What Horror Is This?

[Bill Murphy]

If you're spending $1500.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing, you had better have a serious Parker student standing next to you, unless you are willing to chance a $1300.00 mistake. You should not spend $5.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

If you're spending $1500.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing, you had better have a serious Parker student standing next to you, unless you are willing to chance a $1300.00 mistake. You should not spend $5.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing.

Most places give a 3 day inspection which isn't enough time to get an appraisal or opinion unless you have someone near you. I'm not sure I have anyone near me in Upstate NY (or Northern PA). The other part of it is I hate to put people out and inconvenience them. I've scored some nice sub $1500 guns and a few duds but haven't been hurt too much. I would be sick to my stomach if I bought something like this gun in this thread.

[Pa SxS]

Knowledge is learned. Go to the PGCA's home page and educate yourself by studying all the links on the left. That's the place to start. Build from there by physically seeing and handling as many Parkers you can and comparing them to what you have learned from this site. I'm always learning new things I didn't know.

[Twoatlow8]

Andy, If you are in Upstate New York, you are within 5 hours max of either Brian, or Delgrego, or even Turnbull.
All these people would be able to evaluate a Parker, and inform you of any issues with it.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Scott Janowski

Andy, If you are in Upstate New York, you are within 5 hours max of either Brian, or Delgrego, or even Turnbull.
All these people would be able to evaluate a Parker, and inform you of any issues with it.

I’ve purchased cars and had a pre-purchase inspection before taking delivery. I’m not sure how it works on a gun when you have a short window of time and these guys are all very busy. Do I call spur of the moment and ask them to evaluate it and pay them for their time? Anytime I’ve dealt with anybody who has knowledge of guns they are extremely busy but I consider it money well spent. I’ve bought a handful of Porsches and had dealerships do pre-purchase inspections and I’ve rejected a few before I took delivery based on issues. But in this case its different because I take delivery first and then have 72 hours to return it if I don’t like it.

[Eric Estes]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

If you're spending $1500.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing, you had better have a serious Parker student standing next to you, unless you are willing to chance a $1300.00 mistake. You should not spend $5.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing.

Easy enough to say Bill. 5$? Hyperpole I hope? In the real world most of us have made mistakes as well as good deals. That is called learning.

[Joe from MO]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

If you're spending $1500.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing, you had better have a serious Parker student standing next to you, unless you are willing to chance a $1300.00 mistake. You should not spend $5.00 on a Parker without knowing what you are doing.

I feel I know enough about what I am looking at, to feel comfortable spending up to that price on a gun. I did talk to some other people about the gun, had them check it out, and it all matched the books, etc. I had 3 days to look it over, and it was as I expected, actually a little bit nicer than I expected.

I would never spend more than that without first having the gun in hand, or a solid inspection period, etc.

I have bought a couple guns that were considerably less than $1500, and ended being a lot nicer than the price I paid. A 16ga Philly Fox comes to mind... If I make a mistake, that's on me, but I know that going in. Everybody has that price point where it becomes high enough to warrant a more thorough examination than just some pics on the web.... And for some guys it might be $5000, for others $200.....

I am not a serious collector, and buy guns I plan to use in the field.... So, spending a huge sum of money for a collector grade & condition gun has no interest to me. I would love to have guns like that, but not for the amount of money they usually require to own... Probably why I don't own a 28 or even a 20ga Parker right now.