If well done restorations of 'J', 'K' and 'N' frame Smith & Wessons and Colt revolvers were available, would you buy them? If someone with the resources would do the restorations, as to make the old Smith's and Colt's look factory new, would there be a market?

M

Persosnally, I would not buy a restoration, but I'm sure that others would.

For me,the problem with restorations is that, unless the gun itself is very
scarce for one reason or another, it is always a better investment to buy an
original.

The downside to restorations is that they are expensive. It takes time and effort
to restore a gun, not to mention the scarcity of parts that are sometimes needed.
And then, often they do not get done right. Something wrong here, something wrong
there.

At the right price, I'm sure there is a market for anything !

Later, Mike Priwer

Mike
For the sake of discussion, I'm not talking about guns purchased for investments, but more as nice shooters.The quality of the old Smith's and Colt's can no longer be matched, so a restored revolver is the next best thing.

The reason I bring up the subject is a gunsmith I know is thinking about restoring guns for resale, but is not sure of the market for the restored revolvers.

M

Maybe restoration is the wrong word for what he wants to do. Restoration, to me,
implies getting the gun back to new condition. That may involve case-coloring the
hammer and trigger, refinishing (which involves preparing the surfaces), probably
new hammer and trigger studs, getting the cylinder gap and timing back to right,
perhaps the original sights, recheckering the grips . In short, making a new gun
out of it.

I think that is much more than just creating a nice shooter.

I think his problem is going to be that shooters are shooters, and are usually
defined to be shooters because of their condition. And, that is why they sell for
what they do - the folks that buy them do not want to spend the amount of money that
would be required for something collectable. So, they are only willing to spend
a limited amount. I doubt that they would want to spend some amount more, just to
get a nicer-looking shooter.

I suspect that the question you are asking is - Is there room in the market for
a class of guns inbetween shooters and collectables ? There may be a few folks who
would ante up to this intermediate class, but its my impression - right now - that
this would be a relatively small class.

But, on the other hand, I could be wrong. Look at all the gunsmiths who make a
living fixing up 1911's . The better ones always seem to be busy.

Later, Mike Priwer

Hi Muddyboot, I think, and I'm sure most experts (I'm not one) would agree, there are antiques out there that are in terrible shape. Let us say an antique brings $500 in terrible shape. $200, or so, will make this antique "presentable" for a gap in a true collector's inventory. So $700 into the thing but probably still only $500-600 value to any one. Value basically unchanged but value to you, the owner, has, prehaps, increased. Some years later you advertise the item as an refinish and get $600 or 700 (devalued $'s) for it. It has benn a shooter or gap filler for you and you lost some dough in the long run but, hey, you've been happy with it for a couple of years. Not sound business practice but?? Of course the refinished item may increase in value as scarcity comes into play. I think this may be happening with C96 Mauser Broomhandles. Lotsa refinishing going on as lotsa junky broomhandles available. The "originals" will pull the restored ones value up as the demand increases and original finish pistol dwindle in availability, Just my humble opinion. Really bad condition-restore: fair condition-preserve. Anyway, Regards, Ray

Yes, I think that would be his purpose. To make the guns look better, function well and create a class of guns purchased at a moderate price that could be shot and enjoyed for years.

He would also do a few to higher standards for people with a few more dollars to spend.

He knows this would be a tough market, but wanted to get some input from as many people as possible.