SJshooter
Member
In the last few weeks, I have had an absolutely incredible run of grail gunning. And for once, I had the funds to pounce. Thanks to some incredibly disciplined tax planning, I found myself with a small "fun fund." I decided I would treat myself to a minty 629-1 snub nose with combat grips. I've always loved the profile of this gun/grip combo... so I started bidding on GunBroker for a few, and no less than five times $1300 wasn't enough to get one with box and papers. I really didn't want to pay that much for a 629-1 Lew Horton... but the market has a crazy way of setting prices.
The upside of my being outbid on these guns was that I started watching Gunbroker much more closely. I started checking in the morning and early evening, each time sorting out new revolvers that had been listed since my last visit. That's when the magic started to happen. For every person who is willing to bid crazy on an N-frame snub, there is someone who doesn't know what they have.
So it wasn't long before I found a minty 29-3 Lew Horton 3-incher. A really nice blued version of the gun I wanted. BUT despite having a close-up photo of the serial number, this seller read that as 29-8, and listed it as a Lou Horten no reserve auction. ZING! Put in a bid with a week to go, and as expected, no one else bid. If you sorted your revolvers on GB by brand and chose S&W, it didn't come up because the seller didn't click that option. Nice!
Feeling like I had found a steal, and reveling the saved funds I hadn't spent on a stainless version of the same gun properly listed, I kept browsing GB. And sure enough, within a day, I found another horribly listed item. This one was a 1972 Model 19-2 snub with Class A engraving! Again, not listed with an option that identified the brand, and without a dash, this "Model 192" had horrible photos. Bad flash and weird angles made the gun look horrible. There was only one photo of the gun fully in the frame, and it was shown next to a 6-inch N-frame for "size comparison" Almost half of the photos showed off the weird grips and the initials hand-carved in the butt of them. Very littler attention paid to the gun. And, once again, I feel like I stole it. I was the only bidder and in this case I felt like with some nice grips (coming soon - some smooth magnas) and some quality photos, I could flip it for twice the money. It showed up with 98-99% bluing and a Jinks letter! SCORE. This iPhone photo does not do it justice:
Okay, I was feeling pretty good here. I got my .44 snub and my grail list has always had a spot for an engraved gun. And now I had them both.
Just a couple days later, I posted a thread in this forum asking if S&W ever made any uncompensated models of the .500 S&W. I had seem some in the orange bear kit selling for outrageous prices, and I was really just curious as to what else S&W made without compensator. Wouldn't you know it, one of our valued forum members emailed me and offered to sell me one of his 500ES models for what can only be called an extremely friendly and reasonable price. He even admitted that he was getting ready to sell it on GB and expected to get more, but replied to my thread and asked if I wanted it. This was WAY too good to pass up. I am not a guy who flips guns,but it sure is nice to spend a lot on a gun but still think you got a (more than) fair deal. It came in the mail and I cannot wait to shoot it:
You would think this story ends here with me smiling like a little kid. But the encore is even better. Almost simultaneous with the 500ES being offered to me, I find the ultimate: a 627PC Bloodwork gun on GB. The photos are plain, and none of the big time keywords that would draw out the deep pocket bidders were there. The photos only barely featured the fact that this was a pre-lock. I was shocked when, at the end, it was only me and one other person bidding on the gun. Having just acquired three incredible Smiths, I stopped bidding south of $2k, even though I have seen these guns go for much more given their scarcity. When the auction ended, I recognized the winning bidder's screen name as a forum member here, so I emailed him to congratulate him. We both shared a nice laugh on how poorly the gun was listed and how lucky we were there weren't a handful of other gun lusters trying to outbid us. I thought I had let one get by, and so about two weeks later, I took a longshot chance and emailed this forum member, and asked if they had any buyer's remorse. Not so. In fact, they had already had the gun re-bead blasted, sonicated, and passivated, plus paired it up with a Performance Center case and papers (which the original auction lacked). Just my luck, this forum member's son was recently married, and cash flow and a good offer from me convinced him to let me have it (plus - he already has a pre-lock Bloodwork! ha!). Oh wow, now I was in for four snub noses!
I should have stopped looking then. I don't even know what took me to ArmsList (a site I rarely check) to search for Smiths. Just casual surfing. My luck was extreme. Only minutes after listing the item, I came across a listing for "SW - PDR44". What the? Could it be? Yes - it was the pre-lock .44 magnum version of the Bloodwork gun - serial number 003!! Once again, the gun had been badly mislisted. It did not come up on any searches for Smith, Wesson, S&W, .44 magnum, or even 629… let alone anything that could tell a collector what it was. I contacted him immediately and arranged for shipment right away. He had listed it for only a touch more than retail price for a new one with the lock. What the heck was going on? Could my luck end? I finally took possession of this gun today. Here are the Bloodwork brothers:
Again, sorry for the substandard iPhone-quality photos. I promise to break out the Nikon and 1.4 glass soon and do these beauties some real justice. But WOW Snubby-palooza! I have only one more gun on my grail list that I actually really lust for. I am going to have to find some new objects of desire - my grail gun list has taken a fatal hit!!!
Thanks again to the members here who helped me. I withheld names in case they didn't want to be mentioned.
The upside of my being outbid on these guns was that I started watching Gunbroker much more closely. I started checking in the morning and early evening, each time sorting out new revolvers that had been listed since my last visit. That's when the magic started to happen. For every person who is willing to bid crazy on an N-frame snub, there is someone who doesn't know what they have.
So it wasn't long before I found a minty 29-3 Lew Horton 3-incher. A really nice blued version of the gun I wanted. BUT despite having a close-up photo of the serial number, this seller read that as 29-8, and listed it as a Lou Horten no reserve auction. ZING! Put in a bid with a week to go, and as expected, no one else bid. If you sorted your revolvers on GB by brand and chose S&W, it didn't come up because the seller didn't click that option. Nice!
Feeling like I had found a steal, and reveling the saved funds I hadn't spent on a stainless version of the same gun properly listed, I kept browsing GB. And sure enough, within a day, I found another horribly listed item. This one was a 1972 Model 19-2 snub with Class A engraving! Again, not listed with an option that identified the brand, and without a dash, this "Model 192" had horrible photos. Bad flash and weird angles made the gun look horrible. There was only one photo of the gun fully in the frame, and it was shown next to a 6-inch N-frame for "size comparison" Almost half of the photos showed off the weird grips and the initials hand-carved in the butt of them. Very littler attention paid to the gun. And, once again, I feel like I stole it. I was the only bidder and in this case I felt like with some nice grips (coming soon - some smooth magnas) and some quality photos, I could flip it for twice the money. It showed up with 98-99% bluing and a Jinks letter! SCORE. This iPhone photo does not do it justice:
Okay, I was feeling pretty good here. I got my .44 snub and my grail list has always had a spot for an engraved gun. And now I had them both.
Just a couple days later, I posted a thread in this forum asking if S&W ever made any uncompensated models of the .500 S&W. I had seem some in the orange bear kit selling for outrageous prices, and I was really just curious as to what else S&W made without compensator. Wouldn't you know it, one of our valued forum members emailed me and offered to sell me one of his 500ES models for what can only be called an extremely friendly and reasonable price. He even admitted that he was getting ready to sell it on GB and expected to get more, but replied to my thread and asked if I wanted it. This was WAY too good to pass up. I am not a guy who flips guns,but it sure is nice to spend a lot on a gun but still think you got a (more than) fair deal. It came in the mail and I cannot wait to shoot it:
You would think this story ends here with me smiling like a little kid. But the encore is even better. Almost simultaneous with the 500ES being offered to me, I find the ultimate: a 627PC Bloodwork gun on GB. The photos are plain, and none of the big time keywords that would draw out the deep pocket bidders were there. The photos only barely featured the fact that this was a pre-lock. I was shocked when, at the end, it was only me and one other person bidding on the gun. Having just acquired three incredible Smiths, I stopped bidding south of $2k, even though I have seen these guns go for much more given their scarcity. When the auction ended, I recognized the winning bidder's screen name as a forum member here, so I emailed him to congratulate him. We both shared a nice laugh on how poorly the gun was listed and how lucky we were there weren't a handful of other gun lusters trying to outbid us. I thought I had let one get by, and so about two weeks later, I took a longshot chance and emailed this forum member, and asked if they had any buyer's remorse. Not so. In fact, they had already had the gun re-bead blasted, sonicated, and passivated, plus paired it up with a Performance Center case and papers (which the original auction lacked). Just my luck, this forum member's son was recently married, and cash flow and a good offer from me convinced him to let me have it (plus - he already has a pre-lock Bloodwork! ha!). Oh wow, now I was in for four snub noses!
I should have stopped looking then. I don't even know what took me to ArmsList (a site I rarely check) to search for Smiths. Just casual surfing. My luck was extreme. Only minutes after listing the item, I came across a listing for "SW - PDR44". What the? Could it be? Yes - it was the pre-lock .44 magnum version of the Bloodwork gun - serial number 003!! Once again, the gun had been badly mislisted. It did not come up on any searches for Smith, Wesson, S&W, .44 magnum, or even 629… let alone anything that could tell a collector what it was. I contacted him immediately and arranged for shipment right away. He had listed it for only a touch more than retail price for a new one with the lock. What the heck was going on? Could my luck end? I finally took possession of this gun today. Here are the Bloodwork brothers:
Again, sorry for the substandard iPhone-quality photos. I promise to break out the Nikon and 1.4 glass soon and do these beauties some real justice. But WOW Snubby-palooza! I have only one more gun on my grail list that I actually really lust for. I am going to have to find some new objects of desire - my grail gun list has taken a fatal hit!!!
Thanks again to the members here who helped me. I withheld names in case they didn't want to be mentioned.
