Need gun value help from brain trust
 

My neighbor is asking for my help and I need help with his request. His father's Colt .45 service revolver that he kept as a keepsake was stolen this month and he needs to find a value for it for insurance purposes.
All he knows about it is that his father was a local police officer in the 1960s and he was issued this gun. It has a blue finish. His father died in 1970, so it hasn't been fired or cleaned in over 50 years. That's all he knows. ANY ideas of where to find an estimate of the value of it?

That is not enough info. Colt stopped making 45 cal DA revolvers in 1940.

To get a good range, I use the online gun auction sites to get a sense of value:

https://www.gunbroker.com/

Search function is great.

Forget it.
I'm about through trying to help this guy. He said it was a Colt 45.
I said, "Are you sure? How do you know?"
"Oh, I remember that's what it was."
So today he comes over, "I found the holster for Dad's gun." And showed it to me.
"Are you sure this is the holster for his gun?"
"Yes, oh yes!"
"OK, because this is a holster for a 38 Special."
"?? That can't be. How do you know?"
"Because it says, '38 SP' on it and it's too small for a Colt 45!"
So I blew 2 hours trying to research this for him and wasted your time too.
Damn. Just damn!

There may be a BBS dedicated to Colt guns and their owners. Glock has one.
Go there and ask those who own them.

As soon as you said, "local police officer in the 1960s," my head tilted like a dog when you ask him a question. No local police officers, anywhere in the USA that I know of carried Colt .45 service revolvers. Most cops everywhere used .38 revolvers as service weapons, including my uncle who was a Minneapolis cop from 1957 to 1987.

A .45 is an awesome gun but not really a good cop gun.

That neighbor is a real piece of work.

100%...I had the exact same reaction.

I couldn't find one that fit the criteria.

https://www.gunbroker.com/All/search?Keywords=colt%20.45%20revolver

Some beautiful revolvers .

It looks like, depending, $500 to $1000. Just a guess.

But he's Patrick's piece of work, bless his heart!

$3,000


But are prepared to negotiate :)