Originally Posted by hardscrabble

I am far from expert, and there are members here that know 1,000 X more than I do about these guns.

I have been putting together a small collection for 3 or 4 years now and I watch for them, although I rarely attend a gun show and do most of my buying off the internet. This is just my opinion and the very next post will have an equally valid idea about how they rank.

With the caveat that "condition is everything", I would rank like-condition 1917's in this order in terms of demand, and therefore the prices they command: 1) post-war Transitions (something like 1,000 revolvers, so scarcity in play), 2)pre-war Commercials (1930's medallion service grips or pre-war Magnas), 3)pre-war Commercials (1920's Army stamped frames, checkered stocks without medallions), 4)US with dished grips, grooved hammer, 5)US with plain grips, non-grooved hammer, 6)Brazilian Export revolvers (the post war might be a little more scarce, but I don't know if I would pay a differential based on pre-war shipped or post-war shipped.

If I remember correctly, I once saw a picture of an original box for a US Army marked 1917. I may be dreaming, because I would normally capture a picture like that, but I can't find it if I did. Finding a boxed Army, if one exists, would send the value into the stratosphere IMHO. Commercial 1917 boxes are pretty rare, and an original box might well trump condition in terms of what I might be willing to pay.

I had an Army 1917 or two when I got interested enough to start a small collection. I have looked at 20 US Army guns for every Commercial I have seen for sale. The numbers bear this out, since the Serial Numbers run from 001 to 170,000 or so for Armys, and the last 1917 Transitions were numbered in the S210,000 range, so something like 40,000 Commercials and several thousand of those were the Brazilian export guns.

Hope that helps.