What mistakes have you made buying Parkers?

[Reggie B]

Originally Posted by todd allen

The biggest Parker mistake I ever made was NOT buying one. At a pigeon shoot somewhere in a super secret not to be named place. A gun dealer offered me a 32" DHE 28 gauge (out of an estate sale) for $3500.00
I figured I didn't really need a 28 gauge, so passed.
My buddy and I still lament that one to this day.

I am speechless.

[Bill Murphy]

"Not buy" or sell to make a few bucks is the most common mistake. Examples in my case are selling a #2 frame 32" factory 3" because I felt that no VH 20 is ever going to be worth $1000. Another potential mistake would have been not buying a wonderful little VH 28 because it was a nice restock with a blued receiver. $2600 sounded like a lot money at the time, but the gun has perfect barrels with all correct bore and choke dimensions. It is also a lightly used seventh 28 gauge made by Parker Brothers. There are thousands of examples of collectors not buying a gun because it is overpriced TODAY. The market price of a class of guns is not the most important factor to consider. Even more important is that the particular variation, not just a class of guns, will disappear from the market because they are all bought up. Then they disappear into collections for decades. In my opinion, long barrel smallbores, even 16s, and Super Foxes are a class of guns that will disappear in the next few years, to be injected into collections for years. Overpaying for such guns today is just something you have to do if you want to own one. If you want to own an AHE trap, and one comes on the market, you have to buy it, even if overpriced. WHY? Because the next time you see it or one like it, it will be in a luxury auction and it will sell for $30000, way more than the first time you saw one. OK, that's my story and my advice.

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Bill Murphy

"Not buy" or sell to make a few bucks is the most common mistake. Examples in my case are selling a #2 frame 32" factory 3" because I felt that no VH 20 is ever going to be worth $1000. Another potential mistake would have been not buying a wonderful little VH 28 because it was a nice restock with a blued receiver. $2600 sounded like a lot money at the time, but the gun has perfect barrels with all correct bore and choke dimensions. It is also a lightly used seventh 28 gauge made by Parker Brothers. There are thousands of examples of collectors not buying a gun because it is overpriced TODAY. The market price of a class of guns is not the most important factor to consider. Even more important is that the particular variation, not just a class of guns, will disappear from the market because they are all bought up. Then they disappear into collections for decades. In my opinion, long barrel smallbores, even 16s, and Super Foxes are a class of guns that will disappear in the next few years, to be injected into collections for years. Overpaying for such guns today is just something you have to do if you want to own one. If you want to own an AHE trap, and one comes on the market, you have to buy it, even if overpriced. WHY? Because the next time you see it or one like it, it will be in a luxury auction and it will sell for $30000, way more than the first time you saw one. OK, that's my story and my advice.

Bill, I think there is a great deal of wisdom in what you wrote. Let me ask you (and others), though, since it seems that many of us are, how shall I say, more experienced in life (OK, older), don't you foresee that those guns that are being bought into collections to be held, might not be held for so long and might then become available to younger collectors? Then, there is the seemingly diminishing pool of potential collectors that is often cited in discussions among today's collectors.

Just curious how you or some others might respond.

[C.O.B.]

Unfortunately the younger group of shooters are more orientated to modern guns. If you shoot sporting clays at the local club you will see semi autos and pumps not sxs. Also the younger shooter for the most part doesn't have the disposable income for a say VH/VHE 20 thats $3000 or more, they are raising their families and working just as we did at that stage of our lives.

[Richard Flanders]

Mistakes?? Plenty, generally by paying more than I could ever get out of them even now. Recently I sold one for $200 - a #1 frame 30" twist PH12 w/pristine bores - that I had shortly before paid over 3x that for..... didn't look at it closely enough when I bought it and wanted the new owner to have room to fix it without suffering. Then there was the choke opening fiasco of a gorgeous SG 26" Remington era VH12 with a gorgeous blonde stock that resulted in the barrels being so thin you can take dents out of the muzzles with stick.... that one really hurt. Only way to really fix it is to chop it to 24". There's not enough metal for choke tubes of any kiind. Ouch!! I killed 54 birds in one day at a preserve with that gun on one trip. My all time daily record by far.

[Andy]

To answer Garry, yes I do I believe I see collections being put back out into the market place for young guys like me (56 is damn young...) and I'm starting this endeavor later in life. With kids in college and some years to retirement, I look for sound usable guns that I can hopefully sell later without a problem. I just can't afford a $10-15K 16g gun to slog around the woods in, and can't justify hanging on for an investment, unless I'm pretty darn sure it's going to go up (this part of the game I have never figured out...). About young kids not having disposable incomes, well, these kids also shoot $2600 Benelli Super Sports and have Polaris Rangers and snowmobiles that cost a LOT of money. They just don't have the knowledge yet. You can only hope that once they clear puberty and grow up and get a few gray hairs they'll come around. I shot my very used 16g VH at skeet last week. There were nothing but sporting guns, and nice ones at that, all around me. But I could hear over and over "He's shooting a 100 year old Parker...that's a Parker.." So that was pretty cool (until they saw my shooting). Do you know that every single one of those guys was FLOORED when I told them it cost less than the vast majority of the guns on the rack. The best thing you can do is educate them I guess. I let anyone shoot it who wanted to, and some of these guys shooting for years never handled one. There is a wow factor. I think if I weren't married my Parkers could be an effective chick magnet, almost as good as a puppy.

[PML]

Originally Posted by Andrew Sacco

I think if I weren't married my Parkers could be an effective chick magnet, almost as good as a puppy.

Why don't someone put that on a patch to sell......

PML

[Andy]

Originally Posted by Patrick Lien

Why don't someone put that on a patch to sell......

PML

I think that Destry dude could do it. "Who Needs a Puppy When You Got a Parker?"

[John Allen]

My biggest mistake of the many I have made was selling a 28ga. AHE that I had picked up in the early 90s for $10K. I sold it for $15K and have been kicking myself ever since.

[Chris Robenalt]

Interesting topic. No regrets, but I think my mistake was buying every Parker I could afford on my blue collar income. I may have an assortment of maybe 11 or 12 Parkers. I could probably be happy with just the two 20s. Both straight stocked VHs, maybe 1904 - 06. One is a beautiful early Delgrego restoration. The other well used, but tight. I'm probably sitting about the same with my many Foxes. I've also many early Ithacas, Smiths, Lefevers, and a couple other makes. I've too many to enjoy. Throw in my two Fox 20s with the Parker 20s, and I'd be content. Someday I'll get down to maybe 10 total. It's easy to learn from our mistakes, even harder to let go of some of them......
Chris, AZ