VH Prices

[Eldon Goddard]

I got my parker letter a couple of days ago and it came with the price in 1903 $50.00. I have a 1912 VH that was $38.75. So why would the price drop over a 10 year period?

[J.B. Books]

One word, competition. Others here are more knowledgable on the details and timing of who entered the double gun market with what and when. If I remember correctly when A.H. Fox entered the market they had priced their Sterlingworth at $25.

[B. Dudley]

The introductory price of the VH was $50. But it dropped as years went on.
In 1910-1912, James P. Hayes worked on the "$25 gun project", which's goal was to come up with a gun that could be marketed at a price of $25. This was a target point because most competitors had a field grade gun at or below that price.
Although not all of the projects efforts were realized. Some were, such as the 1910 patented bolting mechanism. And the one-piece sear spring. The ultimate result was the Trojan, in 1913. It wasn't right at $25, but close.

For more information on the $25 gun project and James P. Hayes, refer to the summer 2013 issue of DGJ, and also an upcoming issue of PP.

[Dean Romig]

Discounts were often given to preferred wholesale customers who often bought many, many guns in a single order. The price at which the retail customer bought the gun may have been significantly higher.

This is with the presumption that the majority of VH guns were bought by wholesale customers like sporting goods stores and hardware stores.

[Bill Murphy]

VH Grade guns were sold for as low as $19.00.

[charlie cleveland]

i want one of those 19 dollar guns..charlie

[Dean Romig]

As an example, I know of two Grade 6 lifters that were part of an eighty-gun order placed in 1881 by a Boston sporting goods store and the price of the two Grade 6 guns were $50 each. Sure seems like a "preferred customer discount" to me.

[Researcher]

Back in the 1890s/1900s, many of our manufactureres stated a rather high "List Price" in their catalogues, but had a considerably lower "Net Price". The Ansley H. Fox A-Grade was a $50 List Price Gun, but a $37.50 Net Selling Price gun. The Sterlingworth was a List Price $35 gun with a Net Selling Price of $25. Same for Remington Arms Co. K-Grade, $35 List Price in the catalogue, but $25 Net Selling Price in magazine advertising. A similar situation existed with Parker Bros. This from the 1906 Wm. Read & Sons catalogue --



A.H. Fox Gun Co. Confidential Net Prices 1912 --

[wayne goerres]

I was watching the sportsman channel the other night and Ruger just came out with a new design for the Red label that cost half as much to produce and will cut the retail cost by half. So in a 100 years or so some one will be asking the same question. Why did the cost of Ruger Red Labels go down.

[Researcher]

About 1916, prices started going up with inflation, and by the time The Great War was over, the 1919 price of the A.H. Fox Gun Co. Sterlingworth was $55 and the Parker Bros. Trojan was about the same. With the post war "correction" in the economy in 1921/22 the Sterlingworth was dropped in price to $48 and the Trojan to $50. Parker Bros. kept the price and quality of the Trojan high, $55 in April 1923, $51.50 in January 1927, and back to $55 by January 1929, and eventually sold about 33,000 of them. A.H. Fox Gun Co. dropped the price of the Sterlingworth to $36.50 by 1926, fit and finish suffered and they eventually sold well over 100000 of them.