Hi all, just looked at a 1949 vintage K-38 today. Has no box, some blueing wear typical of holster use, good timeing and lock up, good bore and charging hole's, a few freckel's here and there, original numbered grips with a few small defects. All numbers match. All in all I would say about a 80% gun. Shop is asking $500.00, I left them an offer 0f $400.00, am I being too cheap here?

__________________
Stay safe people!

Maybe too generous.

__________________
Gary Grace
S&WCA #1837

There seems to be fairly wide opinion on what the late '40s/early '50s Masterpiece models ought to sell for. I have two 1950 K-38s, one of which I paid $600 for before I knew how to value them (should have been about $500), and the other I paid $525 for, which I consider a good deal.

If the gun you are looking at indeed rates 80%, $500 is too high and $400 may even be a little generous. But I wouldn't be surprised to find that others might rate the revolver you are looking at higher than that -- 80% is pretty used, after all -- so the $400 offer sounds like it might be about right to me.

I always forget the varieties of barrel you get on a K-38. If this is one of the lighter barrels, it's a little less commonly found and might be worth a few extra bucks.

For the moment, K-38s remain the affordable Masterpieces. The K-32s are of course stratospherically priced because there are so few of them, and K-22s command high prices just because they are in such demand. Fortunately there are thousands and thousands of them out there, so there is a steady trickle of guns coming to market as higher prices entice them out of family holdings and collections. I don't see lots of late-'40s K-38s in the marketplace, but the prices are manageable when they do appear.

If you get this one, please post photos.

__________________
David Wilson

I personally don't think that any 40's vintage S&W in 75%+ condition or better is all that bad. Remember, we are talking about 60 year old iron here. The fact that it still wears its original wood is also a BIG bonus in my opinion. As I have stated in many other posts, my informal study finds that less than 50% of older S&W's are still matched with their original stocks.

That in and of itself may not make up the $100 difference but if I bought that gun for $400 without its original lumber and then found the original stocks somewhere, would I pay say $50 for them????? You betcha...Now the gun is only around $50 off of their asking price.

For $50 or roughly the price of 2-30 packs, do I want to miss out on a 60 year old S&W?????


PS-Does this sound like the justifications of a S&W junkie????

__________________
James Redfield
LM #497

I picked up a 1950 K-38 Combat Masterpiece about a year ago. It's in 99% condition, but just the gun. I have $465 in it. Would I do it again or even pay a little more, you bet!

__________________
Dick

Thank's for the input all! Perhap's I did rate it a bit lower than it is, (you know how we can get), but not a lot higher than my original estimate. They did ask if I would go $450.00 so perhap's I'll split the difference and see what happen's. After all it would make a good companion piece to my 1950 Combat Masterpiece! If it come's home I'll post it.

__________________
Stay safe people!

There is a local shop with a 1949 K-38 in very good condition with the original box and they want $699 plus tax. FYI.

at the last g-s i attended there was a very near perfect 1949-vintage k38 with no box for 599.00. i was tempted to offer them 500, and see what happened, but decided to keep looking. it had a couple of tiny freckles near the back sight, and a very faint turn line, but other than that it was about new. they are beautiful guns!