Ok, fess up, who bought the $20k+ BHE at Collectors firearms

[King Cobb]

Collectors recently launched an online archive of all their guns they have sold that were listed online. You can't tell when a gun was sold, but it is fun to play with.

Saw they sold a BHE for 23k at some point. Its a really beautiful gun.

http://archives.collectorsfirearms.c...&product=S3882

[Pa SxS]

I wonder how they come up with the statement original condition? I question the case colors on this gun. It could be just the picture but it looks like the top lever is blued.

[Bill Murphy]

I doubt that this gun sold for the asking price. It has been waved around for awhile. Nice gun, though.

[King Cobb]

No idea, I have done a fair bit of business with collectors on Colts. They are well regarded for the guns they sell, though yes, they do usually charge a bit of a premium, but if you are looking for something in particular they are a good place to look.

I don't know when the gun sold, its the archive site, but I know it was more then 3 years ago when I started stalking their site for a fox or parker shotgun. No idea what it sold for.

[B. Dudley]

Top lever is blued.

[Pa SxS]

I guess my question is what makes this dealer or any dealer or seller an expert on determining originality and then stating that in the description. We see this term "original" too many times when it's obvious the gun is not original. Just because it has colors and nice blueing doesn't make it original. It does however make it easier to sell to someone who doesn't know better. It's very hard to determine what is original even to those who study Parkers for a long time. We (myself included) sometimes don't know for sure but we can give an educated guess based on the experience of seeing many Parkers.

My rants over!

[George M. Purtill Member #28]

Good rant Chuck!!

[Mike Franzen]

I spoke to a gentleman not long ago about a Parker on one of the internet sites that touted the gun as being all original. The wood and metal has obviously been redone and it had an aftermarket recoil pad. He claimed "original" meant the gun had all the parts that came from the factory. The recoil pad didn't count because it was meant to be replaced. I told him I thought the gun was misrepresented by his description and his explanation would never hold up. To his credit he took the gun down.

[Fishtail]

I saw and held, briefly, that gun at Collector's about 3 years ago. It was nice, for sure, but I didn't feel it was worth the price at all. For one thing, it's not anything special as far as gauge, barrel length, frame size, etc. I think $15K would have been a more-than-fair price for it.

I'd be suspicious of any price they list as 'sold'....they have a million reasons to inflate any price they list.

[King Cobb]

I don't know about this parker, but I know they do send many of their high end items off to be appraised for originality.

I have someone I know from Colt collecting that has done buisiness with them on selling them a walker colt to buy an earlier walker they were selling. They brought in a guy from Hansen and Hansen to appraise the walker he was selling them and the walker he bought came with a letter from Hansen and Hansen about the gun. Don't know if they would do that on a $20k gun, but they certainly do on one they are looking to sell for 85k and ended up selling for $81500.

Wasn't meaning to start a discussion on originality or any of that. Was just sharing the site as I thought it had a lot of neat parkers they had sold over the years.

If you don't like Collectors, that is fine. I have dealt with them on numerous guns I have bought from them and sold to them and have always been treated fairly. They are a little pricey, but if you sell them a gun, they also pay you a good price. sold them a Colt Officers Model .22 for $650, when they put it in the case it was priced at $850 for sell.

Was just wanting to share a resource for looking at fine old parkers.