How's this for crazy!

[murf205]

I just saw a S&W model 25-5 4" blue sell on GoingBroker for $5025!! Yeah, it was a really nice gun but gimmie a break, $5025? 2 people got into a bidding war and ran the price through the roof. I guess the tite wad just came out in me but if I had a lot of money, that would be a quick way to get rid of it.

[Murphy]

Just keep that model in your Saved Searches Murf. I'm sure at that price, some who were watching and wanted a second one, will seriously be thinking of putting the one they own up for auction.

I've seen those bidding wars before. To be honest, long ago I paid way more than I should have for mold on Evilbay once due to that syndrome.

P.S. I spent years trying to decide whether to sign my nickname as Murf, or Murph? Heck of a think ain't it?

Murphy

[murf205]

I guess I was too lazy to write the 2 extra letters in Murphy. As far as the 4" 45, I had looked high and low for a 4" nickle 25-5 but I just couldn't find one that didn't require a first born as a payment. I finally found one in about 98% for $850 shipping included last year and thought I was paying top dollar for it but with the prices I am seeing in today's crazy market, I am beginning to think I did pretty good. Since the Covid-19 virus and the BLM riots hit the streets, guns and ammo have gone nuts. What a great time to be a caster/handloader.

[smithnframe]

There's a succer born every minute!

[jimb16]

It is possible (but unlikely) that both of those guys had guns with consecutive serial numbers and wanted a consecutive pair. Who knows what makes people do these crazy things.

[Baltimoreed]

Desperate times calls for desperate measures even if they’re not necessarily desperate where most of us live. Besides, I don’t know of a COVID-19 personal defense load that will work in my 1911 or 1897 pump.

[Drm50]

I got 3 I’ll let go for bargain price of $4999.99@, package price on all 3 can be had.

[murf205]

I got 3 I’ll let go for bargain price of $4999.99@, package price on all 3 can be had.

Better be careful Drm, these people might put you out of the 25-5 business, lol. I see a lot of guns on that website with some pretty wild asking prices but the S&W that went for $5k was a no reserve auction I believe.

[Jedman]

I have watched several guns on Gunbroker that were selling auction style but also had a buy it now price. Two or more interested buyers bid the price up past the buy it now price and when that happens the buy it now disappears and is auction only then. They have a 15 minute rule where when someone enters a bid in the final 15 minutes the auction is extended another 15 minutes until the auction ends.
I have seen several guns go hundreds of dollars past where the buy it now price was and think of how nuts that is .
Just like live gun auctions where there is a buyers premium of 15 to 18 % above the hammer price plus 7 to ? % state sales tax added I see people buy guns at prices that are just crazy !

Jedman

[rintinglen]

Boy, that passes for pretty far gone in my book. I saw a similar thing happen when John Wayne's son Michael passed and his collection was auctioned. Most of the stuff went for reasonable prices, but there was a Colt SAA that two guys went crazy over. Now this was not a gun ever used in a movie, he didn't receive it from his dad on his 19th birthday, it was just a nice 2nd or 3rd generation Colt that he bought sometime. At that time, it was an 1,800-2,000 dollar gun. By the time those two fellows got through it was 8,000+ before premium.

[HATCH]

check out gunbroker # 872730740
$7000 and still going

[BigAlofPa.]

I have a 25-5 in 8 3/8 inch barrel. Excellent condition. Made in 1980. I wonder what that would sell for. Just curious. I would never sell it.
264388

[Der Gebirgsjager]

$5k is a pretty shocking price for a Mod. 25. There must have been some other factor involved in the bidding. But, perhaps it was just a couple of knotheads who's pride wouldn't let them be out bid. I can't make this statement specifically about 25s, but there are still bargains to be had if one looks carefully.

My example would be a Win. Mod. 94 that I just bought on Gunbroker.com for $450. Probably that info will make some members gasp, but the days of $150 94s are pretty much gone. They have 15 pages of them and finding one under $600 in good condition is difficult, with many asking $1,000-$1,200 for like new specimens. I wanted a rough one for my woodcutting expeditions (yeah--that time of year again...winter will return) so I looked at all 15 pages and found only 4 in that price range. I did "buy it now" on a 2 million serial number range 94 with what appeared to be a rough stock and metal with lots of "patina". I could tell they wanted to get rid of it badly because they offered free shipping. The bore was described as dark. I figured I could always remove any rust, refinish the stock, and would take a chance on the bore because corrosive .30-30 ammo was history in the '60s when this rifle was probably produced.

When it arrived I was tickled pink to find that most of the patina had been the lighting, and while there was freckling which I easily removed with some 4-0 steel wool and Hoppe's, overall the bluing was about 90%. The stock does need refinishing, and I'll likely get a start on that today or tomorrow, but the real treat was that my gamble on the bore was a good one. Apparently it was never or rarely cleaned, but now looks very close to new. I spent all of yesterday afternoon completely disassembling and detail cleaning the action, and most of the moving parts show almost no wear at all. I had forgotten that reassembly of these vintage 94s can be a bit tricky, and it took awhile and a little coaching from J.B. Wood's book to get it done. Now there just remains the stock, and when the project is complete I'll post a photo of my newest rifle on the appropriate thread. I hope it doesn't end up looking too good to take to the woods. :|

The moral to this whole, lengthy tale is that you can still get good buys if you know what you're doing---but I doubt if a $5k S&W Mod. 25 is one of them. :D

[USSR]

Much more than crazy. It was made in the mid-80's and doesn't even have a pinned barrel.:groner:

Don

[Murphy]

I guess I was too lazy to write the 2 extra letters in Murphy. As far as the 4" 45, I had looked high and low for a 4" nickle 25-5 but I just couldn't find one that didn't require a first born as a payment. I finally found one in about 98% for $850 shipping included last year and thought I was paying top dollar for it but with the prices I am seeing in today's crazy market, I am beginning to think I did pretty good. Since the Covid-19 virus and the BLM riots hit the streets, guns and ammo have gone nuts. What a great time to be a caster/handloader.

Yes sir, there are times I surf the auctions and find guns I once bought for $250 15 years ago, are now worth three times that. Especially a good S&W.

Murphy

[murf205]

The Smith and Wessons without the hole in the frame for the lock are the ones that are nuts now. Smith and Wesson could nave not done anything to make the value of the "pre hole" guns go up any faster.

[murf205]

check out gunbroker # 872730740
$7000 and still going

It's up to $10,625 now. Now THAT'S nuts. The Colt "snake" gun have been crazy expensive for some time now. It almost makes me glad that I don't have the money to play that game. Take a look at item 871563825 on Gbroker. $600 for factory grips??

[samari46]

Just for grins and giggles awhile back I was checking some of the websites like gunbroker for S&W Model 24-3 with 3" and 4" barrels in 44 special. The 24-3 they never made all that many of them and when you do expect to pay for them. Anywhere from $1100 to $1400. But with the 3" barrel and round butt you'll see them with Pachmayer grips. The "Combats" style of grip that comes with the 3" can go for close to $300 a set. Dishonest dealers take off the combats and stick a pair of Pachmayer grips and then sell the combats separately. I paid $750 for the 3" with the combats and $700 for the 4"bbls 24-3. And all in all I think they made about 5-6 thousand all together. But the 4" is the rarest one out of the bunch. I have a 624 with the 6.5" barrel and shooting the Winchester 200 grain silvertip load in that handgun is almost like shooting a mild 38 special load. Frank

[FLINTNFIRE]

Saw a M&P shield 9mm go for over 700 , while down the page same model and caliber was half that , buy now price on a 40 s&w M&P police trade in start at 249 buy now 250 , first bid is 249 when you get within 5 dollars on Gunbroker buy now option goes away ended up going for 270 meanwhile seller had listed another at same start price and same buy now , 15 minute rule is it extends from how long is left to a 15 minute end time so if it is only 5 minutes left it goes back to 15 till end only adds 10 minutes .

I have seen multiple times people getting in a bidding frenzy or bidding item up with one of the same cheaper on a buy now . At the moment most items are running at higher prices then they should be , as this panic and nonsense drags on .

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I recently sent the Colt’s Mfg Co a print out of one of their recently discontinued Model P’s BPF almost new that sold on Gunbroker for $4,035.00. That model MSRP was $1,800.00. I dunno who’s crazier, the bidders and buyer or the company for discontinuing it.

[Burnt Fingers]

It's up to $10,625 now. Now THAT'S nuts. The Colt "snake" gun have been crazy expensive for some time now. It almost makes me glad that I don't have the money to play that game. Take a look at item 871563825 on Gbroker. $600 for factory grips??

Over $12k now.

There's some crazy people out there.

[Drm50]

The first NIB S&W I got on a trade in 1964. Retail was just under $100 at the time. In 1968 I bought NIB 29-2 and it was under $200. Sold it in Dirty Harry Days. At about same time I bought 1911s at $100, Python I think was under $200 and Diamondback $150. Every Tom Dick and Harry didn’t have a gun collection either.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I paid $575.00 for my first SAA in 1982. My co-workers called me a dumb kid, doubly dumb for shooting it. That gun has been the best purchase I ever made. It gets shot all the time still the to present day.

[murf205]

Over $12k now.

There's some crazy people out there.

It might be that these people shelling out ridiculous money for these guns expect to sell them for a big profit in the future. Who knows, they might but there has to be a saturation point somewhere. I saw the same philosophy in condominiums on the Gulf Coast until the bubble busted and the people who gave way too much money for them took a bath on the deal.
DRM50, I remember the model 29-2 days and I almost fainted when a friend gave $500 (in 1972 no less) for one. He still has it and it needs to get a tune up since it has had many stiff rounds through it since he bought new, but it is certainly worth more than he paid for it. $500 a pocket full in '72.

I just checked and $1 in 1972= about $6 now!!

The S&W "coke" grips just sold for $671.66+$20 shipping!