger is fitted with a trigger shoe. I haven't shot it much lately, but did shoot it a lot in the late 80's. I had no problem hitting steel gongs on a hill side at 80 to 100 yards.
 

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With the introduction of multiple HP clones over the last couple of years, I think the craziness has subsided a bit on original FN Hi-Powers.
You can see completed auctions at gunbroker, when you join, which tells you what guns actually sold for.
I suspect your gun is valued in the neighborhood of a grand.
 
As I wrote in the other thread mentioned by the OP, the market for FN marked High Powers has not weakened dramatically. Even in this weak economy, the people interested in collectible firearms have money.

The gun should sell around $1,000, especially in a private sale without taxes and fees.
 
It has less common sights. I hope the trigger show is easily removed and didn't mar the trigger. A clean Belgium made HP should fetch easily 800, and upwards from there. These pistols are not rare by any stretch. It's just that nobody sells them. I have 4 and would not easily part with any of them.

The HP clones will hit bargain bin prices in a few years and the original HPs should retain value. Look at 1911s. US Army models are $$$. The numerous clones haven't diminished their value.

My take is 800-1000.
 
veprdude said:
These pistols are not rare by any stretch. It's just that nobody sells them.
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Tons of people sell them. There are literally hundreds of BHPs for sale or auction at this moment on GB. FOMO has been driving the silly BHP prices since 2018, although things have cooled off a bit from peak absurdity.
 
It is sort of interesting that FN cancelled the Hi-Power because they couldn't sell enough to make money(?), but three companies think they can make money with only a share of that market.
 
FN was called into life by Ludwig Loewe, born Louis Levin, who owned DWM and had acquired Mauser. When the Belgians adopted the Mauser rifle and wanted to manufacture it in their own country Loewe helped to set up FN in Herstal. Production cost in Belgium is quite high since a few decades already and countries like Turkey can make a firearm of similar quality at a fraction of the cost. Same here in the U.S. where workers do not get the same benefits as in Belgium.
The FN High Powers were not made in Belgium for a long time and FN had many guns, pistols, rifles and shotguns, made in Portugal and in Japan.

The FN Herstal High Powers still have an appeal to many buyers as an original piece of history and a well made gun and as long as there are people willing to pay a premium for that, the prices will stay high.

I do not find hundreds a FN Herstal High Powers in very good quality available on the GunBroker but many that are smuggled into the FN frenzy.
 
HPs were never "made" in Portugal, the Belgian-made parts were assembled in a FN facility in Portugal, as is stamped right on the slides of HPs imported by Browning: Made in Belgium/Assembled in Portugal.
 
Bought some at silly high prices; bought others
at reasonable or bargain prices. Never worried
about which way it went as I had the money
to do what I did at the time and it was what I
wanted.

However, when Nighthawk came out with its
modified version, I etched a big no in concrete.
But I wanted it. :D
 
RickB
HPs were never "made" in Portugal, the Belgian-made parts were assembled in a FN facility in Portugal, as is stamped right on the slides of HPs imported by Browning: Made in Belgium/Assembled in Portugal.
Click to expand...
Correct

PzGren
The FN High Powers were not made in Belgium for a long time...
Click to expand...
Incorrect
 
What I have come to believe, true or not, was that
the "Assembled in Portugal" Brownings were better
finished than those around the time FN exported them
to Portugal.

Labor was getting expensive while Portugal still had
at least some artisans who could assemble a gun in
an excellent manner.

I remember some BHPs still made and assembled in Belgium
that were very rough internally.
 
UncleEd What I have come to believe, true or not, was that
the "Assembled in Portugal" Brownings were better
finished than those around the time FN exported them
to Portugal.

Labor was getting expensive while Portugal still had
at least some artisans who could assemble a gun in
an excellent manner.

I remember some BHPs still made and assembled in Belgium
that were very rough internally.
Click to expand...
The rollmark has nothing to do with the quality of the finish.
There are ugly parkerized, utilitarian matte epoxy and beautiful polished blue versions that roll off the same line.
 
Dogtown Tom,

Perhaps the word "Assembled" was too limiting; what it should have stated
on the slide was "Made in Belgium, Final deburring, fitting, polishing, bluing and assemby in Portugal."
 
UncleEd Dogtown Tom,

Perhaps the word "Assembled" was too limiting; what it should have stated
on the slide was "Made in Belgium, Final deburring, fitting, polishing, bluing and assemby in Portugal."
Click to expand...
Or.......like with Hi Powers that were not imported by Browning Arms just "Made in Belgium". The overwhelming majority of Hi Power collectors abhor the "Assembled in Portugal" rollmark because its unnecessary.

The only ones with "Assembled in Portugal" were those imported by Browning Arms. FN didn't bother with that useless information on the ones imported to the US by FNMI or FNUSA. (or any they shipped around the world).

In no shape manner or form does "Assembled in Portugal" mean there was better or worse fitting, finishing, etc. FN has standards and those standards and procedures didn't change because some nitwit at Browning misread US import regulations.
 
In an earlier posting here, I mentioned the
Nighthawk Hi Power. So for kicks and
giggles I followed an auction race for a
Turnbull produced one, one that clearly
had "Assembled in Portugal" still etched
on the slide.

It was sold tonight for $11,801.
 
Yeah, I don't get that.
While Turnbull creates some beautiful guns, its still a refinish.:D

For $11K I think I could buy JMB's personal Hi Power.;)
 
Browning never completed the current H-P design. Browning had 2-3 rough prototype models when he died. Dione Desalve(sp?) completed the H-P design as we know it.
 
Some of what Saive did, in completing the HP, was integrate some 1911 features into it, which Browning couldn't in the 1920s because patents he'd sold to Colt were still in effect.
I've never seen a detailed comparison of Browning's '20s prototypes and the final GP/P35, but there was an interim design called the Grand Rendement, apparently completed by JMB's son Val, and it would be interesting to see how a gun different from the GP/P35, but also based on JMB's work, compares.
 
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