How much is your gun collection worth?

What my Dad paid for in 1963 dollars, a little time, a shrinking dollar, more guns being made daily, politicians coming and going, what I can get for it today... are all variables in determining "worth" one might opine.

Case in point, A cheap commie rifle (or handgun) is a cheap commie rifle (or handgun), until Uncle Sam says no more. What is the real value?

Putting a smile on a kids or new shooters face with a 100 year old firearm or a black plastic fantastic poodleshooter? What is that worth? How do you assign a value to that besides warming the old heart a tad?

I'm glad you now own $65K of weapons. A good start.

Or do they own you? :D

Are you done buying yet? :eek:

Ya still gotta feed the little buggers. Maybe.
 
My car was broken into once. Smashed the window doing about $150 damage to steal 45 cents from the cup holder. If you have one gun or a thousand you are a target for thieves.

As for value, I probably have more than I think as I assume my guns are worth what I paid for them. Apparently prices have really gone up on many items. I have 3 Pythons and paid a total of $1350 for all 3. Could likely get more for them now. The ivory stocks I bought in 1975 for $32.50 have probably appreciated as well.

Hard to predict what guns are really worth. I have sold some at auction and at times I was very disappointed with selling prices and sometimes I was shocked at what someone was willing to pay.
 
I won’t go into how much my collection is worth since its no one’s business but my wife’s. Let’s just say that I have a large number of N frames.
I have found most of my “collector” guns (which means that they had a collector value to me like Taurus 445 because its 44 special) by word of mouth.
I have helped a good number of people value a collection and document the current value and what they can expect to get from a private sell and what they can get from a gun store when buying the complete collection.
In most cases I have brought together trusted people with the gun owners and helped them sell the collections that way. I do this for free because I love this kind of research and I learn a great deal about guns.
I then offer them a good price which I back up with traceable data (internet and books) any of the guns I want. In several cases they gave me the gun for half what I offered.
I am not an expert but I have spent a good amount of my life reading and researching firearms. From that I have hit one collection within 10% of what a gun store offered for the collection.
From this word of mouth. Friend of a friend calls and asked if I can help them.
 
To buy collections, one needs at least $100K of loose money (cash) to "invest". This is why the collector oriented dealers are successful. Many wanting to liquidate their collection simply want it "done" as soon after making the decision to sell as possible versus selling off one gun at a time over a period of months and years. Yes, you make less this way, but collections are usually embody a lot of emotion and sometimes it is best to just "get 'er done".
 
Some of these posts have got me thinking. More is NOT better. More is just a PITA to liquidate. So, perhaps I should think about consolidating the collection for the purpose of buying one of each type of gun I really like. One revolver. One semi-auto pistol. One shotgun. One military style rifle. One full-auto. One antique gun. That's 6 guns which would have considerable value.

Here's what how I might try to consolidate:

Shotgun - I like the Beretta I already have - no need for anything fancier.
Military style rifle: Sig AMT
Revolver: Korth 357
Semi-auto Pistol: ???
Antique: Borchardt c-93
Full Auto: I'll keep the one I've got - AC556

These would be the ones I want kept in the family. Is that doable, or still asking too much out of my heirs?


I would also have 3 other guns - a range gun (Sig X-Five), a carry gun (Boberg 9mm) and a hunting rifle (savage 30-06) - but my heirs can keep 'em or dump 'em. They will be quite used (but well cared for) by the time I'm done with them.
 
The same thing happened to me

trigger643 - Amazing that you and I have had boating accidents and the guns went over board! ;)
 
When I was 11 years old with a 55 cent/week allowance I bought a 1963 Shooter's Bible for $3.

A pre 64 Win M70 30-06 cost $139.
An unmodified one today is worth $800
The ratio is $800/$139 = 5.75
That was 1963, this is 2015
2015-1963 = 52 years
The 52nd root of 5.75 = 1.0342
That means a pre 64 M70 has been making 3.4% compounded annually for the last 52 years.

Almost all gun have made ~3% over the last 10 years, the last 50 years or the last 100 years. So have guitars. It is background inflation.
When i was a little kid, I read an article in Scientific American that compared the time rate of change in metallurgy for dated US minted coins to ancient Roman minted coins. It found the inflation rate to be the same.

I am aware that some guns are better, like Colt revolvers at 5% and some guns are worse, like Mossberg 16 ga bolt action shotguns.

Burying Gold in the ground since it settled out in exponentially damped sinusoidal ringing around $400/ oz in 1983 after deregulation in 1971 has been 2.9%.

But the bible suggests that burying Gold is the least productive investment, not as good as to get the Gold invested and working.

Over the last 20 years I have made in excess of 20% compounded annually by investing in something that grows; Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, etc.

What does it all mean? Buying a gun is not an investment. It's value only grows at the rate that money shrinks. A real investment is something that works and grows.

I buy guns all the time, not as an investment, but as an indulgence to my hobby.
 
My wife doesn't know, why should folks who post here? Seriously, I cannot understand why people post private information for the world to see. Too many 'bad guys' looking for such information.
 
JWT - you must be an old timer like myself. We were told never to air our laundry. Nowadays with Heimat Sicherheitsdienst as part of our everyday lives, one should really think twice, post once.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top