This is our 50th year in business, specializing in collectors’ guns and gun collectors in general. Quite often, we are asked by someone who comes into our store or visits our website what they should collect. It can be overwhelming with all of the options out there. Taking aside the aspect of what you can afford, we believe there are four main factors that determine a true collector’s piece:  

1.) Do you like it?

The most important of the four is whether it appeals to you. I can show you what I think is a really fantastic Winchester, Colt, Smith and Wesson, M1 Garand, or whatever else I think is particularly neat at the time, but if you are a Tactical Rifle guy, then none of that is going to hold any interest to you. There is a saying in the art business of “Don’t buy a painting of an ugly woman, because no one wants to look at an ugly woman,” and my advice is similar on guns. If you think of a Winchester as the ugly woman, you are not going to want to see it on your wall. 

2.) Desirability 

This is the second most important part of collecting. Why something is desirable can be for numerous reasons. Some guns are because they had a low production amount. In a lot of these cases, it is because a gun was brought into production and there was some feature that was not working out, so it was eliminated, and so the early models with this feature become something a collector desires. At other times, it is a case where it is not necessarily rare, but it has mass appeal. Take the Henry Rifle, for example. Approximately 14,000 of these guns were produced, so it is not a rare gun by any means. The Henry was the predecessor to the Winchester firearms legacy, so every big Winchester collector desires a Henry. The Henry Rifles were produced from 1860 until 1866. This was one of the most technologically advanced guns for its time. It had a self-contained cartridge that reliably fired 14 rounds in one tubular magazine. These were used throughout the Civil War. So, someone who is collecting Winchesters, the evolution of firearms, and the Civil War all want a Henry rifle.

 

3.) Rarity

This is a double-edged sword. Without the desirability factor, it really does not mean much. If you have the desirability factor, then the prices can go absolutely insane for a very rare, desirable piece. There are a lot of rare guns, even one-of-a-kind guns, out there that no one cares about. This is not to say you should not collect it if you like it.

 

4.) Condition

This is an important one. I always advise someone to buy the best gun they can find or afford. There are some guns out there that are particularly hard to find in really good condition, such as Colt Walkers, Confederate guns, Revolutionary War guns, or even say Remington or Winchester prewar 22 caliber rifles. All of these categories are guns that were used and used a lot. If you are trying to collect one of these categories, very often you hear a collector say something to the effect of “I have this one until I can upgrade to a better one.” A lot of the time, in this case, the rarity factor is the condition itself.  

Please reach out to us if we can ever help you with your collection, whatever it may be, or even if you need some advice, we would love to talk to you.