A discussion on selling guns to buy nicer ones
 

Even though we hit 110+ for the 4th day straight yesterday(102 today is gonna feel downright chilly), a buddy of mine and me hit the trap range yesterday. In the course of one of our breaks while I was nursing a frosty Mexican Coca Cola, the subject of how we build our collections came up.

Now, while we both love shotguns, we are entirely different collectors. I love Parkers and he loves pre war Browing A5s. Still, while we may go different directions some of the issues we encounter on paying for them are the same.

My uncle always refers to his collection as gun equity. Meaning that for the most part the majority of his collection is for sale to buy the next right gun that comes along. It is always just a matter of how much "gun equity" you wish to dip into.

This brings us to the actual question at hand from yesterday, one which I will honestly say I struggled with.

If you found what you considered to be the "it" gun for your respective collecting bug, ie Parkers for most of us, would you liquidate the rest of your collection to purchase said gun.

His answer was a quick yes, in a heartbeat. He actually knows where his so called "it" gun is located, so he has probably debated this in the past if it ever comes up for sale.

For me it is more of a debate. If I sold all of my Parkers, I think I could get up to a decent A grade. A 33" 3 frame AA is more what I would call my "it" gun, but I do not believe my collection would get me there.

However, after long debate with myself, I feel the answer is no. While I would love to have that high grade gun, I enjoy looking at them and comparing the ones I currently have too much to actually reduce myself down to one lone Parker even if it was a very high grade. Heck, I don't even know that I could bite the bullet on my collection enough to make a jump to a BHE....

Anyway, just curious what some of ya'll's positions might be....

Just had that discussion with myself last week when a gun that is right in my wheel house was offered to me, an "it" gun as you called it. It was a lot of money by most folks standards, it was by mine. I could not bring myself to sell off several guns to justify buying that gun. That was last week, ask me this week and who knows.

I have sold a few here and there, but most of my Parkers are not for sale. I have sold other stuff I didn't want to acquire nicer ones. IE I sold my comic book collection to get a 28 gauge

Must of been a hell of a comic collection

My thoughts exactly :rotf:

I wouldn't do it - in fact, I would hate to part with just about any of my Parkers. I have too much fun with them. I rotate them when I shoot clays or when I hunt, in fact, I generally bring three or four of them to grouse camp each fall and give every one of them a workout.

But I have to admit to "striking when the iron is hot". A week ago somebody wanted one of my Parkers very much. I wanted to keep it - it is in high condition and I shoot it extremely well (for me) but this guy made me an offer I couldn't refuse (I would be crazy to refuse his offer.) so off it goes as soon as I get home from Maine.

There are small bore, high condition Parkers I dearly covet but I just couldn't bring myself to sell off a significant part of my collection - I just wouldn't be able to decide which ones to keep and which ones to let go....





.

To each his own !

And while I love looking at BH , AH , AAH and A-1 Specials I'm okay with the fact that the majority of what I have or will have will be VH or GH/EH guns . Maybe I'll add a DH 10 gauge at some point but if I don't ill not loose sleep over it .

I'll eventually find a VH/VHE 28 gauge that suits me , but until then I'll be okay . I suspect I'll never add a VH/VHE 410 but that's okay .

I do however want a factory original EH 26" and or 24" . I realize both are about as common as hens teeth but I'd like to have one of each :whistle:

Granted the little 28 isn't inexpensive its not break the bank expensive either . The short barreled EH's may be a little more then I've paid for an EH in the past but only time will "possibly" tell .

I had some old ones I had bought long ago when I was younger and they appreciated quite a bit.

I would like to have one each of an early AH, BH and CH eventually.

Swapping
 

Finding, mining, hunting, discovering, whatever you want to call it is the most exciting part. Collecting old lures one or two at a time for the past 40 years satisfied my need and bank roll to collect. 20 years ago I cashed in about 70 of them to buy two tickets for a cruse to Alaska for an anniversary. Ten years ago I was able to buy a Custer era Colt. That was sold to fund several Parkers. Another lure collector had a number of guns that he wanted to trade for lures. (I love it when that plan comes together) Made that trade- sold off most of them and bought more Parkers and some Foxes. Have since sold off four of the Foxes and am waiting on the next Parker.

Stay active. When you quit moving someone will want to put you in a box and bury you.