OH NO! Am I becoming a collector??

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J-Bar

J-Bar

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Gunshow in Springfield, MO this weekend. I went this morning (Saturday). Attendance was a bit lower than the last two shows, but still plenty of tables and lookers. Powders and ammo were more available, priced high. No primers.

My favorite pusher was there, a Smith and Wesson collector who is cutting down his inventory. I bought this one from him: an ANIB Military and Police .38 Special, 5 screws (edited correction, photos below), with a 5" barrel made in 1949.

IMG-2621.jpg

IMG-2622.jpg

It was in this gold box, which turned a lot of heads as I walked around the show, mostly other dealers. My wife was with me and she was impressed by so many other shooters and dealers being interested in my purchase and asking if I would sell it. So she realizes it is a good acquisition.

IMG-2620.jpg


I took this one home and ran patches through the bore and chambers; came out clean. The cylinder face is clean as a whistle. It has a turn line, but if it has been fired it wasn't much and it was cleaned throughly afterwards. Usually I take a new gun to the range as soon as possible. But this is the first one that I have had second thoughts about shooting. I don't need to shoot it, and I admire its close-to-new appearance. I'm gonna think some more about shooting it. I fear I am becoming a collector.

Oh, yeah, I got the gun and box for $900. Snake Pliskin could probably have gotten it for $500 or less, but I'm not Snake Pliskin.
 
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I bought a like new in box 15-2 last January. $580 out the door I believe. Made in 1967 and looks like it’s never been fired. I haven’t shot it yet and I’m not sure I’m going to. I have other revolvers to shoot but this one is so pristine I don’t want to dirty it up. I know guns are for shooting but they are also for admiring and this 15-2 is just so perfect.
 
I think you made a great buy, that’s one beautiful M&P! :thumbup: I certainly would not have gone too far from it after seeing that one ;).

And yes, Snake is certainly one with the gift of finding amazing S&W’s, too!!:)

Stay safe.
 
" I'm gonna think some more about shooting it. I fear I am becoming a collector."

Don't waste that fine gun. Who knows what the future will bring? If you consider yourself a shooter, just shoot it but treat it gently. Otherwise stash it away and waste the potential of joy that it could have provided:).
 
J-Bar said:
Gunshow in Springfield, MO this weekend. I went this morning (Saturday).

My favorite pusher was there, a Smith and Wesson collector who is cutting down his inventory. I bought this one from him: an ANIB Military and Police .38 Special, 4 screws, with a 5" barrel made in 1949.

View attachment 1010729

View attachment 1010730

It was in this gold box, which turned a lot of heads as I walked around the show, mostly other dealers. My wife was with me and she was impressed by so many other shooters and dealers being interested in my purchase and asking if I would sell it. So she realizes it is a good acquisition.

View attachment 1010731


I took this one home and ran patches through the bore and chambers; came out clean. The cylinder face is clean as a whistle. It has a turn line, but if it has been fired it wasn't much and it was cleaned throughly afterwards. Usually I take a new gun to the range as soon as possible. But this is the first one that I have had second thoughts about shooting. I don't need to shoot it, and I admire its close-to-new appearance. I'm gonna think some more about shooting it. I fear I am becoming a collector.

Oh, yeah, I got the gun and box for $900. Snake Pliskin could probably have gotten it for $500 or less, but I'm not Snake Pliskin.
Click to expand...
That's more than a nice gun, that's......a helluva nice gun. How do you do it, getting an ANIB, 5 screw M&P .38 Spl. for $300 LESS than the ANIB price from 6 years ago? The 4th Edition Catalog lists its ANIB value at $1200. Does the SN have an "S", or "C" prefix?
 
C prefix. 133xxx

I make a contribution to this pusher’s retirement at every gunshow. He knows what I like and I bring cash.

A symbiotic relationship.

:thumbup:

And it’s 4 screws not 5, but still...
 
Nice acquisition.

I quit my addiction years ago because I just couldn't afford it anymore. Sold them all. The only Smith I have now is a 442 that I carry in a messenger bag while out on my bicycle. I do kind of regret selling the 3" Model 13, though.
 
Howdy

If you don't like the term 'collector' you can call yourself an 'acquirer'.

I sometimes call myself an acquirer.

By the way, lots of case colors left on the trigger and 'speed hammer'.

Don't listen to the guys who tell you that you have to shoot it. Whether you want to shoot it or not is up to you.

I have a few safe queens that I don't shoot. Some because they are so old ammo is not made for them anymore, others just because I like how pretty they are.

I seldom shoot this early Model 27 with its repurposed Gold Box. I have Model 28s for when I want to shoot a big 357 Magnum.

pn6TTyccj.jpg




I have shot this K-32 a few times, but mostly I want to keep it looking pretty.

pmLHRNCtj.jpg
 
Nothing wrong with not firing a gun if you don't want to. I've had a number of them over the years. I bought them believing them to have never been fired outside the factory, and sold them the same way. As you said, I don't need to shoot a say, Model 19, to know how it shoots. I've shot dozens of them.

Sometime this past year, I found this Model 19-4, Pennsylvania State Police 75th anniversary model that I don't believe has ever been fired (outside the factory...someone will always come along and tell me they all get test fired if I don't add that.) It came with the box, all the papers, and tools still in the unopened plastic bag they were shipped in. I need to do a picture of the gun in the box. Maybe later today.

19-4r.jpg


Don't let that white spot on the muzzle fool you. Just bad lighting. Here's the other side.

19-4l.jpg

I look at a gun like this as a time capsule. It's a window into the way things used to be. My first handgun ever was a Model 19-4 with a 4" barrel. It's long ago gone on down the road, but this one, and the contents of the box look almost identical to that one as best I can remember. The grips are different, and my first one didn't the the Pa State Police stuff of course, but it's about as close as I ever expect to see again. I enjoy just picking it up and handling it, and maybe putting a coat of Ren Wax on it.

If I want to shoot, I'll get out a Python.
 
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J-Bar said:
…My favorite pusher was there, a Smith and Wesson collector who is cutting down his inventory. I bought this one from him: an ANIB Military and Police .38 Special, 4 screws, with a 5" barrel made in 1949...
Click to expand...


You sure about 1949? I ask because the shape of the hammer and lack of a visible hammer stud indicate to me it is a post 1950, short action M&P. Still a fantastic purchase, and to some, more desirable.

Kevin
 
Wow! What a beauty.
I would shoot it just a little bit, then caress it a lot with a soft cloth and some cleaning patches.
No one will ever know. ;)
 
StrawHat said:
You sure about 1949? I ask because the shape of the hammer and lack of a visible hammer stud indicate to me it is a post 1950, short action M&P. Still a fantastic purchase, and to some, more desirable.

Kevin
Click to expand...

The dealer said it was 1949, and I tried to confirm that with the serial number listing in the Standard Catalog of Smith and Wesson, 4th Edition. The C Serial Prefix for Model 10 and premodel variations is

1948-1951: C1-C223998

...so I take it that this confirms that C133xxx was made before 1951 at least, and 1949 looked reasonable.

I am ignorant about using hammer shape and hammer studs for additional dating information. If you would care to educate me, I would appreciate it.
 
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The solution to your problem is a box or 38 Special and a range trip. Only you can prevent Safe Queens.
 
Guilty as charged. I have an engraved (new) S&W 44mag that I have never fired. Also a lightly used 29-2 and 14-3.....I DO readily admit that I often demonstrate having more $ than brains. I am also retired and live on the cheap other than the hobbies.
 
J-Bar said:
I fear I am becoming a collector.
Click to expand...
Well, it's like this: so far as i've observed, there's folks who buy what interests them, folks who buy what they think will interest others at some point in the future, and folks who buy what's cheap and available just because it's cheap and available. The first are "collectors." They have a focus and only tend to buy what's in that focus. The second are "speculators." They buy for the flip; maybe to make money or maybe to have bargaining power to fill out their collections when things that are rare show up. Speculators, in my experience, also tend to be collectors. That third group, well, I just call them "gatherers." They pick up, use and trade, buy and sell or trade, swap and such so much they really don't have the focus to collect or the organization skills to speculate. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not that gatherers are junk collectors. Some I know got a passel of really nice, rare, collectible guns and ammo but, they don't care about collecting and will let a rare gun go for a tidy profit over keeping it because it's rare or interesting. They buy cheap and sell high or trade for shiny new things that catch their interest, briefly.

Seems to me like maybe you are more a collector than a speculator - though keeping a gun "pristine" to save it's "value" is more like speculative.

J-Bar said:
Oh, yeah, I got the gun and box for $900. Snake Pliskin could probably have gotten it for $500 or less, but I'm not Snake Pliskin.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a bargain, to me. As for not being Snake Plissken, other than Bob and Kurt, who is? ;)
 
GeoDudeFlorida said:
Seems to me like maybe you are more a collector than a speculator - though keeping a gun "pristine" to save it's "value" is more like speculative.
Click to expand...

I like your analysis.

But my reason for maybe not shooting it is not to save its value. I doubt I will ever sell it. I just think it’s cool to have a revolver that old in such condition, and I am reluctant to risk dinging it!

Still thinking about it, could go either way.

:)
 
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