1929 Parker Prices.....

[Mark Landskov]

......retail and wholesale. Greetings, everyone! I recently obtained a nice reproduction of the 1929 Parker catalog from Cornell Publications. The catalog shows the 20 gauge Trojan with a net (wholesale?) price of $55.00. The 1929 Shapleigh Hardware catalog lists the same gun for $86.00. That is quite a margin o' profit! In the same Shapleigh catalog, the L.C. Smith Field Grade in 20 gauge is $66.50 and the 20 gauge Sterlingworth is $60.00. The 'Grade A' Sterlingworth 20 gauge was $86.30. Either price for my Trojan must have been a 'tidy sum' at the onset of the Great Depression. It certainly gained value over the years, but was certainly worth what I paid for it. As always, Cheers!

[Austin W Hogan]

A few years later, Winchester announced the M21; at $0.50 less than the list price for a Trojan

Best, Austin

[Bill Murphy]

Are you sure the 1929 Shapleigh price of $86.00 was for a Trojan? It sounds like the price for a higher grade gun. The "A Grade Sterlingworth" at $86.30 sounds like it has lost something in translation also.

[Mark Landskov]

Indeed! It is described as "Parker Hammerless Trojan Grade". On the same page is the VH at $108.00, the PH at $131.00 and the GH at $163.20. All the prices I quoted are for extractor guns.

[Dave Suponski]

I believe I have every catalog that has been reproduced.I find them to be a great source of info and I need not worry about handling original Parker paper.

[charlie cleveland]

i wonder if these were the prices before the stock market collasped.... charlie

[Kenny Graft]

I just perchased an original 1929 parker catalog with price page dated jan 1929 ..trojan is 55.00, vh 68.00, phe discontinued, gh 95.00, VHE 87.00, VHE with SST=115.00 GHE=115.00 , A1-spl=700.00 add 46.00 for SST......I own 3 GHE 1929 guns... 20,16,and a 12 I paid 59.32 for the catalog on E-bay......thanks all SXS ohio...(-:

[Austin W Hogan]

Examine the Parker production record in "Serialization.. Parker Bros, like many others, were optomistic after the Crash and continued production at near the pre crash rate through part of 1930. Many 1929 guns were returned, and the 1930 guns were unsold; this lead to Parker Bros being placed on watch by creditors. Only 800 more guns were made prior to DuPont's purchase of Parker Bros in 1934

Best, Austin

[Bill Murphy]

I certainly have no possible explanation for the Shapleigh prices. They are off any scale I know of.

[Drew Hause]

Scroll to the bottom here for several late 20s price comparisons
http://docs.google.com/a/damascusknowledge.com/document/pub?id=1OTND2bQH0vhlbCf7c2sN8H1vzmT7xagUSXhewGB03S E

[charlie cleveland]

most of us had we been around in the 1880 s would have to have bought one of them 6 dollar guns..the smiths and parkers were out of my reach back then and almost out my reach now....times were hard then but a lot easier to own a good double in todays time... charlie

[Bill Murphy]

I'm still mystified by the Shapleigh prices.

[charlie cleveland]

hope you sove the mystery bill... i sure would have not bought a parker from thim when a gun at another store could have been bought much cheaper elsewhere... charlie

[John Havard]

Drew, thanks very much for the information about shotgun prices from the 1880-1929 time frame. It was very instructive. I especially liked looking at the used guns for sale. I noticed a Parker with two sets of barrels originally costing $225 that was being offered for (as I recall) $75. Nice deal!