Quote:
Originally Posted by rubiranch
Sold a gun on GB last year, we were hoping for $2500.
Sold for just over $5000!!!
Don't drink and bid.
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I found this post by my brother back in Feb 2012. This is the gun I was referring to in the above post.
It looks like it increased in value quite a bit.
"My Model 11-4 is serial numbered C570307. Blue, 4 inch barrel, square butt, checkered Magna stocks, 4 screw frame, lanyard loop, .38 S&W chambering. Factory marked "SAP" on the backstrap. New in the original box that had labels indicating that it was part of the S&W factory collection. It has a tag indicating the gun was S&W's inventory item CAB #1-15-25. Looks basically like a regular .38 Special Model 10 M&P.
I bought it from Jim Supica's OLD TOWN STATION shop in 1997, from a sales catalog he published. The Jinks factory letter with it said the revolver was made for export to the South African Police in the 1960's but never shipped, probably part of a contract overrun. S&W recently had donated much of their collection to the Connecticutt River Valley History Museum, who then auctioned duplicates and things that didn't fit into the museum's theme of items made in the valley. The auction was conducted by Butterfield & Butterfield Auction Gallery in San Francisco, CA on June 23, 1996.
Jinks' book says, in the K frame section, that these guns resulted from post-war (WWII) demand for what were commercial versions of the .38 S&W Victories for a British Commonwealth country. The first of what we could call "pre-Model 11" guns were part of a contract of 10,009 guns that were completed by August, 1947. The factory received other contracts for this gun in the 1950's and 1960's, and I guess were model marked or named in accordance with whatever the numbers and dash variants were in use at the time for the similar guns in .38 Special.
SCS&W III said shipping of these guns lasted until 1970. Both books said the guns were never cataloged.
That is a good price if you want the gun. I paid $505 for mine in 1997."