At the big gunshow in Phx today bumping around. Good crowd. Not a lot of good deals, but I don't really expect that! But then....I found a VERY nice 4 screw 4" Model 29 with pristine Coke grips and presentation box. Price was steep but fair I thought. Even better the guy was willing to give me credit on the Kimber 1911 I was looking to sell, so I was digging out cash ready to do the deal. The gun came out of the case so I could inspect it further. Beautiful original bluing, great grips. Looked to me like about 95-98%...I'm ecstatic! Then I see the magnaporting...I can't believe it. It was a deal breaker for me and a heart breaker as well to see that beautiful gun with holes in the barrel. I still have my cash and my Kimber.

I saw a 4 screw model 29 at a Texas gun show today that someone engraved themselves! Pretty shoddy workmanship or lack thereof!

That is sad. It would be a deal breaker for me too.

Ahhh! Total deal breaker. That is horrible.

Maybe it is just me, but I look a vintage S&W revolvers as pieces of history, art work, and an individual monument to American skill and craftsmanship. I realize that also in America, when you buy something, in most cases, said item is yours to do with as you please. Every one of these fine weapons that is defaced is a piece of that history that somone thought it OK to, as far as I am concerned, destroy. I am not not speaking of shooters that have wear and tear from the owner's enjoyment, I am referring to a gun like BCDWYO picked up, with a premium price, that were it not for the holes in the barrel, would probably be proudly displayed on this forum, and cared for as it should be. Just my opinion. DLB

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Be Kind! John 3:16,14:27

Hate to see a nice gun messed up. Some people just have no class.

A guy I trade with on occasion brought in a 410 superpose he has told me about for a couple yrs. Skeet grade. the gun was dropped and the buttstock broke into through the checkering.

A $5k gun, $2k to replace wood, then you got a not-original gun, worth maybe $3k. Do the math, now its a $1000-$1500 gun.

Shame. They didn't make many 410 Superposes.


Charlie

I agree it's a shame, and would have been a deal breaker for me as well unless he was asking 500 or less. We do have to remember that a lot of folks saw these guns as tools, not as the works of art that we consider them. I won't blame the previous owners for doing what they did, but I won't buy the stuff unless it is cheap enough for a modification/restoration.

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Even older, even crankier....

I been finding older S&W and Colt revolvers with the previous owners name engraved in them and they want more than top dollar for them. Its some plain Joes name like me some unknown guy, not Mr Colt, Mr Smith or Mr Wesson. So the value should be way less right?? Or they have some number on the back strap or some PD on them too.

You should see what some military guns i purchased with bubba refinishes on them. I repaired them all back to there orginal condition. Bill

I was at the Phoenix gun show today and I saw that gun. It looked beautiful in the display case. I wondered why the price was seemed reasonable, especially with the cokes. Now I know.

I understand that magnaporting was common some years ago. I suspect that the owner at the time thought he was doing the right thing. Oh well!

Magnaporting would be a deal killer for me too. That said, I'm sure that someone will adopt it eventually.

Mike Q.

So what was the seller asking for it?

Some people buy things to use and enjoy and some buy them to collect.

I have boxes of old comic books that are pretty much valueless. If they were pristine, they would be worth thousands but, as a kid, I bought them to read and re-read and swap with buddies for them to read. I used and enjoyed them.

To the original owner, that pistol was just a tool that he probably bought when it was new and had plans to use to use it for hunting.

He was asking $1200.

I see quite a few revolvers on Gunbroker that I am interested. Usually I scroll down and look at the pictures before I even read the description. As soon as I see the porting my enthusiasm is gone. Even with the "Coke" grips I would have passed as well.

I am a professional nerd. As such, I am impressed to a great extent with the knowledge level that the hard core collector/aficionado bring to this forum.

HOWEVER: while for this hard core group the value of the firearm is almost always in the well maintained or at least well used original items, complete with box, tools, and the like, there is also different group of users out in the world. They are looking at tools. I am more aligned with this group. We set up our guns and carry equipment as safety tools, just like football players wear helmets and firefighters wear turnout gear. We change them to match that need. We carry sidearms because we don't expect a problem, but we set them up to buy us time to get our hands on a rifle, that will likewise be set up to fight. I carry an unpleasant to shoot nasty little pistol in a pocket holster because it fits my life. It has XS Big Dot sights because I value them for that pistol. I carry it and a spare mag, a knife, my cell phone and earpiece, and a potent flashlight just about every minute of the day. There are some of us whose cultural background and socialization in firearms goes that way - it ain't wrong. It's different. I defend those of the collector ilk to the hard guys, too, even though they would look at the mindset like a chicken watching card tricks. I have not been in a shooting, but close. I have friends who have been in multiple shootings as cops, and I internalize their advice. It leads to a different way of looking at the world.

Do I think that revolver should priced like an original, more or less pristine, collector attracting M29. No. Is it the sacrilege and source of outrage that I perceive being expressed to have done that? No. Remember that there may have been a user who believed they needed a certain level of ballistic performance in the package so they set up that way. I mess with sights and the like as I have crummy eyes by genetics, made worse by age and a medication reaction. I do other things too. As a general rule, I think wooden grips are as useless as mammary glands on a bowling ball. There are some darned good looking ones shown here, and I may even buy a set or two for one of my revolvers. That is not even arguably an objective decision.

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NHI, 10-8.

I got this rig cheap so the holes don't bother me. Better than drop damage I figure, which it has none of. It came with rubber grips which I was lucky enough to replace with these for 23.00 total. 362.00 for the whole deal. I can live with the holes.

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Dealbreaker for me as well. Some original owner probably bought it and thought he was gonna hunt with it. Little did he know how this would affect the resale value. I'll bet he got less for it than the price of the cokes when he traded it in to the dealer.

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

Doug, I don't disagree with any of your points and I don't begrudge anyone doing whatever they want to their gun if they see it as a tool. I've got several semi-collectable L and K frames that have been converted to DAO with a bobbed hammer, and few with replacement sights, and I like them that way. My emotion in this case was not outrage, but rather disappointment in that I THOUGHT I had found a gun that I wanted, but it turned out not to be the case. I'm sure whatever previous owner that had it magnaported did so long ago before it was ever considered to be collectable. Having said that, if someone magnaported a pristine 4 screw revolver today, I'd strongly encourage them to do that to a less valuable tool, and yes I'd be a bit outraged!

by the way, I didn't recognize you Chuck...you changed your picture!

There are times I sure wish I was as smart as you guys. At Christmas a couple of years ago a guy at the show had one of the nicest looking nickel M19s I'd seen in a long time. It was nickel with ports. It was still really nice looking, so I bought it. I don't feel a bit bad about the gun or its ports. I haven't shot it yet, but then I've got a few dozen others I haven't shot either. Probably never will. I've got to go dig out a set of purty grips to put on it, since I don't like the wood that came in the deal. Then I could carry it to formal occasions.

Its a very nice gun. I don't let minor things get to me. Its a keeper if there ever was one.

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Dick Burg

Many of us do not buy things with resale in mind. It is entirely possible that the fellow who had the gun ported kept it for the rest of his life and one of his heirs sold the gun.

If a person in 1960 took a 57 Chevy Bel-Aire and converted into a pick-up truck, the people at the time would have said, "Cool" or "How resourceful." If someone did that to a 57 Chevy today, we would cry out "Blasphemy!"

I knew a fellow long ago who would buy cars based on their resale potential. It didn't matter if he really liked the blue one if he thought that the red car would resale better. He would buy sports cars and they would do little other than take him to work or the mall. On the other hand, I don't care about resale value of my cars and I would take my cars and flog the snot out of them. Track days, autocrossing, and spirited back road driving. He may have gotten money out of his cars but I enjoyed mine. Maybe he enjoyed his in a different way. Maybe not because he would say to me, "I'd love to do something like that but it could ruin the resale value of my car."