Parker Listing
 

Just a quick alert. LS&B listed an interesting Parker in their biweekly GB listings last night. It is a Parker from 1900 that looks clean and original. Only cobble is a nice older Hawkens pad. Intersting thing is that it is a PHE. I don't really know how common a P grade with ejectors is, but it seems odd. Also, the barrels letter as 26" cyl and cyl. It is also on a 1-1/2 frame. Quite a few oddities in one gun in pretty original condition. The barrels are twist and look really striking in the photos. If anyone wants to take a look, the listing is:

https://www.gunbroker.com/Item/940765356

That is a nice gun.

With a 1900 manufacture date, the ejectors would have been added later on by the factory. as the ejectors were not implemented until 1901-1902.
This was likely done post 1910, evidenced by the stepped wear plate installed on the barrel bite.
There was likely not record of the return for ejectors in the records and that is why it is not in the letter.

Well now that it's posted here I would expect it to sell at a higher price than if it was not.

You are so right Pete

I love those barrels!

I took an early test bid when it was showing $100 or so. I was bounced since it was already over $500 with 13 days left. It will go at a ridiculous price. I tried to buy a D grade lifter 10 at the end of the auction on Sunday on GB in order to get some parts to swap out. I bid to about 150% of it's value and wasn't close. Parkers have been insane lately on there.

I thought by showing it, at least someone that could use it would have a chance to bid. Lately the prices have been blown through the roof by people with user ID's such as "FriedTater69 (NR)". It seems like half the people bidding on older Parkers have no rating or single digit rating numbers.They run the price up all by themselves without any help from collectors. They are so new to online auctions they don't understand the bidding system and will set and enter bids in minimum increments over and over. I bid on a really special Merkel a few weeks ago and there were over 130 bids posted. One bidder alone made over 80 bids.

A lot of those bidders are shills. Just there to run the price up. That's one reason I quit GB long ago. Nice and unusual PHE though.

The ones I mean are not shills. They have No Rating or single digits, and chase the bid up $5 at a time. Shills would bid some reasonable jump. They make so many bids it makes the whole bidding process hard to follow and gauge, and often tend to overpay due to any real knowledge except name recognition.

I have reported quite a few spurious bid to GunBroker. One was a Top 10 dealer, who I just happened to notice had two different guns where I was beaten by the same low rated bidder. I did a little combing and found the same bidders makeing winning bids on a regular basis with this dealer, leaving a rave review of the dealer, and then the same guns being relisted two months later by the same dealer. Duplicate ads. It wouldn't have been obvious except that he should have waited three months so there wouldn't be an accessable record of the transaction. I suspect he was the bidder and was simply running his ratings up. He likely also was reporting non payment to GB.

I bundled up all the info and sent it to them. They said they would investigate, and the dealer has disappeared. Unfortunatly, he is probably starting over with a different name and address.

26" Cyl barrels on a 1900 PHE, would seem like a not too common setup?

Also, I am long way from expert, but do you think those barrels refinished?

Nice looking Parker. Make a nice close cover bird gun.

I have never understood the guy who places a sub $300 bid, on a gun that everyone with half a brain would know will sell for a lot more than that.... What is the purpose of that? Seems like a waste of time, but I suppose there are those, myself included... Who sometimes order the search by bid count, to see what guns are getting a lot of attention..... So, does that make it a schill bid?

If the bid starts at a penny for example and I bid $2500. The bid only goes up in increments. I may make one bid but by the time it sells It might show I bid 20 times.

I have done that, and hit a freaking homerun a couple of times! Every once in a while an auction item "falls through the cracks" and you almost literally steal an item.
It works in reverse sometimes when I'm selling.

What is the $65 original price for a quality gun in 1900 in today's $? That was a chunk of change back then.

Somewhere around $2000-$2500

Considering the fact that in 1900 it left the factory in brand new condition I wouldn't even venture a guess on the value of a 122 year old Parker in brand new condition. Only a well-advertised and well-attended auction would determine its value.

Putting it into perspective though, $65 in 1900 is $2292.88 in 2022.



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I've always found it interesting that the price of used collector guns fall somewhat in line with new guns of the same quality. We don't have an American double gun industry now, but if you look at the world market and compare, say, Browning and Beretta, to the used Parker market, their new guns pricewise cover about the gamut of original Parkers when new. In other words, this gun was sold at about the price of current entry level Browning and Beretta guns when adjusted for inflation. Decent mid level guns such as a G or D level were sold new at an adjusted price of $3000 to $5000. The same rough trend was true for the higher grades. To some degree they tend to sell now at the same level, due to scarcity; the scarcity covering the difference of used vs new.

There is no formula implied and there are of course adjustments for extreme condition or rarity in both directions, but I think that as a general rule the overall market falls in this range. A decent mid range Parker from 1900 sells at about the same range as a decent midrange Beretta or Browning new ad current prices.

One of the few instances where demand kept the market value constant in adjusted dollars, even neglecting use and wear.

$845.00 on Saturday afternoon.

That $65 was the "List Price." The actual net retail selling price was $48.75.

In my Parker order collection, I have seen PH grade guns for $22.00. It all means nothing. I would pay at least $23.00 for a new PH. Let's see what this one sells for. $905.00 at 5 PM Saturday. There is someone, and a competing bidder, who knows how rare a 26" cylinder and cylinder PH with retrofit Parker ejectors is worth. It could be a one of one. I wish I were buying guns, so I could outbid these bottomfeeders. The off color stripped stock can be fixed in about 20 minutes. The black Hawkins is a collector piece in itself. Good luck to the buyer.