I think they were around even back when we were young too- it was a temporary condition -


if you had the base interest established - guns and hunting eventually re-floated :rotf:

But they have always required a serious divergence of discretionary funds :eek:






.

which we would have blown on fast cars anyway :whistle:

I'm late to the party but I think it is a two fold condition. One has to do with the fact that there are way more people out there who have never heard of Parker Bros. then there are who know what they are. I know it's hard to believe but go ask 10 random people if they know what a Parker is. The other condition is the price and value of these guns is driven by collectors, not hunters or shooters. The collector group is relatively small right now and they know about most every high grade Parker out there. When the economy improves more will enter the collector group and prices will go up again. Of course this is just MHO and not based on scientific research.

Actually there is a 3rd condition. Internet sales. Never before have so many Parker's been available to many for purchase. Supply has outstripped demand.

Not to discourage anyone from doing just that, I'd suggest that if you do it, you write it from the technical side, or from some perspective other than trying to tell people how cool it is to shoot old shotguns. I had the editor of a prominent shooting magazine tell me that space was "too precious for human interest pieces", and that they aren't what anybody wants to read anyway. And as the publisher of a mag I used to work for told me, "magazines don't make money selling subscriptions, they make it selling advertising."

Many of the serious collectors I know did not start collecting when Parkers were "pennies on the dollar". They started when guys like Kevin McCormack and I showed them our guns, let them shoot our guns, and gave them a way to get into one of these guns. It tickles me when someone asks me questions about my guns. The disappointment sets in when they don't ask. I have taken a really hot single trap to my club twice lately for a show and tell and a shoot and tell. Both trips to the club, different members asked me what "such a gun" would be used for. They had no idea what a single barrel trap gun was or what it was used for. These were experienced shooters past 50 years old. We need to tackle these guys and educate them, and then locate their checkbooks.

While I am enthusiastic about the promotion of the double gun sports, I am unabashedly pessimistic about the future of paper-&-ink magazines, newspapers, and other such media.

The future of communication is electronic/internet. If you're not there, you don't exist to the young audience. Or any audience 10 years from now. Like it or not. This is why the future of our sport/interest must make the transition to new mediums.

Video production and YouTube is the path. Along with vertical cable TV channels dedicated to outdoor sports or country topics. If "Top Shot" can survive on cable, WHERE is the segment that features sporting clays with double guns? Answer: It is yet to be made.

Shooting industry manufacturers have SAAMI to give them a collective voice. We need something similar...

But, if you insist on some paper media, THIS is a good option for image awareness:

http://gardenandgun.com

I think one way to slow down the declining prices would be for dealers/owners to establish a base line. What I mean is this, lets set a price on an average condition Trojan 12 gauge at 700-800 dollars...a VH at 1000-1200...a PH at 1400-1500...a GH at 1700-1800, etc. etc. So, lets say you are a dealer, and you see one of the above guns selling for less than the amounts shown. If you buy it, you remove it from the market and can set your own selling price. I understand that you may not sell it quickly, but if you remain firm a base price will be established. If a private seller needs a quick sale, and offers their guns for less, buy it and list it at the base price. If there are 471 Parker's on gunsinternational, and say 300 of them are in the lower grades, and we buy them, now there are only 171 left and they will probably be high grade, or high condition, guns that are for advanced collectors that may have the disposable for such guns. I think what I am trying to say here is that we, as collectors/shooters have to establish a guns value and not leave it to those folks that will only buy a gun if they think it's cheaper than it should be. I've never seen a 60,000 Range Rover sell for 30,000 just because there are alot of them out there.

Yes, but look at what IS on there: Hunters with bows that are really nothing more than guns with sights, triggers, et al, whooping and hollering when they kill a big buck that they've been watching for months with trail cameras or maybe even baiting. Then they sit there and wait until he comes by, shoot him, and brag about their "hunting" exploits. And it seems that's what most folks want to see. I know: I'm a member of a family full of 'em.