Wow. Just... wow.

[Art Doc]

There is a 6" M28-2 on GunBroker (don't panic, no link provided). It looks OK but not pristine. No box or accessories. Has Pachmayrs on it. Current bid is $500.

Someone is nuts, here. Maybe it's me.

 

[Nimrod44]

Saxon I know the feeling. I think my problem is I can remember too far back, we know what those things sold for for years and I just can't get it out of my head!

 

[charlie sherrill]

I'm glad I've already got a pair. I've got a 6" pre 28 I paid $200 for and a 4" 28-2 lightly shot still in the box I paid $250 for. The last one I bought in 2005. I can remember when no one even looked at those. Most folks wanted a 27. The same thing happened with the 58's. The first 58 I bought I paid $95 for because the dealer had it for over six years. I don't have that one any more but I have since replaced it with several more.

 

[Geronimo Jim]

It hasn't been that long ago that I sold a unfired in the box perfect 6 inch for $500. OINK

 

[wheelgun28]

Around here you cannot buy an N frame 357, no store has one. My guess is that a decent 28 would bring around $600 maybe $650 here today. At $500 it wound not last one day. People want them and cannot find them.

Heck an 1980s vintage M19 that have very deep pitting on the cylinder and one side of the barrel (like it was stored on a wet cloth or something very ugly gun, I called the river bottom edition) had rubber grips, it sold for $200plus tax in less than one week...

Seems like the low hanging fruit is gone

 

[acl864]

If you had $500 to spend on a revolver which would you rather have? The firearm on auction or any new revolver that you could purchase for the same amount? Bet you could pick you up a real nice "Judge" for 5 bills...

 

[blujax01]

Let's see - a Highway Patrolman or a Taurus Judge ....

I'll take the .357 every time.

 

[Dave T]

In my part of the country I've only seen one N-frame revolver for less than $500 in the past year...and I bought that one.

Dave

 

[Doc B]

I guess it just seemed like the supply of affordable used Smith&Wessons would never dry up so those good old days prices are stuck in our memories.

 

[srsmyth]

It doesn't seem like any S&W revolvers are priced reasonable at shows in MN. Last weekend I saw a used nickel Mod 15 4" SB with nothing else (box, etc.) for $725. Correct me if I'm wrong but that seems high to me. Is it possible the internet is driving the prices upward?
Steve

 

[Brian41]

I think I paid around $250.00 for both of my Model 28s and that was not that many years ago either. I think the most I paid for an N frame then was $450.00 and that was a NIB Model 57. The dealer wouldn't budge and I thought I paid too much at the time for it.
Those are the kind of prices still stuck in my head and when I see so so guns at $500 and more I get set back a bit still although I'm becoming more accustomed to it.

 

[nicksfather]

model 27

two months ago i paid 445.00 for a 27-2 and it is almost perfect!

 

[rromeo]

Used gun pricing amazes me sometimes. The 28 is a little different, but I usually don't see any reason not to buy new. I see 442s for $475, when my local dealer has them for $422 OTD. When you make what most would consider a reasonable offer, you just get attacked.

 

[Jack Flash]

I thought prices were easing back a little bit. I'm not so sure the supply is drying up. S&W made a lot of revolvers and as prices go up, more old ones seem to come out of the woodwork.

The first M28-2 I bought (a six incher) cost me $250, and I thought that was a good deal. A week later, I saw a very similar one at a different shop for $225. How could I pass it up if the other one was such a good deal?

Auction prices can be a little deceptive in that people sometimes get auction fever. You never know, the "winner" may back out, making that high price just more vapor on the internet.

 

[ScottJ]

All the pre-lock revolvers seem to have had a price jump in the past year.

I watch beater model 10's go for $200+ on GB frequently. I'm glad I scored my M&P last year for $185.

And show prices are a sick joke. I saw a finish 90% gone Model 28 on a table for $400 at a show last year. Cheapest I've seen on the open market lately. I just closed a deal with a friend for a much nicer one for the same money. He probably would have put it on the market for $500 and sold it for that around here.

 

[Jack Flash]

I just saw a 6 inch M28-2 in a gun shop for $350. Mechanically it is excellent, at least as far as I can tell. Some of the screw slots were a little mangled. It is wearing finger groove Pachs.

The reason for the low price is the finish is pretty bad. There are several places on the barrel where the finish is completely worn away. (Or someone did some way too vigorous cleaning?) Ditto for the frame. The finish appears to be original, but it's not pretty.

All in all, it is probably a really good shooter. As most have said, $350 N-Frames are a vanishing breed.

 

[OK Hog Shooter]

I follow GB on occassion and add handguns I'm interested in to my "watch list". I see more often than not some of the more desirable Smith models with a minimum bid that seems high to me. After the auction closes those same guns have "0" bids and are re-listed, typically at the same price. I guess the seller is just looking for the idiot that has to have that particular model... ummmm... uhhhh... I mean that dedicated collector.

 

[samandglove1]

I found a 6" 28-2 in 95% condition a month or so ago. Shop wanted $499, but I got it for $425. It came with Pachs, but I have a few extra sets of N-Frame target stocks, so I pulled the trigger. I would have paid a bit more if I had to. You can find K-frames at reasonable prices in this area, but not N-frames. Anything under $500 around here for a nice condition 27/28 doesn't last long.

 

[wheelgun28]

Yesterday I made a few rounds and came across a M28-2 4" N serial number vanilla gun. It had magnas but it had been in a holster quite a while, blue loss on the barrel and high points on the cylinder and frame. No box, just the gun, the price........










A mere $799.00

 

[Frank237]

Many of us can go BACK too many years...

How many of us can recall buying complete PISTOLS for the prices we now spend on GRIPS?? I sure can.

 

[Reddog]

You guys are giving me second thoughts. I ordered an M-28-2, 6", S2232XX, for $695, shipped, as new, no box! I'm to pick it up this afternoon.

 

[tallpaul]

My dad had a 6 inch model 28 when I was young, I always liked it and twenty five years or so back I saw a like new one in the case of a local dealers shop and thought for 250 out the door I needed it. I now have it, dads and a four inch and they are nice for sure. I agree though the days of sub five hundred n frames as a common thing are going the way of the do do...

 

[NFrameFred]

Is it possible the internet is driving the prices upward?
Steve

More than possible, absolutely the case. The world has shrunk dramatically with the advent of the internet. Before the net, dedicated collectors had to advertise locally or in print media such as "Shotgun News" and that reached a mere pittance of the folks who now view online gun trade/sales sites hourly. You had to snail-mail photos back and forth if you were serious about dealing in used guns or just take the seller's word for it. And prices stayed low or depressed in certain areas depending on the saturation of certain models geographically and by how isolated a population of shooters in a particular area was. In the '70's my gun trading area (sans "Shotgun News") was within driving distance of my house, and we used to go on 'road trips' on a Saturday morning and hit every known shop within 2 or 3 hours driving distance. Many times a lot of these places chose not to even deal in used guns.

Enter the internet. I can converse with someone clear across the country for free, exchange detailed information and pictures, negotiate a price and set the details of shipping and purchase in nothing flat to get a firearm I may have never even seen in this part of the country.

That creates opportunity and demand. Those who live in backwater areas where the shooting/gun owning population was older and drug their feet coming to the digital age had an opportunity for a while to still take advantage of artificially depressed market forces. But that is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The new reality is with newly manufactured guns bringing the prices they are listing for these days, used guns are still a bargain but the demand is there and people are willing to pay to get them, and that creates competition for what is out there and higher prices.

I liked buying them cheap. I like selling (when I do) for a profit. Who doesn't ? When I bought my first new-in-the-box model 28 for $225 many years ago, I thought that was high. Now, I afraid you guys paying that plus $200 for well used ones are the ones finding the rare "bargains" these days . . . .

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Next thing ya know, Someone with a 28 will be asking for boot on a swap for a 27.

 

[NFrameFred]

How many of us can recall buying complete PISTOLS for the prices we now spend on GRIPS?? I sure can.

I've bought MULTIPLE guns for the price of a pair of the Keith Brown grips I've been lusting after . . .

 

[Reddog]

You guys are giving me second thoughts. I ordered an M-28-2, 6", S2232XX, for $695, shipped, as new, no box! I'm to pick it up this afternoon.

Here it is, Guys!
I can't find any sign of it being fired and the turn ring is very light. The stocks aren't marked. Could they be original?
Dick

 

[MAG-NUM]

Reddog, that serial number puts you right around late 1961. Yes those very well could be the original grips since S&W used the diamond in the checkering up until 1968. Very nice model 28! Bob

 

[stantheman86]

27's are becoming the S&W equivalent of Colt Pythons.......in a few years a nice 27 will be a $1,000 gun and a 28 will be $6-700.

 

[samandglove1]

Nice piece Dick. Did you pay a little too much? Maybe or maybe not, it depends on availability. Do you love it? I bet the answer is yes.

 

[NFrameFred]

Here it is, Guys!
I can't find any sign of it being fired and the turn ring is very light. The stocks aren't marked. Could they be original?
Dick

Dick, if most folks here were honest about and went to post those grips in the classifieds they would likely ask at least $150 for them if not more; so based on that I figure you have about $550 just in a 1961 S numbered gun in excellent condition. Some folks have paid that much for such a nice specimen with Pachmayr grips on it. I think you did OK. And I believe two years down the road you'll say you did pretty good.