Help!

[Tony S45]

I'm becomming more interested in purchasing interesting handguns that I see for sale but need a current reference guide to keep me and the sellers honest. Who publishes a guide that would be inclusive of all modern handguns???

Go to Books a Million, or any book store, look for

Blue Book of Gun Values
Standard Catalog of Firearms
Gun Traders Guide.

These are the most popular and I think the best ones.

HJN

 

[C.R.Sam]

Pretty good lookin list. Good idea to read em from cover to cover, including preface......several times. Then keep em in the vehicle for quick reference when you stumble onto sumpin when not specificlly gun huntin.


Sam

 

[Tony S45]

Thanks! I'll get them, read them, and use them!!!

 

[johnwill]

I lug the Standard Catalog of Firearms with me to gunshows. While it's a PITA to pack it around, it's real handy when I see an odd gun. I'd like to have the Blue Book too, but it's a bit much to have both!

 

[Tony S45]

Thanks for the input, Johnwill. Is the Standard Cat for mostly "old" guns? I'm more into the last 15 to 20 years production items!

 

[johnwill]

The Standard Catalog actually goes up to the current stuff, though I use if for C&R guns as a rule.

 

[James K]

Just remember that those books are guides, not bibles. Prices vary depending on a number of factors which boil down to supply and demand. One factor no book can consider is the area of the country, yet prices can double from one area to another.

More important that looking at price guides is looking at guns and, if a beginning collector, gun books. It is a fact that (as Johnwill can testify) many of the more interesting guns are not necessarily expensive. A nice selection of small European auto pistols can be put together without paying much more than $300 for any one. The same cannot be said for mint Colt SAA's! Yet, the Colts are all pretty much the same, while the pistols will all be different.

Happy collecting. It gets to be addictive!

Jim

 

[johnwill]

Jim, that's the reason I have a lot more European guns than American guns in my collection! I've paid as little as $80 for really nice little pistols, but most of the American guns are priced out of sight. I'd hate to buy my Colts at today's prices!