4" Pre 29 Value

[Munsterf18]

Factory lettered 4" .44 Mag. Factory refinished in 1960, based on the star and date on the frame.
Looks flawless. Cokes. Struggling with a value.
Ideas?

Thanks.

 

[A10]

Pictures will help. Any display case, box, tools, paperwork, etc? That will make a difference, possibly a significant one. The refinish kinda knocks value, usually down to "shooter grade" unless it's the result of engraving work.

 

[Jack Flash]

What year was it shipped? That could also make a big difference. (I assume you have access to the Factory Letter).

A factory refinish usually doesn't lower value as much as other refinishes. I can't offer much help with value except to guess it is somewhere between $1,200 and $2,000. Take that with a grain of salt.

 

[BC38]

I'm far from an expert, but from hanging around here and Gun Broker for a few years I would tend to agree with Jack Flash - and lean towards the high end of his guesstimate.

Factory refinishes, especially if done early in the gun's life, don't seem to kill collector value the way aftermarket finishes do, and a nice set of cokes will fetch $600 all by themselves.

If the box, tools, and paperwork are included that adds a couple of hundred clams to the value.

Add a hundred bucks premium for the 4" barrel (they seem to be about the most desirable) and you're at or near a grand in value just for all the "extras".

So, all that being said, somewhere close to $2000 for a complete "flawless" 5-screw pre-model number 44 magnum package doesn't seem outrageous to me at all.

Particularly if it is of the '56-'57 vintage for the cokes to be period correct.

 

[oger]

Some of the serious people will be around with a lot more knowledge than me. Personally a 4in pre 29 especially a 5 screw will be hurt a fair amount even if the reblue is factory. The correct case and tools etc will really help but I wouldn't get really excited about a reblue even a factory one.

 

[Wiregrassguy]

Let me take this approach. Supica and Nahas say factory refinished guns should be graded no higher than VG. The SCSW, 4th Ed. says for a 5 screw gun $2200 for VG with a 25% premium for 4". Bump that 2X for one of the first 100 S-130000 guns. So, excluding the early SN, that puts you in the $2750 ballpark with a big bump if an early .44 Mag. YMMV

 

[Jack Flash]

Good approach, Guy! And don't forget the Cokes.

 

[Wiregrassguy]

I think the cokes are already figured into the pricing on this gun.

Guy

 

[RKmesa]

Factory lettered 4" .44 Mag. Factory refinished in 1960, based on the star and date on the frame.
Looks flawless. Cokes. Struggling with a value.
Ideas?

Thanks.

Seeing the gun in person would be very important to me to determine what I was willing to pay. Also, in general most of us assume that a star indicates a refinish (and generally it does), but with S&W nothing is absolute...

Just because it has a star and a date does not always mean that it was refinished... Sometimes other work was done that was also denoted by a star. Sometimes you can see that the star was stamped through the blue and was not blued over, which would indicate that the gun was at the factory for some other purposes.

My $0.02,

 

[crsides]

4 screw or 5. please post pics.

Charlie