Quote:
Originally Posted by competentone
You have to understand firearms collecting is different than car collecting.
There are different theories on why it is "acceptable" to restore a collectible car, where it is not so with firearms -- the best explanation I've heard is that since the car has always required maintenance during its service life, "rebuilding" is acceptable in the collecting market. Firearms don't normally require "new parts" as part of their regular maintenance, thus, it is not acceptable to install them when something becomes collectible.
Things like the Indian Tacks can actually have historical meaning; for someone to add them to a firearm that never had them historically, is to commit an act of fraud.
Imagine if someone found an old 911, then counterfeited a serial number and body paint scheme to make it appear that it had a racing heritage -- you'd recognize that as fraud wouldn't you?
That is what someone has done with this firearm; they have made it appear to have a "heritage" that is different than the one it actually had.
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Right on. This kind of fraud in the firearms world is akin to taking a run of the mill early 911 T and doctoring it to pass it off as an all original S.
It is said there are now more "original" Cavalry Colt Peacemakers than Colt actually produced. Any time something becomes this valuable to the collectors and speculators, the fakes are going to emerge. And the prices are going to continue to escalate, far out of proportion to the items' real worth.
In our own offbeat world of the 911, we have seen this happen to the early car. Prices escalating to the point where they became out of reach for the average enthusiast who just wanted to drive one. Fortunately, this one doesn't seem to have gotten the legs many had hoped, and prices are now dropping.
I saw this happen with my favorite old firearms (single shot rifles and single action revolvers); where we were buying "shooters" to the tune of a couple hundred bucks and having a ball with them. Then, all of a sudden, every crapped out old rifle or revolver became "collectable". Snatched up not by enthusiasts, but by speculators.
I was perusing the collection of a local that had done well in real estate; one of the largest collections of Single Action Armies on the west coast. Hundreds of them. Every caliber imaginable. Yet, when pressed, he could not tell me the "difference" (there is none....) between the .44-40 and .44 WCF. Didn't know the difference between black powder and smokeless powder. He knew what a "black powder frame" SAA was with regards to its value, but honestly had no idea how black powder differed from smokeless. To paraphrase a fellow Pelican, he "knew the price of everything, but the value of nothing". Such has become the world of the gun collector.