Premium for provenance, unfired, etc.

[mikerjf]

DVO's new "unfired" 28-2 sparks a question...

We've all seen people pay up for an "unfired" firearm.

We've all seen people pay up for provenance of famous ownership.

How about both?

Would you pay up for a gun that was a) proven to belong to a famous person, and b) proven to be never-fired by them?

Expiring minds want to know...

 

[SnidelyWhiplash]

"Unfired" only maters for a gun you won't fire and expect to make a profit on at some time. If you're going to shoot it...why pay extra for something you will depreciate right away?

As for provenance to belonging to a famous person...maybe. Who was that person and did they actual use it or only own it for some time. If a gun was owned by John Wayne and is documented...so much the better but did he actually use it in a famous movie or did it sit in his gun cabinet?

Bat Masterson was known to obtain inexpensive handguns at pawn stores then give them away since he knew his notoriety added value to them...not that he ever actually used them. Pancho Villa's wife was known to buy guns after his death and sell them as belonging to him....I've heard the same with Jesse James' mother doing that.

Long after WWII Audie Murphy was asked about the M1 Carbine he carried during the war...he still remembered the serial number. The Army did a check and the Carbine was still in inventory in storage. That Carbine is now in a museum exhibit about Murphy...that is documentation and provenance. It had gone through the rebuild process as Murphy had the stock wired together after it was damaged but it's still the Carbine he used.

At a regular gun show in Northern Virginia a vendor always has a set of Colt SAA revolvers and leather documented to have been used in the Lone Ranger tv show...but by replacement actor John Hart. No body seems to want to buy them. If those were the guns and leather used by Clayton Moore people would likely be fighting with one another to own them.

There's too many variable to say how much added value there is to a gun owned by a famous person.

 

[Bro. Dave]

...met a guy that said, "I have the hatchet George Washington used to chop down the Cherry Tree; of course its had 3 new heads and 5 new handles."

Don't law enforcement officials refer to a "chain of custody"? Tough to prove, I'm thinking.

Edit to add: this remark is generic and not about Audie Murphy's carbine.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Geronimo was known to sell buttons from his coat.
He would cut it off and hand it to you as you watched.
It’s reported that he sold a lot of buttons!
When he went to DC for Teddy’s inauguration, he sold buttons at every train stop. Between stops, he sewed on more buttons.

 

[Onomea]

I think I would pay more for an unfired gun owned by someone well known and in whom I had some level of interest than I would for an unfired gun owned by someone I had never heard of.

But not that much more.

I would pay more for a well used gun owned by someone well known
in whom I had some level interest than I would for an unfired version owned by the same person.

 

[Onomea]

Geronimo was known to sell buttons from his coat.
He would cut it off and hand it to you as you watched.
It’s reported that he sold a lot of buttons!
When he went to DC for Teddy’s inauguration, he sold buttons at every train stop. Between stops, he sewed on more buttons.

Now there is a practical fellow!

 

[Warren Sear]

I couldn't possibly care less about who owned a gun, guitar, etc, before me. Whether it was Elvis or Elmer wouldn't make a bit of difference. I don't understand why it would matter to anyone else either.

Condition is important, but I have some old, beat-up guns that I like too.

 

[Warren Sear]

Geronimo was known to sell buttons from his coat.
He would cut it off and hand it to you as you watched.
It’s reported that he sold a lot of buttons!
When he went to DC for Teddy’s inauguration, he sold buttons at every train stop. Between stops, he sewed on more buttons.

I think the James brothers' mother sold a lot of guns she bought cheap and sold expensive to fools. She would claim they belonged to one of her sons! LOL!!!