Order Book #5

[Opening Day]

Originally Posted by Gary Carmichael Sr

Delgrego is not the only one with Parker books! wish we could somehow bring all these books back into the PGCA or at least let us copy them for our records, Gary

Like Gary, I do not understand why people will not allow the PGCA to make copies of these books as they did with the Remington books. I understand why they want to keep the originals but why not allow a copy?

[George M. Purtill Member #28]

I would like to hear Chuck Bishop weigh in on this book.
Who do we know in Matthews, North Carolina who would have this book?
And who is a***b (592)?

[Pa SxS]

First, let me define the order books I'm talking about. The one just sold on e-bay I'll call "Old Order Book #5" because there is also a later Order Book #5 which I'll call "New Order Book #5.

The PGCA has a xerox copy of the book, I have it in my possession. Yes it would be nice for the PGCA to own it but only because they would have the original book. The xerox copy is an exact match and very readable. So if we have old order book #5, there should be old order books 1 thru 4 and possibly 6 thru whatever until the "new order books" 1 thru 100 start. Unfortunately old order book #5 does not contain serial numbers, only order numbers so there is no way to use that old order book #5 to do research letters on. In the new order books, when the order was entered, it was assigned an order number but not a serial number. The serial number was added at a later date when the parts were assigned a serial number. The serial number was then sent to the office to be entered in the order. This was not done in the old order book #5, therefore no serial numbers can be found.

Now let's add in stock book #1. The stock books go sequentially by serial number however there is a column for order numbers to be entered. In the real early stock books it's rare to find a order number along with the serial number. In the later stock books, you will usually find the order number unless it's been faded out over time. I went through stock book # 1 trying to find a order number that would match a order number in old order book # 5 and I found 2. The first order number didn't agree with what's in old order book #5. One book showed it as a 10ga. and the other book as a 12 ga. The other one matched. Both books showed it as an 11ga. with 30" Damascus barrels, and the stock configuration matched! The S/N was 2353. Look at order # 2297 in the attached picture

It would be very difficult and time consuming to try and match the old order book #5 with stock book #1 so that a research letter could be written using the info found in old order book # 5

The last order number found on old order book #5 was 2393 and the first order number found in the new order book # 1 was #1 so they didn't carry over the old order numbers to the new order book # 1.

I'm posting a picture of S/N 2353 (order number 2297.

Hope this helps to clarify.

[Snap Cap]

Chuck, thank you for taking time to explain this piece of the early Parker records puzzle. FV

[Fishtail]

Originally Posted by Eric Eis

Like Gary, I do not understand why people will not allow the PGCA to make copies of these books as they did with the Remington books. I understand why they want to keep the originals but why not allow a copy?

This is one of those funny things ... I have no trouble understanding why a person would not let the PGCA make a copy (of course it appears PGCA already has a copy but nonetheless.....)


The PGCA has the majority of the order books, and will not allow anyone else, right or wrong, to have a copy. So it doesn't follow that someone 'should' allow the PGCA to have a copy of whatever book they have. It's a two way street. Especially when the PGCA makes money from the information contained therein.