65$ Combat Masterpiece

[Jack222]

I was looking through my 1951 Stoegers Shooters Bible today and thought I would pass this along. A lot of money back then I bet. Its entertaining to look through it once in awhile. Im sure my Dad spent many hours looking and wishing with it at the Kitchen table.

 

[Jeppo]

My dad bought that gun. I always wondered what it cost him.

 

[Aircrewman]

A fabulous revolver from the very beginning.....! I'm on the lookout for one of the originals from '49/50. Eventually I'll find one!

 

[ACP230]

I saw similar prices in Gil Hebard's catalog a few years later.
Of course, I was too broke to buy any, and too young as well.

 

[Green Frog]

Even if you were a young school teacher just starting out in the early '70s, paying twice that for that same gun was pretty much out of reach... I know, I lived through the experience!

Froggie

 

[Alk8944]

S&W prices were in that range for most models up to 1967. A direct result of the Gun Control Act of 1968 prices roughly doubled that year. A Model 30 I bought in 1968 or '69 cost me $135. The year before I could have gotten it for $65-68. This was for a NIB gun purchased at retail.

The obvious exceptions to the $65-68 were the Model 27, 29, and similar. I believe the Model 28 was mid $70 range until then.

 

[Marshal Tom]

I was lucky enough to find one in the case in a small local shop several years ago and walked out the door with it for $230 with very slight muzzle wear. I will never sell it. it shipped Jan. 1951

 

[CA Escapee]

I was just looking at my Dad's Colt Detective Special tonight. The hang tag and receipt show the purchase price in May of '67 as $74.50. He put it on layaway with $20 down and paid it off the following month. He also paid $4.15 for a box of W-W 158 grain RN .38 specials. He carried it with the round nosed ammo until I inherited it twenty-seven years later.

Bill

 

[ColtCool]

Most amazing part of the add was you could get the K32 masterpiece (pre-16) for that same price...... and they didn't sell.

Wish my dad had the foresight to buy about 10 of them back then.....ha ha

And by the way.....one of these on our favorite online auction site tonight is already bid up to 5K+ Wow

 

[Engineer1911]

1951 $65 = 2017 $617

Inflation Calculator | Find US Dollar's Value from 1913-2017

 

[DWalt]

One of the very few guns I have purchased NIB was a .357 Highway Patrolman (Model 28), in 1970. I paid just shy of $100 for it (with target grips), plus tax. I remember feeling guilty that I paid so much. Turned out I didn't really like it and I sold it fairly quickly for a slight loss.

 

[charlie sherrill]

I've got a nickel 15-2 that my mother bought new. I have the silver box and all the papers and the original receipt for $69.50. The only thing I don't have is the original grips. She put pearls on it.

 

[Mark IV]

One of the very few guns I have purchased NIB was a .357 Highway Patrolman (Model 28), in 1970. I paid just shy of $100 for it (with target grips), plus tax. I remember feeling guilty that I paid so much. Turned out I didn't really like it and I sold it fairly quickly for a slight loss.

I feel your pain, I have a few similar stories myself ( don't ask me how I managed to lose money on not just one, but two Polytech AK's !! ).

 

[Jim NNN]

Wow. If those are retail prices, kind of makes you wonder what the wage of a S&W employee was back then. Especially the guys doing the labor intensive bluing and finish work.

 

[CajunBass]

I remember about 72...73...somewhere in there, I saw my first Smith & Wesson in the real world. It was at the old GEM's store in Richmond. I have always thought it was a Model 28, but it was in a wood presentation case, so it probably a 27. Anyway, the price was $129.95. For some reason that price sticks in my head.

It might as well have been a million dollars. I couldn't afford a RG-22 or a Raven 25.

 

[Jack222]

I love looking through that old catalog. Powder was a dollar a pound, presses 19 bucks and those old Winchesters 22's were 15-30$