Winchester Repeating Arms Company. Herb Houze
and in cooperation and concurrence with other professional dealers and collectors with long experience in various fields of specialization. Thus, a great majority of Civil War and earlier firearms are most often to be chanced upon in the dual range of Good and Fine while the majority of later manufacture arms (especially of the metallic cartridge era) will most often be seen listed in dual ranges of Very Good and Excellent. It is essential to recognize that those dual ranges are not hard and fast for all periods of manufacture. For instance: almost all Civil War carbines (Chapter VI-B) are listed in the lower ranges of Good to Fine, while a few specific models, such as the Smith carbine (9B-085); made during that same Civil War era, are most often found in better degrees of condition and hence are listed in the Guide under Very Good and Excellent as are Peabody carbines (9B-081). Other examples of differing ranges of conditions for various guns are especially evident in chapters discussing well-known gunmakers with extended production runs, such as Colt, Smith & Wesson, Remington, etc. Invariably their later cartridge models are encountered in finer average condition range than their earlier percussion models and are thus listed in this Guide.
Valuations for mint (or near mint) condition firearms have been purposefully avoided for almost all listings in this Guide. Essentially, they are not within the range of conditions chosen for inclusion in this Guide i.e. the category most apt to be found for sale in the collectors marketplace. Such optimum specimens are certain to be encountered; their frequency of availability in ever-diminishing numbers and vied for evermore furiously. With the search for such ultimate specimens in mint condition (or rare models in even lesser grades of Fine or Excellent) having reached imposing, often sensational price levels, they have sometimes been the subject of headlines and news stories in the firearms and general antiques press. Those lofty price plateaus have been primarily achieved at public auction (see further discussion Chapter I). There is little doubt that with the ever-rising popularity of almost all fields of collecting, especially of historical Americana and general antiques.and more particularly antique American firearms, that such remarkable values for prime rarities are merited. However, it is essential that collectors (and dealers, too!) retain rationality and do not become distracted by such record-breaking values in the belief (or, more likely, hopes) that those same spectacular prices are transferable pro rata to identical model guns in lesser degrees of condition. Rarely, if ever does that occur. And, it is just at the juncture of irrepressible optimism that expectations overwhelm rational judgment to take precedence in buying or attempting to sell similar models in lesser grades of condition or quality; invariably to be met with disappointment. Those spectacular values established for equally spectacular lone specimens do not a market make. On occasion they cast a pall over segments of the marketplace in anticipation that new life has suddenly been breathed into a specialized area of collecting, all due to the record prices achieved and the publicity devoted to a single, or a mere handful, of rarities. Ultimately, the market settles back and resumes normalcy, sometimes to the disappointment of a few speculators, but to the relief of most others, dependent on who may be selling and who may be buying!
IMPACT OF THE COMPUTER AGE The Internet, Websites, Dot.Coms and Email
Major changes have taken place since the issuance of the previous edition in the manner in which antique arms collecting in America is conducted and the impact of those changes continues to grow. They all came about in a relatively short time; their very first mention in these Guides was only in that last (8th) edition in 2001. Their significant effect has not merely altered the manner in which the commercial aspects of collecting are conducted, but encompasses the dissemination of information and communication between collectors, as well.
It’s difficult not to sit up and take notice how the antiques market has adapted itself to the computer age and vice versa. Less than a decade ago it may have been thought incongruous, if not irreverent, to discuss such unlikely topics as time-honored, historical antiques and cutting-edge electronics in the same breath. How greatly have the tables turned! The computer and the Internet brought with them alternative collecting patterns, many of which have a direct effect on values.
It is reasonable to believe that others are destined for the future as the inexpensive means of world-wide communication continues its unceasing growth. Slowly and grudgingly, it even appears to be ensnaring the geriatric set, the old-timers and seasoned collectors who ultimately realized it was necessary to change gears to stay active in the game (myself included).
Among the more noticeable changes engendered by the computer is its use as a means for auction bidding, augmenting and very often supplanting the telephone. Allowing those same auction houses an instant world-wide audience via the Internet, combined with their issuance of exceptionally well-illustrated catalogs, also eliminated even the necessity to personally attend auctions for many potential bidders. Further evidence of change brought about by the computer has been the virtual disappearance of antique arms dealers’ time-honored, printed mail-order catalogs. They are fast-vanishing from the scene, with but a handful of veterans still carrying the torch. On that score there’s little doubt that the net’s convenience as a means of buying, selling and trading antique arms has grown phenomenally, not merely by dealers, but allowing equal access for individual traders to the same enormous world-wide audience of arms collectors and potential arms collectors. My original observation in the 8th Edition, that the absence of many seasoned collectors [i.e. read: “old-timers”] from the electronic scene was influential in preventing it from reaching its full potential has distinctly given way to progress. It has become ever more apparent that traditional exchange of information via the postal system has yielded, with quickened pace, to email and the Internet. Inevitably, the future holds more useful distractions in store for these same remarkable systems.
The customary caveat and advice, offered to collectors since the early days of this hobby, to be aware of the small faction of fast buck artists, sharpers and con-men that sporadically operate on the periphery of this hobby at gun shows, and by mail order is equally applicable to the internet. The same sharks have rapidly adapted themselves to the computer age, often improving their questionable talents; enough, so to keep the collector on his toes! Firearms laws are also a matter of concern. Prior to free-wheeling and dealing electronically it is important that collectors be aware of laws and legal ramifications that may restrict the sale of various type firearms in state and interstate commerce.
IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHAT THE MEANING OF “GOOD” IS! (Or What’s In A Name?)
Semantics play an influential role in pricing; much more so than deserved. It’s very likely a cause for misconception in arriving at values. Considerable belabored thought and discussion was devoted to the innocent, innocuous, rather humdrum phraseology “GOOD” as the term employed to portray condition of an antique firearm. The word is widely seen throughout this “GUIDE”, valuing guns in one of the lowest condition ranges. Subject to varying interpretations, often at odds with one another, the term is universally used in firearms guides as well as those of other hobbies. More or less, a term of convenience, it usually indicates a grade of condition of the lower end of the scale. In its application to antique firearms, it may be both inept and misunderstood. All too often, collectors tend to make no correlation between the word itself and the actual condition it is supposed to describe.
Used in the context of describing antique guns, “GOOD” is merely a euphemism, i.e. a word or expression used in preference to a more direct word that sounds too harsh or disturbing; much like “between jobs” is substituted for “out-of-work”! “GOOD” is an artificiality, an over-nice word, agreeable to the ear to describe what, in antique gun collecting, is a condition that is really quite the opposite of that state! Unfortunately, it’s often taken in its literal sense (“satisfactory in quality; excellent; genuine; sound; free from blemish; relatively fine quality; or at the meat market: a grade below ‘choice; or ‘prime’”; as per the dictionary)…when, what is talked about is really not “good” at all. So, please take note, “GOOD” as it is used in this “GUIDE” indicates antique American guns in the following condition:
“Some minor replacement parts; metal smoothly rusted or lightly pitted in places, cleaned or reblued, principal lettering, numerals and design on metal legible; wood refinished, scratched, bruised, or minor cracks repaired; in good working order.”