My First Parker. What Grade Is It?

[Bill Kekatos]

Today I received my Parker letter for my gun #111377. It was ordered by the Charles Parker Co of NY on October 11, 1902 and shipped on October 24, 1902. It appears the configuration is all original, down to the Lyman beads and the initials on the shield (W and RH modified).
The specifications requested a weight of 7 pounds, 14 ounces.
Questions:
1. Who was The Parker Co of NY. Any affiliation to The Parker Brothers, the gunmaker?
2. Did they keep a stock of semifinished guns in various configurations in order to be able to meet client demand and deliver the gun order so fast?
3. Would a 12 gauge of such weight be considered rather heavy? What do you think its owner intended to use it primarily for?
4. If steel barrels were available in 1902, would would the order request damascus steel?
5. Wonder what would $100 in 1902 would be equivalent to today in order to determine its cost in today's value of money.
Thank you. BillK

[Pa SxS]

1. The Charles Parker Co of NY was the retail store for Parker Bros. in NYC. 2. I'm sure they did but mostly in the lower grades. 3. Most 12ga. guns weighed in the 7 to 8 pound range. We don't know the choking on this gun but since it wasn't specified in the order, it was probably full/full or modified/full and could have been used for hunting. Both Damascus and Fluid steel were available. The customer evidently wanted Damascus. 3. Don't know but a D grade Parker wasn't cheep in 1902.

[Wild Skies]

Using tables from the Consumer Price Index, $100 in 1902 would be equivalent to $2840 in 2014 (latest year of info).

[Bindlestiff]

Originally Posted by Bill Kekatos

5. Wonder what would $100 in 1902 would be equivalent to today in order to determine its cost in today's value of money.
Thank you. BillK

Interesting question. I went to the internet and found several pages that compute the answer but none of them went back farther than 1913. I think they all use Consumer Price Index to compute the answer and I'll bet the CPI records only go back to 1913.

Anyway, In these web pages it seems that $1 in 1913 equates to $23.95 in 2015. That is much more than I expected! But maybe?

Here is a link that explains how they compute this:
https://www.minneapolisfed.org/commu...or-information

Click on the "CPI calculator" link on that page to find the tool to calculate for other years if you want to play.

[Wild Skies]

Originally Posted by Robin Lewis

Interesting question. I went to the internet and found several pages that compute the answer but none of them went back farther than 1913.

Robin, go here: http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/