Looking at the photographs in the original listing reveals that the cam on the nickel Triple Lock revolver reveals, unfortunately, that it is nickeled. That tells me that this revolver wasn’t refinished by Smith & Wesson, either. Another telltale sign in this area is when viewing the right side of the frame at 90 degrees, straight on, when you look at the frame surrounding that little bit of visible cam, Smith & Wesson gets it right when refinishing by leaving the edges of the frame at this intersection point crisp. So many who refinish outside of the factory overbuff here, leading to soft edges in this area, these being evident with both of your revolvers.
The question seems to be arising as to how much was overpaid for these revolvers and what the future value may be. Here’s a few random thoughts.
1. If one overpays for an item, how long until the break even point or exceeding the price paid, in future? If you use the “Rule of 72”, and if you paid exactly twice what this pair is worth (I’m not saying you did, but this works in my example(, and if the value of Triple Lock revolvers increases in value in line with inflation, which is about 8% now, using the Rule of 72, 72 divided by 8 is 7, which means you are at the break even point in 7 years. I value this pair at greater than half what you paid for them, and if inflation continues at the rate it’s at (let’s hope it doesn’t), you will be at $5000 in well under 7 years.
2. Of course, not all items increase at the rate of inflation. Some more, some less. The goal, of course, is to identify an object that increases at a rate greater than inflation, thereby increasing your gain relative to inflation. This is what folks who invest try to do. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Often, the crystal ball is cloudy.
3. My observations as to the increase in value of firearms over the last 35 or 40 years, is that they have obviously gone up significantly over this time frame. But, most have gone up less in value than if you took the same amount of money and invested it in the S & P 500 over the same time frame, and never looked back. The only two exceptions I can think of over this time frame are the following: Really high end museum quality firearms, most of which few on this forum can afford: and, possibly, if one invested wisely in firearms at the start of Covid and then valued them now. They might have exceeded in gain that of the S & P 500 over the last 3 1/2 years, but that may have been dampened with the recent gains in the stock market since October.
3. Stocks simply aren’t as much fun. You can’t shoot them, admire them, and you don’t even get a fancy stock certificate to frame anymore, if desired.
4. The real value in firearms is in what would you have done with that money had you not bought the firearm? Bought a car, which usually loses value? Gone out to eat? Went on vacation? Even a firearm that was paid too much for is a concrete object that can be sold, in future.
5. The single best way to exceed the rate of inflation when purchasing a firearm is to identify firearms that are undervalued relative to actual value at the time of purchase. And then sell them immediately, as any future gain will not be nearly the same as the firearm you purchase gained relative to actual value initially. For example, a firearm you can purchase at 50 cents on the dollar, or less, and immediately sell and double your money or more. This is difficult to do. I can pull this off less than once every year these days. You certainly cannot do this in a retail setting or on Gunbroker, unless misidentified/the seller doesn’t know what he has. Gun shows, this can rarely be accomplished, and you usually have to attend early and pounce fast. A dealer buys low and sells high. He has the advantage of someone coming in and they just want to be rid of a valuable firearm quickly, and will accept cents on the dollar just to be rid of it. But, he also has a retail store to maintain and the costs associated with that.
