Originally Posted by
Bent Ramrod
A friend of mine got out of general stamp collecting, IIRC, in the early-to-mid 80’s.
It wasn’t bad enough, he groused, that the Post Office had dropped the engraved printing plates for the offset lithograph process (I think that was how he described it, various color blobs shoved together without lined boundaries vs the fine-line banknote look of the previous issues), but now they were, as he called it, “manufacturing collectors’ items.” And, sure enough, I started noticing that every time I went to buy stamps (for using, not collecting), I was offered a bewildering array of short-run commemorations of everything from the Alamo Sesquicentennial to pop historical figures to various celebrations of “Love” in all its guises. For some reason, I was able to resist the compulsion to “Collect Them All!!!”
I’d have a hard time imagining that binders full of these manufactured collectors’ items would set any bidding records at a Sotheby’s auction, but I do have to admit, too, that I seem to be more and more out of touch with the thinking processes of the younger generations anymore. So maybe these Franklin Mint commemoratives and these factory offerings of standard models dressed up with brass-plated receivers with computer “engraving” will ring somebody’s chimes, but they don’t do much for me.
Another friend, who is profoundly uninterested in guns was offered one of these Commemorative Winchesters as an investment. At this late date, I can’t recall whether it was the Eastern New Jersey Waste Management Association Commemorative or the Florida Panhandle Proctologist’s Association Commemorative, but it was without box or papers and had been fired. He asked around and found that what appreciation these guns experienced (and it wasn’t much, back then) only happened with those specimens which had not been fired, cocked, or even removed from the packaging. If any of these things happened, the gun was merely a dolled-up shooter, awaiting that distinct minority that didn’t mind taking a rather garish gun into the field. He passed.
There is a real opportunity here, for those of free and easy virtue. Carefully open the box, remove the gun without disturbing papers or wrapping, insert the appropriate weight of 2x4 and steel pipe taped together, reseal the package undetectably, use the gun as needed and sell the package to a “serious collector,” who will never open it. Shoot the gun as one wishes, and sell it when boredom sets in. Who’s gonna know?
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