Pricing smoke polls???

[Slowhand Bob]

I would like some opinions on pricing cap and ball pistols of known condition, purchased new and never fired.  What we would call unfired safe queens.  I am thinking that since condition is a known and with a bit of research we can readily find a retail price and even factor against usual sales prices, we should be able to come up with a close percentage discount for selling.  My question is, what percentage off MSRP would be a reasonable asking price?  Naturally the opinions of interested shoppers might be a bit different from those of fokes who are not buying!  OH, and remember that Cabellas and Midway do not ship for free, so shipping must be calculated into the equation also OR would the seller be expected to lose shipping on both the orriginal purchase as well as his selling price?

[jimbobborg]

I've purchased two C&B revolvers that were never shot and were actually a few years old.  Both cost me $150 each.  However, the first one's main spring broke after 20 rounds, and I had no recourse but to buy a new one and have it shipped to me, then fit it.  When buying new, if the same thing happened, I could return it for a functioning revolver.  I would not pay full retail for a pre-owned C&B revolver, especially a Pietta.  And seeing how Cabela's is selling NIB Piettas for $150, then $0.01 shipping, you're not going to get anywhere near what you paid for it unless it's someone you know or you throw in extras.

[Pettifogger]

MSRP is almost completely irrelevant as a starting price since few C&Bs are sold for MSRP.  Used C&Bs usually don't bring anywhere near the percent of original price paid that a used cartridge gun will bring.  The price also depends on the maker.  Currently the market is basically Pietta and Uberti.  I would be cautious in acquiring a Euroarms, Palmetto, ASM or any of the other makers that are now out of business since finding parts can be problematic. 

[Lefty Dude]

Buying a pre-owned C&B is really a crap shoot. Cabela's has the pietta's on sale regularly in either the Colt or Remington style.
Last month I was gifted a CVA 1861 Colt kit, new in the box and never assembled. This was made by ASM for CVA many years ago. The Kit was missing the loading plunger. I found a replacement new Plunger. All CVA/ASM parts were purchased by Deer Valley Products, 765-525-6181.
This piece is now assembled and ready for FUN !

[Major 2]

Probably the best LITMUS TEST in selling a used, lightly used or LNIB C&B revolver is GunBroker

Check the models that closely match your offering, compare starting prices with no reserve and see where they sell.

Look at the ones priced to high...Example : there is Spiller & Burr No reserve and TOO HIGH opening bid.... that has cycled around about 4 or 5 weeks now.

[Slowhand Bob]

Most of these are Ubertis, with only one pair of Piettas BUT none were of the famous $150 kit gun variety or on sale for 50% off for six months only deals.   I do fear that the fact that these were all purchased as the less common speciality style will make pricing them a bit tricky though, it is for a much smaller audience.  I have to write off the guys wanting a new gun in the $150 price range as not being interested in color case steel frame speciality pistols.  I have seen these models on sale BUT not as often and usually at lower mark downs.  Another tactic that I noticed a while back was people apparently buying new cap and ball pistols and selling them out as individual parts on Ebay, seemed to be working profitably for them BUT at some point this has got to be a crap shoot!  I will include a list of the guns and all but one of the Uberti '62s were obtained new and never fired. the one exception was bought used at a gun shop in PA and I know nothing of its history. 
http://home.comcast.net/~gakracker/site/?/page/Guns_for_sale/&PHPSESSID=f4737f754b0d492132a6f8fb8b121de6

[Coffinmaker]

First, there is a common misconception .  There is no such thing as New In Box ( NIB).  In the real world of retail, an item is only "New" once.
After the initial sale, it's used.  It may well be unfired, but it ain't "new." 
Modern made Cap Guns do not necessarily hold their value in relationship to the original retail MSRP.  That has been mentioned before, sorry.
Basically, it's what ever you can get someone to pay for it.

Coffinmaker

[Slowhand Bob]

AH, thus my reason for tip-toeing in my first post, msrp then dealer price, then the normal sale price and finally that percentage I was asking about WHICH IS how much might one be expected to drop?  At the outset I tried to get the word game right by signifying what I had was unfired safe queens which were originally purchased by me.  I know that popular pc speech has taken over the world and we must now rain dance around every name fer a spell before we let it leave our lips!  We just went through a huge rehash of this very subject over on the SASS Wire over guns purchased new, put in a safe unfired  and then taken out of the safe and offered for sell and I think the argument went on for two or more pages.  (then we complain about lawyer talk requiring a book to speak a sentence!!!)  The guns I am keeping are the guns I use and would normally pick to use from one match to another and they are more popular models that I see others using frequently.  The guns I am selling would not have been purchased at a price of $150 from Cabellas in many years.  Some fokes go to Dollar Tree to seek new t-shirts while others seek theirs at a clothing store, Im happy for both but we are talking about two totally different shoppers and two totally different product lines.

Lets see if I can word this a bit different, if you wanted a specific  'new' Uberti cap and ball pistol, how much of a savings would it take to entice you to purchase an unfired, unblemished safe queen in that same model? 

[Cliff Fendley]

Actually Cabellas does ship for free pretty regularly and I always buy something like that with a 20 dollar off 150 purchase.

The last Pietta 1860 Army I bought when they were on sale for 199. I got it for around 189 total cost. We have a Cabellas store here in Kentucky now so I have to pay sales tax.

[Slowhand Bob]

Cliff, we will be facing pretty close to the same thing here after the years over.  For many years Dicks has had Charleston pretty much to themselves BUT earlier in the year several of the big sporting goods/gun stores announced openings for this fall in our area.  Off the top of my head it was Palmetto State Armoury, Academy Sports, Gander Mountain and a small Bass Pro Shops who all noticed us at the same time!  Shame I ran out of room in the safe before the party started BUT I am working to fix that as we speak.

The last pair of Armys I purchased cost me $800 dollars used (and fired to boot!  ) for a pair of Pietta '60 Armies but unlike the ones I am wanting to sell,  these were bought to be main match shooters.  HMMM, come to think of it those short barl Pietta '51 Navies in .44 cal  are costing more now days at Cabellas than I paid for the last cowboy cartridge pistol I purchased!  These are the shiny ones that Coffinman and I bought at about the same time.  They must have been pretty close to Piettas version of a Ford Mustang, a gold mine in the making.  It seems funny that the most expensive, off the shelf cap guns, are the ones that do not sell as well BUT I guess that would be why they cost more, you are looking for the smaller shopping market??  Well lets go work on a new add.