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#4416308 - 04/14/18 08:41 PM Highest price ever realized for a hand gun at auction,  
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Forward Observer Offline
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Forward Observer  Offline
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Yesterday, an antique Colt sold for what is probably the highest price ever realized for a single hand gun in the first day of the ongoing 3 day Rock Island auction in Rock Island, IL. This may be the highest price paid for any single firearm--rifle or pistol. There are some matched pairs like two that belonged to George Washington or Simon Bolivar which brought more in other previous auctions.

The hammer price on this one was $1.55 million, which does not include the 17% buyer's premium.

Here's a link to the listing, that includes a fairly informative write up of the gun along with it's background. Click on the full screen button to enlarge

https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/73/60/cased-colt-model-colt-civilian-walker-revolver

There are only around 170 Walkers known to still exist today and one of the finest examples of military marked versions sold a few years ago for a record $920k including buyers premium. That was the most paid at the time, but was beat out a year or so later by a cased Colt Paterson that went for about $970k

The Walker Colt is significant in that it got Samuel Colt back in the revolver business after his first manufacturing attempt in Paterson, N.J. had failed. He didn't even have a business when Captain Walker contacted him about fabricating these pistols. However, Colt didn't let that stand in his way, so he contracted with Ely Whitney Jr. who had an arms factory in Connecticut to produce the massive horse pistols. The pistols were named after Capt. Walker, who had also helped Colt design them. Part of Colt's deal with Whitney was that he got the tooling left from the production. This and his share of the proceeds allowed him to set up his own manufacturing operation in Hartford, CT and the rest is "history" as the saying goes

I have two reproductions of this 4.5 pound monster. One is a 2nd gen produced by Colt and the other is a 3rd gen produced under license to Colt all marked with proprietary Colt patents and other factory marks. My 3rd gen is in a case that replicates the one in the auction. I paid less than a $1000 for my cased reproduction, so I'm about $1,549,200 ahead.

It is claimed that the .44 cal Walker and Colt's subsequent massive .44 cal Dragoons derived from it, hold the title of being the world's most powerful revolvers until the advent of the .357 magnum in the 1930's.

I have a sealed bid for a Winchester rifle in this auction which will hit the block tomorrow, but it's in the bottom feeder section of the event and even though my bid is fair, I doubt it will win. There are just too many bidders with deep pockets that are willing to overpay for this stuff at these well publicized events

Cheers


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
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#4416409 - 04/15/18 07:54 PM Re: Highest price ever realized for a hand gun at auction, [Re: Forward Observer]  
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462cid Offline
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That's the collecting world. I got out of being active in the old car hobby, although I still have the car, a long time ago because suddenly, everything was worth big money...unless I was selling of course. But I had stuff to trade anyway, not really sell. But cars nobody really got money for were suddenly 20, 30 50 grand. People were willing to over pay. And then the parts must be very valuable, because the cars are. And the auctions got televised. And the reality shows started. Ruined the hobby for the little guys in it for fun.


What kind of car is that? What does it matter? When I drive it, I'm Steve McQueen
#4416647 - 04/17/18 05:34 AM Re: Highest price ever realized for a hand gun at auction, [Re: Forward Observer]  
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Forward Observer Offline
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Forward Observer  Offline
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I just thought I would update my post in that I didn't win the item that I put a fixed bid in on. In fact the item sold for way over maximum estimate. That's the problem with these highly publicized events with a large share of "one of a kind" big ticket items. The frenzy spills over to the more common lower priced stuff. Thus you end up competing against a lot of people with both deep pockets and more money than good sense or even actual knowledge of what they are bidding on.

Oh well, there were only about a half million of the rifle I bid on produced, so they aren't that hard to find--and at a much more realistic prices.

Cheers.


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4416769 - 04/18/18 12:03 AM Re: Highest price ever realized for a hand gun at auction, [Re: Forward Observer]  
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Fracture Offline
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I didn't think they would have so many NFA weapons.

re: the auction, bidders are like gamblers they don't mind losing as long as you pay more than you should lol

#4416869 - 04/18/18 06:29 PM Re: Highest price ever realized for a hand gun at auction, [Re: Fracture]  
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Forward Observer  Offline
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Originally Posted by Fracture
I didn't think they would have so many NFA weapons.

re: the auction, bidders are like gamblers they don't mind losing as long as you pay more than you should lol


The mix of firearms is just luck of the draw based on the ebb and flow of specialized collections that come on to the market. The big firearms and militaria collectable auction houses like Rock Island, James Julia, Dan Morphy, and Amoskeag tend to get the best and highest dollar stuff. Rock Island has 8 to 10 auctions per year, but only a few with the really big ticket items like this one.

Rock Island had another event in February that had just over 10,000 firearms auctioned off over 4 days. These were mostly lower priced items--some times so low that they were sold in lots of 5 or more similar type items, e.g., like a lot of 5 inexpensive common .22 cal rifles as a single listing. There are some good deals to be had in those types of auction listing---if one is buying and selling for an income or even just building a collection through the same process.

I would add to your comment about auctions in stating that competitive bidding generally only benefits the seller and auction house. It relies on fact that too many bidders let their natural competitive nature blind them to the actual value of what they are bidding on. I frequently see people get into bidding wars and end up paying double the retail value of a item just because they want to win at all costs.

For me, the golden rule is to establish the value of an item before hand through research, set a limit, and stick to it. I may lose 9 out 10 items that I bid on, but at least I know that I didn't overpay on the one that I won.

I am only talking about live auctions, which only end when people stop bidding. Auctions like eBay which have fixed ending times require some additional tactics that do not work for live events.

Cheers


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.
#4416879 - 04/18/18 07:45 PM Re: Highest price ever realized for a hand gun at auction, [Re: Forward Observer]  
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RSColonel_131st Offline
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FO, with all the historic angles I have to say your firearm threads here are always some of the most interesting to me. smile

#4416920 - 04/19/18 03:08 AM Re: Highest price ever realized for a hand gun at auction, [Re: RSColonel_131st]  
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Forward Observer Offline
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Forward Observer  Offline
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Posts: 2,802
Central Arkansas,US of A
Originally Posted by RSColonel_131st
FO, with all the historic angles I have to say your firearm threads here are always some of the most interesting to me. smile


Thanks, that's the beauty of SimHQ, we all get to share our interests and it's nice when someone else also finds them worth reading about.

Just an update, If now you click on the link in the original post for the auction, they now have the final total price realized for the Colt Walker that includes the insidious "no value added" buyer's premium. The winner had to shell out $1.840,000, which represents the hammer price plus about an 18% buyer's premium.

A buyer's premium is just a scam to suck more money out of the rich by the auction houses. Some of the big art houses charge as much as 30% to the buyer and get away with it simply be cause they can. Bidders just have to keep the percentage in their minds when they are bidding, so they can remember that in the case of an 18% fee, for every $1000 they bid they will have to cough up $1,180 when it comes time to pay.

Here's the history of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyer%27s_premium

Cheers


Artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl.

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