Value of S&W Twelve Revolver Collection

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Hushko

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I have a friend who is considering selling his 1990's Smith & Wesson "Twelve Revolvers" collection that was offered by Ellet Bros back in the day. He's the original purchaser, and all of the revolvers are new, unfired and in their original boxes. It's an early numbered set (73/500) and includes the individual blueprint drawings and the Collector's Edition Book of Illustrations. I've done some research on the internet, including the S&W Forum, but most of the posts are dated. If anyone has information regarding the valuation, or can point me in the right direction, I'd greatly appreciate your help and expertise.

  • Jan: "The Hostiles" was a Model 29 with 8 3/8" barrel
  • Feb: "With the Wolfhounds" was a model 686 with 6" barrel
  • Mar: "Mountain Lion" Model 629 4"
  • Apr: "Critical Moment" Model 66 with 6" barrel
  • May: "The Last Cartridge" Model 57 6"
  • Jun: "The Revolver" Model 17 6"
  • July: "Through the Line" Model 24-4 6 1/2"
  • Aug: "The Last Stand" Model 14 8 3/8"
  • Sep: "Outnumbered" Model 27 with 7" barrel
  • Oct: "The Attack" Model 29 with 7 1/2" full lug barrel
  • Nov: "The Horse Thief" Model 25-5 8 3/8" barrel
  • Dec: "Hands Off" Model 19 with 6" barrel
 
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This was not well accepted as a collectible as time passed.

Most all of the sets have been broken up because they bring more money being sold as individual revolvers than as a set.

Truthfully, only 3 of the 12 interest me and I would buy them as shooters.

The last set I recall seeing for sale had an asking price of $10,000. That was a few years ago and I have no idea if it actually sold as a set.
 
E'thing colt said. May be wrong, but I'm not certain Smith completed all 500 sets, due to lacklustre interest.
 
I saw a set sell at the collectors assn. meeting in Orlando. 2012.

I seem to remember the whole enchilada bringing $7000.

If I was your friend I would take my cost from back in the day,
whatever it was, add 10% ,and put it on gun broker.

If he can make even a small percentage on his original investment
I would think he was doing well.

The Acid etching on the 12 Revolvers in some eyes, and mine
personally, make them unappealing.

Good luck,
Allen
 
I havn't seen a complete set in years. At that time the price was $6,000.00, which would be a steal today. Today I would expect about double that for a complete set of unfired guns with original boxes and papers. They were all unique guns. I am not an expert on these guns, and only have one, the model 17 nickel .22 cal. I turned down 1K for mine.
 
Allen-frame said:
I saw a set sell at the collectors assn. meeting in Orlando. 2012.

I seem to remember the whole enchilada bringing $7000.

If I was your friend I would take my cost from back in the day,
whatever it was, add 10% ,and put it on gun broker.

If he can make even a small percentage on his original investment
I would think he was doing well.

The Acid etching on the 12 Revolvers in some eyes, and mine
personally, make them unappealing.

Good luck,
Allen
Click to expand...


I agree with Allen and know several others who would agree that the acid etching on these revolvers are a turn off and these guns really do not hold any collector value. I recently seen the model 27 and 19 on GB and did not get any bids with opening bid amount of 700.00 and they were NIB.

Eric
 
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Thank you to all for taking the time to share your thoughts and expertise.
 
I saw a set at a local auction but all 12 were used and fired.

It didn't meet the reserve , no one wanted to pay any large amount for 12 used S&W 's with etchings on them.
 
12 Revolvers

As mentioned in another post here, I went to an auction in mid-June and here is how they did:

1. Ellett Brothers "12 Revolvers" set, (#132 out of 500), but only had 11 of the revolvers and the book. All were mint, NIB, never fired condition. One of 12 revolvers was kept by a family member, I was told. They broke up the 11 revolvers and the book and sold to multiple people. Final hammer price including buyer's premium and sales tax for the 11 revolvers and book was $6,682 or about $607 per revolver.

I talked to several of the buyers and was told they were going to shoot these. There was no interest in the collectable value of any of these.

If I was your buddy, my goal would be to break even on the deal.
 
For what it's worth; for more value/pricing info, search the threads on this forum relating to 'commemoratives'. What you'll find is a lot of comments about '...the commemorative collector being something of a myth...'. The value of, say, a state LE dept commemorative tends to be a little LESS than the value of the same gun MINUS the commemorative etching.

That said; I've seen the pictures, threads, etc on the set mentioned by the OP, and, well, I'm just not a fan of 6"+ barrels. I'm not sure I'd be interested in any of them. But I'm not somebody who buys guns just to collect them. I'm kind of the opposite, occasionally I've run into pristine examples and sold them to somebody willing to pay top dollar, then hunted up a shooter version of the same thing. All I was gonna do was put a serious turn-line and blast-divet on the thing.
 
Last edited:
Set of Twelve

Is there any new interest for selling a complete set with the book? I acquired the set directly from Ellett Bros. All NIB. Just wondering what they are worth now?
 
Stass said:
Is there any new interest for selling a complete set with the book? I acquired the set directly from Ellett Bros. All NIB. Just wondering what they are worth now?
Click to expand...
I'm afraid they are still under-performers. They just never took off.
 
Guns build as collector / commemorative guns rarely become collectable. Usually a small group who associates with what it being commemorated have any interest and they value no more then a regular model and sometimes less. I have seen the full set a few times but never saw a set sell but I have seen guns in broken sets sell but no crazy prices. 12 guns for 10K would be a stretch. I believe 7K would be break even.
 
I think it would be difficult enough to find one person looking to buy a dozen guns at one time.
Some of us struggle to just buy one.
I personally never liked that set, especially almost all 6".
Not the greatest collectible length.
 
Stass said:
Is there any new interest for selling a complete set with the book? I acquired the set directly from Ellett Bros. All NIB. Just wondering what they are worth now?
Click to expand...

Stass, I really think you would be better off selling individually instead of as a set. Like the others have stated, they aren't sought as a set by many. But, the individual guns could very well sell between $600-1200 each, depending on the gun. I bought an Outnumbered gun a few years ago still NIB for $700 and it's one of my favorite shooters. And I have looked at a couple of the 44 Mag guns in the collection on GB, but the people that were selling them had pricing way too high for me to push the button on them. I want to say their starting prices were like $1500, which was about $300 higher than I would pay.
 
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