Went to a gun show in Mesa AZ this last weekend, and dropped by the table of a lady who has been dealing in grips/stocks for out of print guns for many years - I can recall dealing with her 30 years ago (she's 80 now, she confided to me). She's always been knowledgeable, helpful, and reasonable to deal with.

I saw a fairly nice (albeit refinished) set of smoothie target "football" stocks for N-frames, and inquired as to what she was charging.

Answer: $275.00 firm.

I then pointed to a clean pair of non-diamond football checkered targets for N-frames. How much?

$175.00 firm.

I feel like I'm Rip Van Winkle, and just woke up after a deep sleep of many years. I was flabbergasted. How about you guys? Are there better prices out there?

I know that some fantastic prices are being asked for original correct boxes for classic scarce S&Ws and Rugers, but I could understand and rationalize that because the attrition rate is so high for boxes. Stocks pretty much exist for a long time...???

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

John, I have a long history of wasting money, witness my empty piggy bank, but like you I am astounded by some of the grip prices, and won't participate.

That nice lady no doubt knows her product, but seems to me she knows the "feverish" S&W COLLECTORS even better.

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wanna do right-- not right now

It's pretty much because of Ebay.

There are still occasional deals to be found at gunshows, but anyone who has access to Ebay and uses it will likely be demanding top dollar for their whatevers.

I haven't been to a gun show in a while. Last show I went to looking for stocks, it seemed like most dealers wanted outrageous prices for some pretty ordinary stuff.

Walking through the entire show, I did manage to find some good smooth Footballs at the low end of the internet price range. By no means a "deal" but I did not feel like I was getting gouged. I bought a couple of pairs from him.

This reminds me to go to some gun shows this winter.

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You're shy a few manners.

Same thing happens to me here at Albuquerque gun shows and the "Western Collectors" shows. I was quoted a price for used, bonded ivory k-frame grips higher than I can buy them new. The prices for wood (used, in marginal condition) grips are out of sight. I just walk away. Good luck to them.

eBay maybe. Collectors, more likely. Whether they use eBay or not, it's just unusual demand, just like for boxes. Years ago I took the grips off a 2" M-10 and switched grips around3 times, maybe 4, and never gave a thought to keeping the originals. Now, if I don't keep originals, people
the Forum might stone me!

I did take the originals off my newly acquired M25-5, added gorgeous elk Magnas (picture coming soon [as in just a few minutes]), and I told someone and the VERY first thing he said was to make sure I saved the original stocks. That's just how it is these days.

***GRJ***

PS:

Here's the new stocks:

http://smith-wessonforum.com/members...elk-grips.html

The last set of grips I bought at a gun show where on a table of a guy selling cheap after market magazines and AR stuff. There in the middle of it was a set of non relieved k-square targets, checkered.

I inquired about the price he gave me the usual rare .... story and wanted $150 for them. I took a $100 bill out of my wallet and held it out towards him without saying a word. He hesitated for 2-3 seconds then took the bill, picked up the grips and handed them to me.

The moral of the story, money talks.

Down here in SoFo tri-county area the price of vintage grips is still fairly fair at the club meetings and shows. The vintage S&W vendors are usually SWCA members and know their grips. I ran across a pair of Cokes recently that were in dire need of a lot of love. I passed them on to a member that does nice repairs. All parties were happy. The era of $10 diamonds is long gone. Im still looking for a set of K RB magna/diamonds for an ex-marshals Mod10-5. Best, Mike 2796

I am looking for a pair of the concave SB grips for an early 4 screw 38 HE. I missed a pair on ebay that were in marginal condition. Prior to that I had located a set on GB that were in very good condition. There was just two of us bidding. I backed out around $170.00. Either I have no idea what those grips are worth, or someone wanted them way more than I did.
The gun is now sporting a set of KB Heritage series concaves. They are very nice, but will be replaced when and if I ever find a set of correct grips.

Someday someone is going to offer me a ridiculous price for stocks I am not using and I'm going to have to say yes.......

When I started shooting

1.) you bought your revolver of choice at your LGS
2.) you picked up some Pachmayr's or Hogue's when you bought the gun.
3.) you put the rubber grips on and put the wood stocks in the box from the rubber grips.

At some point revolver companies started shipping guns with rubber grips and we were happy because it saved us $15

Every gun show vendor had a box full of factory wood grips in a box under his table for $5 a pair.

I had friends giving me their useless wood stocks because they couldn't throw them away and knew I was a bit of a packrat

IMO the reason that the factory stock prices are so high now is that so many factory stocks made it into the trashcan or wood stove and now there aren't enough to go around for the collectors who want their guns all original.

It is getting bad in some form or another. Ive seen the grip people at the shows who want out of this world prices. I dont know if they would come down if offered money never tried. i did have a few grips that i asked what they would give me for them. N RB finger groove combats, good shape 40.00, as they have a set in their case in a bit better shape they are asking 200.00 for, Hmmm.

I stay away from the gun shows as i normally only find a few deals, and even then its getting more expensive vs what it use to be. I have run across some grips here and there, but its alot of times people that are not in the gig of selling grips for a living.

The internet thing auction sites, can try to set prices. The listing of a Buy it now at double what its worth. even though its been setting there a year and people use that as a gauge as to what they want for it. Just like on Pawn Stars when you always hear "I saw a few online for $XX" are they asking that or getting that. but the fact is if people use that as a guide it will cause prices to go up.

I only find decent deals at very small local area shows and look for the guy that has a cardboard box of "misc" stuff you can dig through. I tried to buy a pair of K Frame Sq. butt Combat grips a couple weeks ago at a fair sized show, and they were priced at $200 and they weren't pristine by any means.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I heard a joke at a gun show that I won't get right. But a nice gentleman, big shooter and NRA life member, had been in a 30year comma. He wakes up, gets back on his feet and goes to the gun show. He tells dealer, "I have a Model 10 at home, but I was refinsing the stocks and I am sure they are lost now, so will you just sell me a Md. 10?"

Dealer, "sure $800."

Comma victim: "My lord. I paid $110 for my Model 10 NIB! Just sell me the stocks."

Dealer, "Sure that will be $275!"

Comma victim: "My goodness that is well over twice what I paid for a whole Model 10, grips and all. Tell you what, just give me two bricks of .22 LR, I still have my old .22."

The comma victim was passing a $10 bill accross the table as he was saying this.

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Possum—The other white meat!

I see guys buying guns just to get the grips. Off the grips come and hogues go on and the gun moves on out. A sure way to insure the demand goes up along with the prices. The collectors have caused this to happen. Same thing happens with boxes.

Varmit243 was spot on.

Be careful not to confuse collectors with parts harvesters only out to make a fast buck.

I heartily agree with the comment about "misc parts" boxes at gun shows. You may also find gun stores that have such boxes you can browse through. They often sit on dusty shelves and contain items with price tags that were written 10 years ago.

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You're shy a few manners.

Think it's bad with S&W grips? Look at Colt grip prices.

It must be a where you live thing. I see S&W grips for less than $100.00 all the time at gunshows. Picked these up a couple weeks ago $60.00. I think I did alright on the price.

I just wish you folks complaining about the prices would get your own grips out of your junk boxes and sell them to us for the "fair" prices you quote. Or are you saying I should bring out my treasures and sell them for a pittance? If I grossly underprice near perfect grips that predate WWII, guess who will buy them all? The competitors who price the grips at prices that approach the going rate. So you want some prewar large medallion grips. And $50 seems too high to you? How about gold medallion grips. Those are 100 years old now. And you turn around disgustedly when I ask $100. Yet my prices are far and away the cheapest at the show. So maybe I'll bring more this upcoming weekend. But guess what? I'll move my prices up to the going rate (asking prices). And if you don't like my prices, keep walking. Or stop and argue with me if you like.

Tell me how you bought the same identical grips for $20 back when gasoline was .30.9 a gallon, and you could fill up for under $5. And I'll agree with you that now it costs 10 times as much to fill up, and the grips I have are now priced at 10 times as much. Its just inflation, so you should go argue with the gas pump about how it charges your credit card. Or better still, go without the fuel.

Or think about why you want the nice grips. Its to make your old ratty gun look better. So it'll be worth a few hundred more. And its a real bargain if you could somehow steal them for $30. If you must pay a "fair" price, like the $300 asked, your gun will then only be worth that much more. So its not a huge bargain. Your gun will still be worth that much more, but you can't do it by stealing the grips from the seller.

What many of us have done is just stop bringing our goodies to the shows.

And once you know what a fair price is, when you see one selling for less, you just pleasantly buy it. And thank your stars the idiot before you got miffed at the price he felt was too high and stomped off. Heading for his computer to complain about gun show prices.

So go ahead and complain. It makes amusing reading for the rest of us. And if you ever find the 30 cents a gallon fill ups again, please post where it is. We'd all like to know.

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Dick Burg

You can still buy the more common grips at a Gunshow if you look long enough. The collectable grip costs more I think because if you are like me and have revolvers you bought 30 or 20 years ago and don't have the correct era grips you don't mind paying more for the correct grips. Remember you probably paid a lot less than your pistol is currently worth so paying $250.00 for a set of grips that used to sell for $35.00 you have raised the value of a pistol and you probably still only have half of what it is worth invested. Same thing for boxes, recently I bought a post war gold Outdoorsman box for $250.00 (way more that I thought it should be), "BUT" I only had $350.00 in the Outdoorsman and that's the last Outdoorsman box I'll need.

SWCA 892

Paladin, that's interesting about the lady I used to call "Gun Grip Lady". I didn't know she was still active on the show circuit. I used to see her at SouCal shows about 10 years ago but haven't seen her for at least that long. I remember buying a very nicely grained set of N Frame Smooth Targets for $100. I thought that was high at the time but they were nice so I bought them from her. I've got to give her credit if she is 80 years old and still at it !

Hi
I used to Buy many S&W stocks at local Gun show's and about Five yaer's ago they started to climb sharply. Prices five year's ago in my area were an average of $35.00 for target stockk's Non Diamond style and $50.00 for diamond target stock's. The Magna's ran an average of $25.00-$35.00 per pair. I quit Buying them when they soared to price's of $150.00 for Non Diamond stock's what they are now and Magna's went to $75.00 per pair. I swapped a set of Non diamond center target stock's for this pair of Roper stock's as shown being about Five year's ago, I have not had any Good reasonable deal's since. They are shown on my model of 1955 .45 Hand Eject Target revolver. Regards, Hammerdown

With the prices I see for grips and parts I am surprised more guns are not disassembled as the parts are worth more than the whole.

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Hue 68 noli me tangere

I guess I'll count myself lucky. I had a M-17 in the mail with some non-standard grips that I knew I wouldn't like. A trip to ebay netted me a set of diamond magnas about a year off from my gun for $35. They're not perfect but pretty nice.

Just like automobiles or any mechanical device. Try and build one from parts and you will be paying 4-5 times more. I recall years ago hearing if you took a common chevy, ford, etc (that cost about $6000 at the time) it would cost over $30,000 to put together from individual parts.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Original Grip prices have gotten to the point where you are better off
getting a nice pair a stag grips for your classic revolver. They are a period correct upgrade and cost less.

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My sgntr is mor thn 30 chrctrs

I don't know, sometimes I think that when it happens it is just because times are older than they were at the beginning and when things get the way that they do its only because it couldn't happen unless it was gonna happen.

Am I clear on that point?????

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James Redfield
LM #497

Jim, what the heck did you just say? It was what they call that thar "esoteric". Mike 2796

Actually, 3 silver dimes will still buy a gallon of gas. The silver content is worth $1.20/each or $3.60 at today's spot silver price.

Hey!!!

Your right! Maybe the big money made from our collections, at the time of our "big sale" after the dirt nap, will be made by the widow with a set of gunsmithing screwdrivers and a Gunbroker & Ebay account.

GF