leadcounsel, I appreciate your input.
I hoped I'd made it clear from above posts that I don't regard any gun I have as an investment. In selling guns, I've either broken even, lost a few bucks or, rarely, made a few bucks.
I highly doubt that Colt, or any company that might buy the rights to the Python patent, could produce 1960's, 1970's or 1980's quality Pythons for $500. What gun maker today can sell a hand-fitted revolver for $500?
I traded a small commidities account for several years. Didn't lose much, didn't make much. But I learned to recognize some signals.
When a market--guns, cars, soybean oil, what have you--begins to gyrate wildly, it's time to step to the sidelines.
It was disinterested outside speculators who drove up the prices of 60's muscle cars, foreign sports cars, and pre-1986 full-auto's. From the emails sent to me from the guy in Zurich who bought my E-Type (through the rip-off dealer I sold it to), he didn't know a valve spring from a coil spring. He got ripped off. His fault, not mine.
In the larger scheme of things, it really doesn't matter much to me, America, or the world if I sell my Python and buy an M1A.
What matters to me is whether or not I'll feel regret for selling it. I already feel regret for selling a number of guns that are either now prohibited by the powers that be, or just now out of my price range.
When I bought this Python, I was reminded of the scene in "Outlaw Josey Wales," where Chief Dan George held up a piece of hard rock candy and said, "it ain't for eatin', though. It's just fer lookin' through."