doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Would you buy a London Best with Dovetail barrels?

Why is it that the value of most guns is killed by a rebarrel even if it is a well done job?

I think only collector value is deminished. One needs to be sure to keep comparisons on a fair basis. OE finish is the first clue as to how much the gun has been used and we translate that into how much life it has left. Barrel condition is the major indicator of utility of the gun. It is, by definition, impossible to replace OE finish - refinish to OE standards is still not OE. Collectors prize OE condition and will pay for it. Shooters prize utility, but will pay much less than collectors because shootable guns are in much bigger supply than are collectable guns.

As a strawman, consider the value of a Purdey with a little remaining OE finish and smashed barrels (say run over by a shooting break/brake (sp?)). How much for it with the smashed OE barrels, with new Purdey's barrels, with OE quality replacement barrels, with lower quality replacements? The gun with smashed barrels is probably worth around $2000 or so. The new Purdey's barrels will set you back something like $20,000, $10,000-$15,000 for near OE quality "by another," and cheap ones can be had for $2,000 to $3,000. The rebarreled gun would probably be worth about 2/3 to 3/4 of the cost of the Purdey's barrels alone (not economical for quick resale), about the price of the "by another" barrels, and about the cost of gun and cheap barrels. The shooters out there want Purdey's guns, but they are mizerly about paying for the utility with the possibility of economic loss if resale is required. I'd be most interested in opinions on the foregoing strawman.

Rocketman has hit the nail on the head ....... Collector value has almost nothing to do with utilitarian value.

Al

""Best Guns" is a social, marketing ploy out of London after the turn of the eighteenth century. "Partly and partly a connotation of what the maker and commissioner believed to be best design, materials, and sufficient time allocated for no-compromise workmanship.""

Further to Rocketman's excellent comments: Neither the literature of the time (considered in toto) nor the purchasing habits of consumers in 19th Century factually support the notion that London was the exclusive province of the "Best Gun" or of best gunmakers in Great Britain. The claim that London holds sole jurisdiction over the term is a 20th Century value-judgement applied retroactively -- one supported by today's used-gun market but not necessarily one that exactly mimics the new- and used-gun market a century or more ago.

This is of course not to downplay London's dominance of that market segment, merely to clarify that "dominance" is not the same as "only."

Exactly...how many here are looking for collector guns verses shooting guns ?

I bet there are more here collecting guns to shoot.

I would think the collector's domain would be high-conditioned Americans, the English gun is the best bird shooting machine in the world and is prolly bought for that very reason.
j0e, there is no harm having an American field grade sitting right next to a London Sle in the same cabinet.

I'm sure they can prop up trees as well as an English gun.

Note that I pigeon-hole gun buying into Collector, Collector-Shooter, Shooter-Collector, and Shooter as a means of sorting the emphesis individual buyers place on the combination of condition/rarity/art/history/etc. vs utility. The Collector buys for purposes other than shooting. The Collector-Shooter wants to shoot his guns, but will pay rather considerably for features additional to utility. The Shooter-Collector looks first for utility and then extra features. The Shooter is willing to pay very little for extra features beyond the utility of the gun.

I don't agree with that....sounds like it came from a gun manufacturer board meeting.

"Dominance" was caused by quality....not by Marketing.

Once you learn to spot quality the reasons they dominated will become clear.

The "Shooter" is a hypothetical person. I know a few pure Collectors, but I don't know a pure Shooter. How do you see yourelf on this scale, jOe?