Opinion on rare guns

[Alan]

I thought I had a collector's piece and it turned out they made 300,000 of them and half are still in circulation. The internet is great for bursting bubbles. What grandpa said was rare in 1975 might be common as dirt now. Do your research before you brag, or you'll look silly. Speaking from experience here...

 

[MisterEd]

I thought I had a collector's piece

What is it?

What grandpa said was rare in 1975

No offense but just because he's 'Grandpa' (or anyone for that matter) doesn't make him right all the time....

Kinda like people who have 'stories' about guns, and who owned them and who they rode/traveled with etc.

I have known of two people in my life who owned a certain gun and (according to them) it was 'Originally owned by my Great, great GP, uncle, (great this or that)' and he 'rode with Buffalo Bill and was in his Wild West Show' - but NO provenance. This however differs from known, and verifiable, rare guns.

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

What is it?

No offense but just because he's 'Grandpa' (or anyone for that matter) doesn't make him right all the time....

Kinda like people who have 'stories' about guns, and who owned them and who they rode/traveled with etc.

I have known of two people in my life who owned a certain gun and (according to them) it was 'Originally owned by my Great, great GP, uncle, (great this or that)' and he 'rode with Buffalo Bill and was in his Wild West Show' - but NO provenance. This however differs from known, and verifiable, rare guns.

My Grandpa was living in another State when he died. He was going to leave me his SAA Colt. A real one, But I never got it. They sold all of his property before he died just to pay the bills as he was living in a nursing home on hospice.

I don’t know from what year it was from, but I guess he got it from my great grandfather when he died. Would have been nice to keep that in the family. His only other gun was a Weatherby Shotgun that he was really proud of. He used to come out and hunt ducks with my dad when I was a kid. I actually saw that gun.

I never would have sold off either of his guns. My other grandpa left me his guns when he died. They all reside with my son, his namesake grandchild, now. The only real semi collectible one was an old Beretta, but still pretty common.

 

[MisterEd]

He was going to leave me his SAA Colt. A real one, But I never got it. They sold all of his property before he died just to pay the bills

Sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately it's an old story but not at all uncommon.

AND when it comes to guns it seems they sometimes 'disappear' pretty quickly as a lot of family member simply don't want to deal with them.

Heck, I was recently watching a video and a guy described having saved some family gun from getting thrown into a river.

 

[Alan]

My Grandpa was living in another State when he died. He was going to leave me his SAA Colt. A real one, But I never got it. They sold all of his property before he died just to pay the bills as he was living in a nursing home on hospice.

I don’t know from what year it was from, but I guess he got it from my great grandfather when he died. Would have been nice to keep that in the family. His only other gun was a Weatherby Shotgun that he was really proud of. He used to come out and hunt ducks with my dad when I was a kid. I actually saw that gun.

I never would have sold off either of his guns. My other grandpa left me his guns when he died. They all reside with my son, his namesake grandchild, now. The only real semi collectible one was an old Beretta, but still pretty common.

That’s really tough, losing a family heirloom, especially one tied to so many memories is heartbreaking.

 

[Alan]

Sorry to hear this.

Unfortunately it's an old story but not at all uncommon.

AND when it comes to guns it seems they sometimes 'disappear' pretty quickly as a lot of family member simply don't want to deal with them.

Heck, I was recently watching a video and a guy described having saved some family gun from getting thrown into a river.

Yeah, it’s sad but all too familiar. Family guns often vanish fast, some just don’t want the responsibility

 

[Rimfire Fanatic]

That’s really tough, losing a family heirloom, especially one tied to so many memories is heartbreaking.

Yeah, I really would have liked his shotgun. I have fond memories associated with it even though I never got to shoot it or hunt with him.

I remember when he first showed it to me. I was in awe. And he was explains all the little details of it. The wood was beautiful. He had a leather case for it. The bluing was so rich and deep. He let me hold it it was so heavy. He’d always say “Someday, Grandson.” It was magical. Just talking with him was magical.

 

[MisterEd]

Unfortunately the 'gun world' is changing and in some ways for the good and some not so good.

Probably the biggest category of CLASSIC gun collectors (boomers) are 'aging out' and selling off, or handing guns down to children/grandchildren but the problem is fewer of them are interested, and less as generations advance.

Gen X'ers are probably the next in line with interest in classic & collectibles but they accounted for a LARGE part of the interest and market with 'black guns', MSRs, and all that goes with it and they 'carried' a lot of that market but it SEEMS that market is 'waning' to a certain degree with a lot of them returning to more classic and traditional firearm interest.

Gun interest with Millennials is probably heaviest with the oldest ones but appears to drop off pretty dramatically with the younger ones.

There will no doubt still be a pretty good interest and market for classic and collectible firearms but the the market is 'narrowing' and prices are dropping noticeably with some that were higher in years past.