Has the market for average Parkers bottomed???

[King Cobb]

We are going through the same thing that is happening in the cattle market and to a degree with 1st gen Colt SAAs.

In 2013, 2014, and 2015 it was really easy to make record prices in the cattle market. You could buy a 1st year heifer, breed her and feed her on cheap grass spring to fall and then sell her when the price for her had almost doubled. People who had no history or experience in the cattle market saw this and started buying heifers for crazy prices because the prices were obviously just gonna continue to go up. Then all of a sudden in 2016 they stopped going up. So drug store cowboys who had bought 4 to $5,000 heifers were waiting for their easy money. It didn't come and prices not only stalled they started falling. My advice at the time was if you weren't willing to wait the 5-10 year cycle for prices to come back up, sell and get out with as much as you can. Many stubbornly refused. They weren't going to sell those valuable heifers until they could get their money for them. 3.5 years later some of them are still waiting to get their price, and have continued to lose money of grazing leases, death loses, falling calf prices, etc. These are people who knew very little about cattle and have no interest in long term cattle ranching, but they are going to stubbornly refuse to sell at a loss, and those 4-5k heifers are going to be dead before the market gets that high again and will have turned into 10k losses. They could have sold out early when the market started turning and gotten out with little loss.

The same thing is happening with 1st gen colt SAAs. People see what an old worn Colt SAA from the 7th Cav with a kopec letter sells for and decide every worn out beat to hell Colt SAA that is a 1st gen is a guaranteed investment grade piece regardless of condition. So you have a lot of 1st gen colts that have set on GI and GB and other sights for a very long time that have no business being priced at more than 1000 to 1200 bucks maybe just because of their age and the history they represent, not so much the gun they still are. You see it too with Winchester Rifles. People decided anything that was a pre 1900 1873 in 44-40 was a 3000 dollar gun. Or anything that had the numbers 1886 on it was big money. Those guns sit while ones that are priced in the right area code sell.

It's no different with Parkers. The parker came to represent a guaranteed easy sell when you wanted to get out of them. In my part of the world, prior to internet sales, a parker was rare because there just weren't very many. I lived in Houston and can count on 2 hands the number of parkers I ever saw for sell at that time in stores and 3 quarters of those were at Collector's Firearms. They weren't rare guns, but they were hard to find because of geography and such. Even respectable experienced gun dealers get into these situations. Pug's been sitting on a BHE for as long as I have been in the parker game that he has refused to come down on the price of, so it sits in his shop collecting dust. Collector's firearms has a BHE as well that is even more overpriced and less collectible than the one Pug has, neither seems to be interested in moving off their price. Frankly, I can't see either of those guns ever selling, without some movement on their price. If you look at Steve Barnett's page, he has a bunch of Parkers, and when I conversed with him about looking for a 1/2 frame DHE 12, he claimed he has more than 100 parkers that aren't even on the sight (only 1/2 frame he has is a BHE...I didn't inquire about the price), you can also look at the prices he has had them listed for vs what he was selling them for a year or 2 ago. Suddenly just about anything with Parker on them is a much higher markup than it was previously for similar condition guns. He has actually raised the price on that Rondell CHE that is incorrect, his cheapest D grade is over 5 grand for a restoration, he wants almost 3 grand for a poor condition 12 ga VH. These guns aren't moving because people aren't being realistic about what they are worth and we don't currently have a bunch of people coming in that are just desperate to buy any parker they can find as has been the case in the past.

[SXS OHIO]

Big D....It will be a good time to buy working guns....(-; 12 gauge will take the worst hits. I love hi grade engraved guns....Always wanted a Parker BHE-16 So few made there will never be a fire sale on one of them....maybe a good fair price but,,,,probably I will not have the cash...sadness and despair will set in....maybe a widow will call and say...I WANT IT OUT OF MY HOUSE....it might kill someone any moment. SXS Ohio

[PML]

I grabbed my coffee this morning and logged in to get my Parker fix for the day. I started reading this post and thought I must be on some Commodities trading website. Pork belly's, Cattle, and Parker shotguns.

PML

[Alfred Greeson]

Good things come and go, prices fluctuate but owning a Parker is something to be proud of...whether you have one or many. I still remember growing up in a small town in Tennessee where there were only two parkers known of, one owned by the county judge and the other by the hardware store owner. Almost something to strive for some day. Now I have a few and love every one of them, sitting by the fire rubbing one down is like a conversation with an old friend. Like the wives say, "Be proud of what you have" , and when someone asks "Is that a Parker", smile and say "Yes it is!" and who knows, the next good one that comes down the pike may just be at a really fair price and good the one you thought you would never find, much less afford and Yes, we will find a way to justify buying just one more and love it because it is a Parker!

[C.O.B.]

I think Mark hit the nail on the head. I've had a BHE live bird gun for sale for quite a while also a nice A1 special upgrade 28ga two barrel set with no takers. This isn't confined to Parkers as two small bore Foxes continue to look for new homes. I talked to a dealer just yesterday and he was lamenting the slow sales also. As nice as it would be for these four guns to find new caretakers they don't prevent me from eating so I won't be forced into a fire sale. Others may not be so fortunate.

[Big D]

Another member of this forum told me about his exchange with a well-known dealer who told him to not even leave several collectible guns with him because they just would take up space on his shelves with no hope of sale

[Mark Kircher]

Every gun will sell if the price is in line with the market.
We currently have an alignment problem.
The reverse auction process we just watched Josh use is very telling. I suspect it will become more common in the near future. Maximizing the current market price to the seller without giving 20+% to the auction house. If one truly wants to sell at a fair market price - this seems to be the best route I have seen so far. If one wants to name his price - he may find it difficult to place guns on consignment or run them through auction houses with high reserves. Both, I expect, may eventually stop putting money and effort into unproductive placements without charging fees on the front end.

[Craig Larter]

Well supply is not decreasing look at the number of guns just listed by RI and Morphy's. The bottom of the market is still yet to be reached in my opinion. And hammer guns are falling off a cliff..

[Twombly setters]

most guys with a couple D grade parkers think they have their "nest egg" where an average or Refinished gun will only bring half of the worshipped value.

[Ed Norman]

The first time I went hunting with my dads best friend he let me borrow a stevens .410 sxs shotgun. It was the most beautiful gun I could imagine back then. Purchasing the side by sides that I have this last year has meant so much to me. I would rather own an older side by side than anything right now to hunt with. These guns bring back that flood of emotions that I had as a youngster, hopefully I can find some younger people or my grandchildren and pass along those same feelings that I had and we can have some good "moments". I look forward to the future with these guns and I hope more young people can appreciate these older guns like I did and still do now.