Shocking raise in the value of some guns

Mostly supply and demand.

The show "The Walking Dead" features the main character primarily using a nickel plated Cold Python. No doubt that fans of the show have sought out this gun and driven the price up. Don't underestimate fads. If I had a Python I'd sell it at top value right now. Can't see it going higher. From my understanding it's nothing particularly special from a mechanical standpoint to warrant costing 5-8 times that of other high quality .357 magnums.
 
Colt's buying up all the Pythons to create an even larger demand so they can begin manufacturing them again and selling them for $1500 new.
 
The short answer in terms of the Colt Python is it is a darn good revolver and they are not making them any more. I can't explain the meteoric price increase, especially on the less common versions. The same thing has happened to Colt Diamondbacks and I believe it is primarily because they look cool. Neither revolver has low production totals as a general statement of fact, but some of the variations are not common.

So, it is simply supply and demand and people willing to pay those prices. Nothing more. The rule of thumb is about a 4% average increase in price/value per year.

We're not in Venezuela where inflation is huge right now. It could happen in the US.
 
the prices is what some one is willing and can pay. I have found the gun market full of bargains. 1/2 the price of 5 years ago. just have to look and you will find them.
 
the collector market is hard to gauge

I remember twenty years ago everybody was into collecting Muscle Cars. A fully restored late 60' or early 70's car could get over $50,000 and then the bottom dropped out of the market and people had to unload them for $10 or 15 thousand.
Pythons are a pretty safe bet as they are not good modern assembly line objects. Anybody collect King Cobra's? No, not the malt liquor, but the Hartford Connecticut version.
 
In 1976, I had a friend who paid $450 for a 6" nickel M29, because that's what they guy who had it wanted, and he wanted it. MSRP at the time was $283.50 and delivery time was 2years+.

While there are dealers who genuinely love guns, most just like them and are in business to make money. ANYTHING seems to justify a price increase, particularly with any discontinued model.

When the people making Winchesters closed their shop the last time, EVERYTHING with Winchester's name on it seem to jump $100 at the next gun show.

Pythons were always spendy. Now, they are just ridiculous except as a collectable.
 
Have you considered that Colt is on the verge of bankruptcy and people want to get the guns before they become a collector's item?
 
"Have you considered that Colt is on the verge of bankruptcy and people want to get the guns before they become a collector's item? "

Are you aware that Colt's revolver production is history since many, many years and that Colt revolvers are already fetching collector's interest for a long time?
 
Try & buy a decent used S&W Model 17 K Frame .22LR revolver and if you can find one it is almost the cost of what a new S&W 617 K Frame .22LR revolver should go for. But you can't get a new one, these are on allocation with S&W. I've had a deposit in for one since early Dec. last year with an LGS who told me it might take a month to get the gun. So the asking price for the few used S&W .22LR K frames that do hit the market are through the roof. It's a total supply & demand situation. Looks like I may be getting one from another source that was willing to pull a few strings to get me an allocated 617, but it will cost me about $100.00 more than the one that I've had on order for the last six months.

I learned a lesson about 8 years ago, when an LGS had a NIB 4" polished Royal Blue Colt Python for $550.00, this was early '70's vintage, and they had just bought it from an estate, and the deceased guy had an extensive gun collection. I put it down and left the store, and 5 minutes later I turned around to go buy it, and they were filling out the PW to sell it to somebody who was waiting for me to pass on it. So when an opportunity came up 6 mos. later to pick up a LNIB hard chromed Browning Hi-Power for $389.00 I jumped on it along with the SW1911 I had come to buy.
 
Re: Colt King Cobra
I bought a stainless six-inch a few years back, I believe it is a 91 or 92 production year and I got it for $750.

I see similar ones tagged north of $1,250 now. I truly don't know what kind of prices they actually fetch however.
 
The Colt collector's market really took off after the 1992 bankruptcy, and especially after 2000. Prices climbed consistently ever since on Pythons. I was never a big Python fan, so I wasn't really in the hunt for them. Many of the DA revolvers were discontinued between 1982 and 1986. A few went back into production for a short time and Pythons continued to be built by the Colt Custom Shop.

Single Actions were always collector items, especially 1st and 2nd generation guns.

Been pretty interesting how the values have climbed. Diamondbacks were very popular and seem to have leveled off of late. It was rather easy to find Diamondbacks back in the early to mid 1990's in great condition for under $750. You could still find them for around $400 at that time if you looked. In part, revolvers weren't selling well and this was the time of the wonder 9's. Things have changed.

S&W pre-lock guns are popular in good condition. The M17 has continued to climb in value matching nearly new production prices. M27, M29, and M57's (N-frames) have always commanded a premium in good condition. The M19's were the sleepers and in less demand.

It has been fun.
 
Then, there is the huge amount of cash floating around among the extremely rich. Most of us here are just regular folks.

When you think about the 100 million + price for some paint and canvas, the price of firearms is not that insane.
 
I personally have to draw the line at "practical value" they are guns after all... if they are priced like works of art, that means I should have bought them sooner :o & if I bought something at new or at going ( reasonable for a gun ) price, & they are at crazy price... then I nered to decide how much I love the piece... I sold my FN 5 Seven at the last shortage ( actually traded a pair of brand new polished stainless 357 magnum Vaqueros for it... a good value... slightly used plastic gun that ammo was near impossible to buy at the time, for a pair of polished metal revolvers that I already had a huge supply of ammo )...

IMO, the Pythons are now worth too much to shoot, & as such have crossed to the art class... as much as I'd like one... I now wish I had 20 or 40 to sell :)
 
I think there was some movie that set off the prices on Pythons. I bought one about the last year Colt was selling them for $1K so I would not shoot my nice 60s vintage I have that I bought from an Uncle back in the 70s. Now that SS Python Elite has gone way up also.
 
Supply and demand is what's driving the prices up on a lot of guns...

True craftsmanship is expensive...and getting harder to find in current production guns... maybe high quality craftsmanship is perceived - maybe not ...but the pursuit of true craftsmanship is what is driving some of the older models of S&W and Colt revolvers to premium prices in the market place.

At the same time there are more and more, and probably better, serviceable guns with poly frames on the market today than ever before - and because there are more and more, sometimes it drives prices down. Yet Sig, HK and others seem to be able to demand a higher price than some mfg's in the market today as well...and I think part of it is perception of quality again.

Production of semi-custom guns...like Wilson Combat ( 1911's out of Arkansas) and Freedom Arms ( single action revolvers out of Wyoming ) are in very high demand...with current waiting times on new orders of 18 months or so right now...and they've both taken price increases recently - and both mfg's are busier than ever ...( both with prices over $3,000 for many models )...

More and more buyers, I think, are saving their money ....and buying that one gun that they really want....vs whatever poly frame gun that everyone has and everyone sells...maybe to have something different / or maybe because they perceive it to be a much higher quality of craftsmanship ....
 
It seems effortless to continue to chalk it up to supply and demand, like it is THE global force that is the simple answer to a very complex question.

In the case of half a million Python revolvers, there is simply -NO- supply problem. Go ahead, run a search. The demand is absolutely real, the rare odd versions and ones with select odd features may be scarce, but in all, the Python is the opposite of scarce. Supply and demand is absolutely a real force, but there is not a supply problem with the Colt Python.
 
In the case of half a million Python revolvers, there is simply -NO- supply problem.
Click to expand...

Actually, there is a supply "problem", the supply is fixed. It may be large (or so it still seems) but there are no new ones being made. So all there are, are all there are. Period.

Like Lugers, there is a certain aura about a Python, and like Lugers, there are no new ones, so the price only goes up. Demand has peaks, the price jumps, demand fall off, the price comes down, maybe, a little, until the next demand cycle, when it jumps again.

The $30 dollar Luger in 1955 can be a $2000 gun today, what's a Python going to be worth in another few years?
 
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