John, I wouldn't presume to know or predict the future gun buying preferences of multi-millionaires or even billionaires who can drop $25- 50,000 on a shotgun as easily as you or I spend a thousand. In a world seemingly dominated by semi-autos, guys are spending record sums on collectible Colt revolvers and Winchester lever guns.
Personally, I think semi-custom firms like CSMC have been catering to a very small segment of the gun buying market. And it was only a matter of time before the demand for CNC built "Guns-as-Art", that would spend most or all of their time in a display case or safe, would decline.
Part of the appeal to vintage guns for many of us is the fact that they were built during a time when there was a great deal of hand labor involved. I recall reading that even a machine made gun like an original L.C. Smith field grade shotgun had over a month of hand labor involved in fitting, barreling, stocking, and assembly. Add in the enormous amount of skilled hand labor to produce a Damascus barrel for the same gun, and we are buying a lot of man hours of skilled labor for not a lot of money. My head tells me that a brand new CNC machined Turkish or Japanese (or American) double might be more reliable, but my heart wants the old original vintage gun. That's a reason so many guys willingly go underwater on restorations too. A CSMC Fox or Winchester reproduction isn't just competing with Turkish, Spanish or Italian guns that are much less expensive, but they are competing with collectible original Fox and Winchesters as well.
Automation, robotics, and CNC machining which eliminated expensive hand labor resulted in lower production costs and lower retail prices for many products. But that cost savings didn't really translate into any savings for gun buyers in the niche "Art Gun" or reproduction markets.
I still believe that if there was really a downward trend in interest for doubles, prices across the board would be dropping like a rock. I didn't even see any bargains coming out of closets during the Great Recession in 2008-2009. All we really see is some corrections where certain segments of the double gun market were overheated by people buying into a mania or a fad. I wish I had loaded up on Colt Pythons when a nice one could be had for well under a grand. But I won't be jumping in now. Here's an article about ten really hot collectibles that aren't so hot anymore:
https://www.thestreet.com/slideshow/1356...ue-and-why.html
