There is a 6" M28-2 on GunBroker (don't panic, no link provided). It looks OK but not pristine. No box or accessories. Has Pachmayrs on it. Current bid is $500.

Someone is nuts, here. Maybe it's me.

Saxon I know the feeling. I think my problem is I can remember too far back, we know what those things sold for for years and I just can't get it out of my head!

I'm glad I've already got a pair. I've got a 6" pre 28 I paid $200 for and a 4" 28-2 lightly shot still in the box I paid $250 for. The last one I bought in 2005. I can remember when no one even looked at those. Most folks wanted a 27. The same thing happened with the 58's. The first 58 I bought I paid $95 for because the dealer had it for over six years. I don't have that one any more but I have since replaced it with several more.

It hasn't been that long ago that I sold a unfired in the box perfect 6 inch for $500. OINK

Around here you cannot buy an N frame 357, no store has one. My guess is that a decent 28 would bring around $600 maybe $650 here today. At $500 it wound not last one day. People want them and cannot find them.

Heck an 1980s vintage M19 that have very deep pitting on the cylinder and one side of the barrel (like it was stored on a wet cloth or something very ugly gun, I called the river bottom edition) had rubber grips, it sold for $200plus tax in less than one week...

Seems like the low hanging fruit is gone

If you had $500 to spend on a revolver which would you rather have? The firearm on auction or any new revolver that you could purchase for the same amount? Bet you could pick you up a real nice "Judge" for 5 bills...

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Andy

Let's see - a Highway Patrolman or a Taurus Judge ....

I'll take the .357 every time.

In my part of the country I've only seen one N-frame revolver for less than $500 in the past year...and I bought that one.

Dave

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RSVN '69-'71
PCSD (Ret)

I guess it just seemed like the supply of affordable used Smith&Wessons would never dry up so those good old days prices are stuck in our memories.

It doesn't seem like any S&W revolvers are priced reasonable at shows in MN. Last weekend I saw a used nickel Mod 15 4" SB with nothing else (box, etc.) for $725. Correct me if I'm wrong but that seems high to me. Is it possible the internet is driving the prices upward?
Steve

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Birds like shiny new toys too.

I think I paid around $250.00 for both of my Model 28s and that was not that many years ago either. I think the most I paid for an N frame then was $450.00 and that was a NIB Model 57. The dealer wouldn't budge and I thought I paid too much at the time for it.
Those are the kind of prices still stuck in my head and when I see so so guns at $500 and more I get set back a bit still although I'm becoming more accustomed to it.

two months ago i paid 445.00 for a 27-2 and it is almost perfect!

Used gun pricing amazes me sometimes. The 28 is a little different, but I usually don't see any reason not to buy new. I see 442s for $475, when my local dealer has them for $422 OTD. When you make what most would consider a reasonable offer, you just get attacked.

I thought prices were easing back a little bit. I'm not so sure the supply is drying up. S&W made a lot of revolvers and as prices go up, more old ones seem to come out of the woodwork.

The first M28-2 I bought (a six incher) cost me $250, and I thought that was a good deal. A week later, I saw a very similar one at a different shop for $225. How could I pass it up if the other one was such a good deal?

Auction prices can be a little deceptive in that people sometimes get auction fever. You never know, the "winner" may back out, making that high price just more vapor on the internet.

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You're shy a few manners.

All the pre-lock revolvers seem to have had a price jump in the past year.

I watch beater model 10's go for $200+ on GB frequently. I'm glad I scored my M&P last year for $185.

And show prices are a sick joke. I saw a finish 90% gone Model 28 on a table for $400 at a show last year. Cheapest I've seen on the open market lately. I just closed a deal with a friend for a much nicer one for the same money. He probably would have put it on the market for $500 and sold it for that around here.

I just saw a 6 inch M28-2 in a gun shop for $350. Mechanically it is excellent, at least as far as I can tell. Some of the screw slots were a little mangled. It is wearing finger groove Pachs.

The reason for the low price is the finish is pretty bad. There are several places on the barrel where the finish is completely worn away. (Or someone did some way too vigorous cleaning?) Ditto for the frame. The finish appears to be original, but it's not pretty.

All in all, it is probably a really good shooter. As most have said, $350 N-Frames are a vanishing breed.

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You're shy a few manners.

I follow GB on occassion and add handguns I'm interested in to my "watch list". I see more often than not some of the more desirable Smith models with a minimum bid that seems high to me. After the auction closes those same guns have "0" bids and are re-listed, typically at the same price. I guess the seller is just looking for the idiot that has to have that particular model... ummmm... uhhhh... I mean that dedicated collector.

I found a 6" 28-2 in 95% condition a month or so ago. Shop wanted $499, but I got it for $425. It came with Pachs, but I have a few extra sets of N-Frame target stocks, so I pulled the trigger. I would have paid a bit more if I had to. You can find K-frames at reasonable prices in this area, but not N-frames. Anything under $500 around here for a nice condition 27/28 doesn't last long.

Yesterday I made a few rounds and came across a M28-2 4" N serial number vanilla gun. It had magnas but it had been in a holster quite a while, blue loss on the barrel and high points on the cylinder and frame. No box, just the gun, the price........










A mere $799.00

How many of us can recall buying complete PISTOLS for the prices we now spend on GRIPS?? I sure can.

You guys are giving me second thoughts. I ordered an M-28-2, 6", S2232XX, for $695, shipped, as new, no box! I'm to pick it up this afternoon.

My dad had a 6 inch model 28 when I was young, I always liked it and twenty five years or so back I saw a like new one in the case of a local dealers shop and thought for 250 out the door I needed it. I now have it, dads and a four inch and they are nice for sure. I agree though the days of sub five hundred n frames as a common thing are going the way of the do do...

More than possible, absolutely the case. The world has shrunk dramatically with the advent of the internet. Before the net, dedicated collectors had to advertise locally or in print media such as "Shotgun News" and that reached a mere pittance of the folks who now view online gun trade/sales sites hourly. You had to snail-mail photos back and forth if you were serious about dealing in used guns or just take the seller's word for it. And prices stayed low or depressed in certain areas depending on the saturation of certain models geographically and by how isolated a population of shooters in a particular area was. In the '70's my gun trading area (sans "Shotgun News") was within driving distance of my house, and we used to go on 'road trips' on a Saturday morning and hit every known shop within 2 or 3 hours driving distance. Many times a lot of these places chose not to even deal in used guns.

Enter the internet. I can converse with someone clear across the country for free, exchange detailed information and pictures, negotiate a price and set the details of shipping and purchase in nothing flat to get a firearm I may have never even seen in this part of the country.

That creates opportunity and demand. Those who live in backwater areas where the shooting/gun owning population was older and drug their feet coming to the digital age had an opportunity for a while to still take advantage of artificially depressed market forces. But that is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The new reality is with newly manufactured guns bringing the prices they are listing for these days, used guns are still a bargain but the demand is there and people are willing to pay to get them, and that creates competition for what is out there and higher prices.

I liked buying them cheap. I like selling (when I do) for a profit. Who doesn't ? When I bought my first new-in-the-box model 28 for $225 many years ago, I thought that was high. Now, I afraid you guys paying that plus $200 for well used ones are the ones finding the rare "bargains" these days . . . .

Next thing ya know, Someone with a 28 will be asking for boot on a swap for a 27.

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Forum consigliere

I've bought MULTIPLE guns for the price of a pair of the Keith Brown grips I've been lusting after . . .

Here it is, Guys!
I can't find any sign of it being fired and the turn ring is very light. The stocks aren't marked. Could they be original?
Dick

Attached Images

	M-28-2 A.jpg (40.8 KB, 199 views)
	M-28-2 B.jpg (37.5 KB, 174 views)
	M-28-2 C.jpg (39.9 KB, 163 views)

Reddog, that serial number puts you right around late 1961. Yes those very well could be the original grips since S&W used the diamond in the checkering up until 1968. Very nice model 28! Bob

27's are becoming the S&W equivalent of Colt Pythons.......in a few years a nice 27 will be a $1,000 gun and a 28 will be $6-700.

Nice piece Dick. Did you pay a little too much? Maybe or maybe not, it depends on availability. Do you love it? I bet the answer is yes.

Dick, if most folks here were honest about and went to post those grips in the classifieds they would likely ask at least $150 for them if not more; so based on that I figure you have about $550 just in a 1961 S numbered gun in excellent condition. Some folks have paid that much for such a nice specimen with Pachmayr grips on it. I think you did OK. And I believe two years down the road you'll say you did pretty good.

So, I guess I did OK for a like new, with the box M25-5 for $500?

Don

I think that another factor that drives prices up is that there are a lot more collectors and accumulators nowdays than there used to be.

Sure, there were collectors back in the day, but just not so many. In the fifties and sixties, it was common for the average person to own a gun, but often that was all he owned, one gun, and usually a long gun at that. From reading this Forum, it sounds like it is not uncommon for members here to own a dozen handguns or more. That trend is bound to drive supply down and prices up.

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You're shy a few manners.

Thanks, Guys!
It's going into the safe! I have another 28 with wear that I'm using for a shooter. And will soon have a cut off 5" barrel 27 that was a 6.5" originally, to shoot too! I'm pleased!
Dick

The problem is yesterdays's "used guns" became today's "collectibles".......a working guy can't even get a Model 10 from the 80's to shoot for less than $300 anymore. It wasn't too long ago you could get PD and security trade-in S&W's for actual USED prices, not collectible prices. A holster worn Model 10-7 was a $150 gun, because it was just used. Now people decided to become "investors".

It makes me take a step back and decide what I really NEED anymore........I would have a lot more in the bank if I wasn't an "accumulator", a lot more for ammo, gas, etc. Lots of folks got by just fine for life back in the day with a shotgun, a 30-06 bolt rifle and an M&P wrapped in a handkerchief stuck up in the closet.

This whole business with the N frames shooting up in price shows that shooters are better off buying the new stuff.......

I looked around at what I could buy for $650.00 NIB not long ago.

Suddenly, $650.00 didn't seem too high for a 28-2.

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John 3:16 .

Thanks to the DOJ list, it is still this way in California. Here, any used S&W regardless of price is a deal just because it is available. I visited all 6 local gunshops regularly for 14 months looking for a 29, and never found one, so I bought a beautiful 57 no dash for $700. The following week I found a pristine early 29-2 at a gun show for $750. I would have been extremely lucky to find either of them, with both I'm over the moon. I have never even seen a 27 for sale around here...

I don't think there is much of a mystery behind the rising cost of older/used S&W's. One only has to look at the number of members on this forum, add in all of the people from other gun forums, and those that don't do the Internet, and you have a lot of potential buyers looking for the same things.

How many time have you read or heard people say "I've always wanted a fill-in-the-blank but couldn't afford it when I was young" or "I used to have one like that and got rid of it, and now I want another one".

There's a pot load of 50 somethings (myself included) that now have the financial means and the spare time to indulge in pursuing those "wants", and I don't think demand is in danger of slacking off anytime soon, so sometimes you just have to strike while the iron is hot.

Here's the way I look at it.

If I take a pass just because something has a higher than average price tag on it, I can't count on another one like it popping up for sale period, let alone that it might at a lower price. So if the price is not completely outrageous, I'd rather have the "bird in hand".

Whenever I end up buying something that I really want and pay a higher than "average" price in the process, I'm secure in the knowledge that although I overpaid this time, I've also or will underpay on other occasions, so in the long run when I calculate what my dollar cost average is per gun that I have now, it comes out being pretty darn reasonable.

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Conrad
SWCA #1830 SWHF #222

Thank you Gunhacker!! That sums up my feelings exactly! Since I saw my first Model 28 when I was about 20 years old I've wanted one. A Model 19 was my first handgun. I traded it off. I used to spend hours wearing out a Shooters Bible. I can't tell you how many Smith & Wessons I wanted out of that book.

Your description fit me to a "T". I'm retired now, but took a job again so I could afford to buy those guns now. Pay too much? Maybe so, but I don't see a lot of 28's or 19's. I'll try to work the best price I can, but I also know if I don't want it, the guy right behind me does.

And it's not just us old coots we have to worry about. I've noticed lately when I'm looking at a nice revolver, a lot of times, I'll find a young person standing right there beside me asking questions about them. "What are you looking for?" "How can you tell?" "Which is better?"

I guess one of these days if nothing else, my kids will wonder "Where did all these old guns come from?" I believe they will appreciate them.

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John 3:16 .

The 58s go for $1,200 (I've seen it) the 28s bring $700 and 10s are priced at $600.

It's a brave new world. I'm glad I have all the guns I need as I can't bring myself to pay the prices being asked today.

I'm just about with ya on that one. My trading has slowed to a trickle. In fact, I can only think of one piece I stubbornly want for the collection and the only reason it's not already in the safe is a nagging feeling that every one I find is at least $200 over-priced . . . .

You can still get an old M&P 4" that looks like it spent 30 years in a cop's holster for $200 if you look around a little......I saw one 4" M&P at a gun show, a "large extractor head" model with the hammer spur ground off, but otherwise it looked good, priced at $150.....probably should have snapped that one up.....also an early 15 with original diamond grips for $275.....

The "shooter grade" common stuff like M&P's, 10's, 64's etc. will always go for the same flat prices. Everyone is scrambling for those 29's, 27's, 57's, etc. It seems K frames stay the most reasonable, because they are the most numerous. Of those the fixed sight stuff go for less..... J's and N's are skyrocketing, esp. the older ones. I have seen early Chiefs' Specials sell for $700 on GB. These days a nice early pinned Model 60 is a $5-600 gun.

This is part two of my theory for the prices. Part one is that sellers are simply seeing what they can get away with.

But I personally know many people who "boycott" the S&W lock guns and will only buy older ones. And if I know that many, Im sure there are many many more, thus sapping the used gun market faster than it would normally go.

I'm lucky, I guess, that I like the MIM and IL revolvers....I'm enjoying the drop in prices for used IL guns. I found a 10-14 in great shape for $350 and a 64-7 for $300, in carried but hardly fired condition. Keep bringin' on those used 10-14's and 64-8's!

The rarer stuff will continue to skyrocket, but there's no way holster buffed 10-8's and stuff like that will ever be $1,000 guns.

[emphasis added]

What in the heck has need got to do with it? Do I have all the guns I need? Sure, and then some. Do I have all the guns I want? Not hardly!

Agreed that it's tough to pay current prices when remembering the past. That's one of the things that makes it that much more delicious when you come across a real deal - the thrill of the hunt.

in my part of california a 28 offered at $500 or say $495 to make you feel better :P is not lasting on the shelf more than a day or 2 if that.

especially in PRK, if you see a (used) gun you're mildly warm on in a shop thats priced correctly or even a pinch high, you better whip out your credit card for a down payment to hold it as you may be shopping a LONG time before you see another one. can you say 4 inch 29 ? havnt seen one offered for sale in many many moons.

in case you missed the memo the .gov has been printing dollars non stop the last few years and hard assets liek gold adn silver ( and guns) have really gone up in the number of pieces of paper it takes to acquire said items

The disease can be transmitted over the internet. This is where I caught it. And all those threads of those perfect specimens, come on, you guys ...

They prices on quality made firearms - and the model 28 of course is albeit w/ a matte finish - are only going to keep going up.

Wait until the dollar is removed as the world's reserve currency and removed as the trading standard currency for oil! It's heading that way too as the dollar gets weaker and weaker.


We could see inflation like we've never seen. Get your long term stuff now.

Darn, I have one that is still in the box with it's wrapper, papers, etc. No indication it has ever been fired. Maybe I need to get it on the auction block. I'd gladely trade it for a good compact diesel car that gets 50mpg.. )-:}

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Go West young man..

I bid an '82 Yugo with a missing rear bumper . . . . .

Here is my recent experience. About a year and a half ago I was in my local gun store and saw a unfired 27-2 3.5 inch with box papers cleaning tool for $695. At that time I thought no way I would pay that kind of money for a N frame. Two weeks ago I was in the same gun store and saw a 28-2 6 inch with box for $750. The revolver did not have the original grips. I asked the salesman if the gun came with the original grips and he said no.

I guess this comes down to the supply and demand which results in what a person pays for a item.

Howard