Just to be clear though. Are you saying that S107500 came off the production line before S103500? If that is the case, why is there more value placed on the earliest serial numbered examples of models. Would a collector value S107500 more than S103500?
That's exactly what I'm saying. And the fact that S107500 is documented as being the first production gun makes it infinitely more valuable than any other gun that has a lower serial number.
Lower numbers usually mean higher values, but I think that's based almost entirely on the erroneous belief that at S&W, the guns came off the line in serial number order. The ONLY way to know when the gun was shipped would be to get a factory letter from Roy.
The FIFO (First In First Out) system, it seems, was NOT followed by a huge number of firearms firms, and often, serial numbers are only a general guide to the approximate time frame when a gun was made. Experts will often say "This change took place over an extended period, between approximately serial numbers xxxxx and xxxxx." Old parts were sometimes used well into newer production. Nailing down a definite shipping date, no matter who the manufacturer was, is often an exercise in frustration, with only approximations being possible in most cases. Using styles of parts to date a gun can be hard; I have a Winchester Model 62 pump action .22 that has a steel buttplate. At the time of its manufacture in 1946, the standard buttplates were plastic. Was it a later replacement? Nope. The steel buttplate was used after the war to clean up parts from discontinued guns; in this case the Model 55 lever action guns. You often have to dig deep to find these things out.
Often factory records are lost; sometimes the date of serialization was recorded (Winchester was good at this), but not the date of shipment (usually regarded as a gun's "birthdate"). Some manufacturers will stamp a code on a gun (Remington was good about this) that can be translated to a month and year (or just year). Unfortunately, that can sometimes only be interpreted as the date the
component was made. Winchester barrels were often stamped with the last two digits of the year on the barrel, but the barrel may not have been assembled to the gun until the following year or even later. Remington stamped month-year codes on barrels, but if the barrel was detachable (think Remington 870 or Nylon 66), it could have been switched later or not used on a gun until a later date.
Such things make for collector headaches, and it's good to know the game rules for each manufacturer.
John
