Wow! I wish I owned 3 or 4 of them! I would send them to Rock Island!

Craig T., I thought the 28 skeet that sold in Virginia was a much better deal at 40 grand less. Live and learn!

The one in Mt Crawford was a DHE I believe , but well as I can remmember it was rusted badly in the chamber area inside and out . I didn’t look at the gun I got that second hand from if memory serves John Allgood . Only gun I looked at in Mt Crawford I brought home .

I'll be watching the other long barreled guns come up for bids from the front row today. My hand will be down(!) Good luck to the bidders...if they are members.:)

Craig, the DHE at Mt. Crawford was a .410, the 28 was a VHE skeet, identical to the one at Rock Island except for the rust. The rust cleaned up very nicely and left an area of tarnish, no pitting. The gun was otherwise as new. I think we both missed the boat on the DHE .410, that was described as an upgrade, only because the "Book" said it was a VHE. I believe the "Book" was wrong, as it often is concerning .410s.

I hope the buyer got word that that there was a crack in the stock. They called me at 10:30 in the morning to let me know about the damage since I was a phone bidder. I didn't hear the auctioneer make the crowd aware before it sold though.

The 16ga A1 Special! Lot 3432. Am I reading this correctly?
"Barrel and stock measurements (R/L): bore diameters nine inches from the breech measure .681/.680 inches; choke constriction .008/.037 inches; minimum wall thickness .010/.012 inches;" :eek::eek:

The A1 hammered at $85,000 plus extras !

The EH 10 40" went for $55,000 plus extras .:shock:

The GH 12 40" went for $60,000 plus extras :shock:

That has to be choke restrictions, dosen't it?

The two Parker 40" barreled guns, $55,000 and $60,000 plus fees!!!!

:shock::shock:

There are Parker records available on both the Grade 2 40" barreled guns.
I would bet whoever bought these got the research letters in advance!

If I'd had thoughts of either even for 5K I'd have the letters in advance .

Or possibly they're someones family heirloom :cool:

I would "assume" the auction house assumed if you were there bidding you'd looked the gun over well already .

If it wouldn't have been seen by one of the Parker guys on this site who spotted the crack at the southern then I doubt Rock Island would have disclosed it. After calling them and making them aware they finally changed the condition report the final week.

I watched those Parkers sell and am glad my tastes lie elsewhere. The audience applauded the sale of the first 40 incher, but I guess they were out of shock for the second. I was actually surprised the A1S went for the bottom of the estimate and wondered about the wall thickness. I saw some good buys and some…like every other one I’ve attended. I was sorry to have missed Randy and Stan, but at least they left a few guns to bid on. :)

When in Carolina I didn't stop at Rock Island or Poulin or Cowan tables . Wish I had would have liked to see the 8's at RI and Cowan's tables .

Only auction house I looked at much if any was the Guyette and Deeter tables . I honestly didn't spend as much time as the year before in the tents other then BSing with Allgood and a couple trips thru the Lowensteiner and Barnett Collections .

We’ll, Craig, I’d say you’re saving money by not going to those auctions, but by your reports, it seems you find a way to purchase guns anyway. :)

I just looked at the condition report for #1484 and don't see any mention of a cracked stock.

I believe I'm the new owner of the Grade 1 Laminate TLH gun unless it was a floor bidder that wins in case of a tie bid. Kinda excited, now I have a gun to shoot in hammer gun events. Fingers crossed. I lost out on a Winchester so I decided to put in a low ball bid on thr Parker.

I hope you got it. That was a nice gun with pretty decent stock dimensions for an old period hammer gun (at least for me). The barrels looked good and the CC on the lock plates was still strong. Congratulations if you got it.

I hope you are the winner there Craig,

I handled that one and had them break it down, I think you will like it!

Stan

Thanks Garry and Stan the weight and dimensions are perfect for me. What attracted me was the laminate barrels (I'm a sucker for damascus guns). I just received notice that I won!! I may even kill a few ducks with the old girl.
Anyone else make a purchase? The 40" barreled Parkers were way beyond my estimate, ya just never know. All I can say is I'm perfectly happy with my 36" short barreled Parkers 8's LOL.

I spend a fair amount of time looking and occasionally make a purchase :whistle:

When I was a kid my father enjoyed regular old farm home auctions and we'd go to one darn near every weekend . He had a thing for pre 1820 furniture etc . Anyway after standing here there and yonder every weekend my patience for actually attending an auction has pretty much vanished . I'm more inclined to do phone bids or worst case bid via Invaluable or one of those deals .

I doubt I ever attend a Rock Island , Morphy or Poulin auction . but of course I'll bid at them via phone .

Congrats !

Your new 12 is pretty much a match for the 10 gauge I bought in Sanford although mine is 32" .

The 10 and 12 gauge 40" guns. They will not be coming to PA or IN, at least not with either of these fellas :crying:

Thanks Craig T: Fish tail lever, 2 piece hinge pin, dolls head, check hook design , matted rib, laminate barrels and good dims---checked all the boxes for me. And a fair price.

Watching the two $50K long barrels being auctioned off. You'll notice my bidder number firmly planted on the table. I can't breath in that rarified air! I did take a treasure or two home with me, though...and my wife is still taking to me. Congratulations to the successful bidders.

That's a very interesting picture Garry. Lot number 3435 in the background. While you were taking that picture at the exact same instant I was on the phone getting pummeled. I didn't figure I would get it but I didn't see that price coming. I thought what I bid was insane truthfully. Fortunate seller IMO, good for them. We'll catch up with each other at the annual meeting.

By chance did you happen to notice if the same buyer got both the 10 and the 12 ?

I did. They were different bid numbers for what that's worth, said seriously.

Concerning the $85,000 plus BP A-1 Special 16 gauge, what is the deal with the paper thin barrels? Do you think the auction house was misrepresenting the barrels to keep competing bidders away from the gun? I have the same suspicion about the AAHE upgrade which was described with thin barrels, which I seriously doubt were correctly measured and described. I guess we have to personally inspect guns like this.

I snapped a couple pics of the rib on the A1S 16 as it appeared odd to me. The matting lines were so tightly woven that they created a very odd effect to my eyes. A much tighter pattern than any Parker I own. Took a pic of the rib legend as well. Cell phone pic in bright lights so don't critique them...

A1S 16g
 

Check out the bore size, no wonder the barrels are thin!

..... Woops... :eek:





.

I can’t believe RI would purposely try to limit bidding since they make money on higher sales. The guns I’ve purchased from them that had MWT noted were pretty accurate against my own measuring. A small sample size, but still worth noting. My guess is that the barrels were “enthusiastically” cleaned up. Who knows?

Those pictures of the rib don't look Parker to me. I guess I didn't look at pictures while they were available. Non Parker barrels, $85,000 plus BP doesn't quite compute. But then either does paper thin barrels and $85,000. I guess we may see this gun again. I wonder if we've ever seen it before.

Estimate Escapades
 

On Friday afternoon I sat in the auction room and watched several lots go. I made note of a few that were off the estimates. I will say that by far the 110 lots I witnessed came in relatively close. Estimating must be a difficult task and I am not trying to belittle that in any way. I will share a few with you that stood out for me. The first figure will be the HIGH estimate and the second will be the HAMMER:

Lot 1294 Camp Perry Colt Officers Model: 25,000 -- 47,500
Lot 1333 Colt 1911 2 digit serial #: 65,000 -- 85,000
Lot 1334 Colt 1911 2 digit serial #: 16,000 -- 55,000
Lot 1365 Army contract Colt 1902: 27,500 -- 9,500
Lot 1372 90th Infantry Engraved Walther: 15,000 -- 40,000

Bear in mind from the buyers perspective you will need to add a hefty premium to the above hammer prices. The owners of 1334 and 1365 are both beside themselves, unfortunately not for the same reason for 1365 :)

Seems to me the last time I bought from RIA the premium was 15% with cash or check and CC brought it up to 18 or 20%

With that being said the GH 12 40" at 60k hammer equates into 70-72K . Far be it for me to judge but thats about ten times outta my realm of possibility . Same thing for the EH 10 40" .

The 32K from the USMC issued Vietnam war Remington 870 at 32K plus extras was over the top to my way of seeing things as well . I don't collect 870's or Vietnam or USMC stuff just happened to see that while waiting to see the 8 gauge . And with that being said after seeing what the GH and EH 40" guns brought , the price for the 40" 8 gauge wasn't that bad :whistle:

Not only is the buyers premium 17.5% but now most of the auctions add your state sales tax. I am a resident of NY which adds an additional 8%. The added costs, 25.5% in my case, sure don't seem to cooling the buyers. I watched the auction stream for a couple of hours during the 4 days and there sure didn't seem to be a shortage of buyers with lots of money. Based on my discussions with dealers at the Southern about strong sales and recent auction results the market for our beloved Parkers seems healthy and strong.