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:





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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.