How much *DID* Walking Dead contribute to Pythons collectors premium?
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CajunBass
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When I went to buy my first handgun about 1978...79 or so, I had it narrowed down to one of two. A Colt Python, or a Smith and Wesson Model 19. It didn't take long for me to realize that a Python was almost twice as expensive as the Model 19. I became a "Smith and Wesson guy" that day.
Many years later, and I did get a Python. I kept it a while and really liked it, but I really didn't think it was THAT much better than most any other 357 revolver. It looked better but I couldn't really say it shot a lot if any better. After all. It was still me shooting it and I've always been the weak link. Still I hated to sell it when I lost my job later. By then the prices were already starting to head for the stratosphere, and that was long before the Walking Dead. I figured I'd never get another one.
Last year I had discovered online streaming TV and I had binge watched something like ten seasons of TWD. I liked the idea that Rick carried a Python, but it sure didn't make me want one anymore. I already wanted one and had for years.
So when Colt reintroduced the Python the first of the year I was probably one of, if not the first person to buy one from my LGS. I've probably fired it more than I have any single, non-rimfire gun I've owned already. I really do enjoy it more than any other gun I've ever owned, including that old Python I had.
But, when the Zombies come, it won't be the Python that comes out of the safe. It'll be an AR-15, and an SD9VE. I don't want to get Zombie goo all over my good guns.
Many years later, and I did get a Python. I kept it a while and really liked it, but I really didn't think it was THAT much better than most any other 357 revolver. It looked better but I couldn't really say it shot a lot if any better. After all. It was still me shooting it and I've always been the weak link. Still I hated to sell it when I lost my job later. By then the prices were already starting to head for the stratosphere, and that was long before the Walking Dead. I figured I'd never get another one.
Last year I had discovered online streaming TV and I had binge watched something like ten seasons of TWD. I liked the idea that Rick carried a Python, but it sure didn't make me want one anymore. I already wanted one and had for years.
So when Colt reintroduced the Python the first of the year I was probably one of, if not the first person to buy one from my LGS. I've probably fired it more than I have any single, non-rimfire gun I've owned already. I really do enjoy it more than any other gun I've ever owned, including that old Python I had.
But, when the Zombies come, it won't be the Python that comes out of the safe. It'll be an AR-15, and an SD9VE. I don't want to get Zombie goo all over my good guns.
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Heir Kommt Die Sonne
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Well as some of you pointed out, the show was probably was acquainted the Python to the younger populace. I'm young myself, so that's probably why I didn't hear much of the Python prior to 2011/2012. I knew of the Python, but didn't know or think it was so special.
As for my dad, he knew someone who had a Python in the day but he himself isn't a big revolver guy (though that's started to change in recent years). He told us a story that back in the early/mid 90s , he was going to buy a 'Colt .357' that he wanted but ended up going to a different gun store and bought a 1911 instead. Since then he's been a semi-auto guy.
I guess it depends on how big you were in the gun culture back in the day to really realize how big an impact the Python had. If you were just a guy who had several semi-autos (like my dad) you probably didn't think much about the Python, and it was the TWD that re-acquainted such people with the revolver (as it has for my dad and other people of my family)
Me personally, I don't think the show had much of a big impact bump on the sales price of the Python, as others have pointed out, it was already on stead collectors increase for a while. The Anaconda is still the same price though. That's on my "might get someday list".
As for my dad, he knew someone who had a Python in the day but he himself isn't a big revolver guy (though that's started to change in recent years). He told us a story that back in the early/mid 90s , he was going to buy a 'Colt .357' that he wanted but ended up going to a different gun store and bought a 1911 instead. Since then he's been a semi-auto guy.
I guess it depends on how big you were in the gun culture back in the day to really realize how big an impact the Python had. If you were just a guy who had several semi-autos (like my dad) you probably didn't think much about the Python, and it was the TWD that re-acquainted such people with the revolver (as it has for my dad and other people of my family)
Me personally, I don't think the show had much of a big impact bump on the sales price of the Python, as others have pointed out, it was already on stead collectors increase for a while. The Anaconda is still the same price though. That's on my "might get someday list".
scaatylobo
Member
I doubt many here are old enough to remember the TV show " Starcky & Hutch ".
But one carried a semi auto and the other = Colt Python..
The local gun shop had many come in asking for "His Gun" not even by name as they did not know what it was.
I carried my S&W 581 [ L frame .357 ] and that was as an LEO.
Beat a close friend at a shooting session at 25 yards,he had a Python,and my gun costs a GREAT deal less.
Owned a Diamond back,and sorry I sold it.
Could have gotten a really big payoff now.
Pythons are real pretty.s'all I can say about um.
Speedo66
Member
They stopped making a desirable gun, prices went up. Supply and demand, not surprising.
I don’t think the show had very much to do with that.
I don’t think the show had very much to do with that.
Zaydok Allen
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I really don't believe that show contributed to the collectability much at all.
CajunBass
Member
I just thought of this.
Colt stopped making the Python long before The Walking Dead was even an idea.
Now, look at how many you see at shows and in stores, that have been stashed away for years, in, if not unfired condition, at least very near unfired condition. They're stashed away with box, papers, receipts...everything they came with. People didn't do that hoping a TV show would come along and make them collectable. They were collectable while they were still being made. They've been bringing high prices all along.
Colt stopped making the Python long before The Walking Dead was even an idea.
Now, look at how many you see at shows and in stores, that have been stashed away for years, in, if not unfired condition, at least very near unfired condition. They're stashed away with box, papers, receipts...everything they came with. People didn't do that hoping a TV show would come along and make them collectable. They were collectable while they were still being made. They've been bringing high prices all along.
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Heir Kommt Die Sonne
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Man, that'd be so magical to encounter a original Python in that condition... or any original Colt revolver for that matter.
Makes me wonder if I should shoot my Colt Night Cobra when/if I get one.
CajunBass
Member
I hesitated overnight between picking up my 2019 Cobra and later my 2020 Python, before heading to the range.
I doubt it had much impact on the premium pricing as they were already a bit tough to come by. I would say the probably elevated the knowledge of the existence of the snake gun to the portion of the population. Even still, most folks would be willing to commit a couple hundred bucks for a crossbow to Cosplay as Darryl over a grand for a Python.
I have often wondered just why and how a cop from a small, rural Kentucky town would be issued a Python
I was a pretty avid fan of the show for the first 4 or 5 years. I still think the most realistic scene in the whole series was during the pilot when Rick crawls into an armored vehicle and gets attacked by a zombie forcing him to shoot it. Touching off a .357 inside a tank concussed and seemed to ring his bell a bit. It was a nice touch, but in reality he should have spent the next 7 or 8 seasons saying "WHAAAAT?!!" anytime someone talked to him
.357s are outside toys, boys and girls.
I have often wondered just why and how a cop from a small, rural Kentucky town would be issued a Python
I was a pretty avid fan of the show for the first 4 or 5 years. I still think the most realistic scene in the whole series was during the pilot when Rick crawls into an armored vehicle and gets attacked by a zombie forcing him to shoot it. Touching off a .357 inside a tank concussed and seemed to ring his bell a bit. It was a nice touch, but in reality he should have spent the next 7 or 8 seasons saying "WHAAAAT?!!" anytime someone talked to him.357s are outside toys, boys and girls.
Blue Brick
Member
Yes, the hipsters wanted Rick's gun. They wanted it just because and since they dont mind spending $900 per year on a phone, Python prices were just a drop in the bucket to look cool. Same goes with VW Bugs and Ford F100's.
Pat Riot
Contributing Member
I have heard about the Colt Python since I was a kid. I did think it was pretty cool that Rick had one on TWD, but I doubt that his use of one increased interest much. I have a feeling if I showed a nickel plated Colt Python and a Smith & Wesson 686 to the typical TWD fan they wouldn’t know which one was the gun Rick carried.
AustinTX
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The more desirable variants and vintages of the Python were already valued well above the Anaconda before the show was even released. As to rarity, that’s far from the only thing that matters for value.
The original Python is an iconic revolver with a long and storied history, and, while it certainly isn’t without its design shortcomings, it is easily the most refined postwar American DA wheelgun (excluding most of the ones made from the 1980s onward, in my opinion). The Anaconda is not related to the Python in any significant way other than by being a Colt. It's just an acromegalic old model King Cobra, with the same Rugeresque (or lower) levels of refinement as the other Colt wheelguns introduced in the 1980s and 1990s, and with no significant history. In place of the Python’s hand-fitted V-spring action, with the fabled “bank vault lockup” brought about by its impinging double-headed hand, the Anaconda sports a scaled-up version of the King Cobra's clunky, parts-bin-fit Mark V action. No tapered bore on the Anaconda. Quality of metalwork and overall attention to detail are just galaxies apart on the two models. And so on.
Admittedly, hardcore Colt collectors are infamous for paying obscene sums for various special-edition 1980s and 1990s mediocrities like the Boa (Mark V with a Python barrel and Royal Blue finish), the Kodiak (Magnaported Anaconda with a non-fluted cylinder), and the Grizzly (King Cobra with a Magnaported Python barrel and a non-fluted cylinder). But tens of thousands of regular Anacondas were produced during the model's production run. Even though far more Pythons were produced during its original 50-year production run, there just isn't the scarcity there with the Anaconda that would be necessary to push prices past those of the far more revered, coveted, and historically significant flagship Colt DA revolver.
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AZAndy
Member
I really have to question the mental acuity of the writers of that show. A Python!? For zombies? That's ridiculous. Around here, we just use .38 Special. .32ACP is a little light, but .32 Long would be okay if it were loaded hot. Gasoline and a match works well too, but it annoys the fire department.
OP
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Heir Kommt Die Sonne
Member
Good point about the .38 sepcial… that'd be my pick in a revolver if I was shooting a bunch of zombies.
Guess by now the thread is satisfied. But I'll just entertain what I'd carry in a zombie apocalypse. In all honesty, a 9mm semi-auto. Like maybe a Glock, 17 or 19. I'd choose a CZ-75 but mags for those probably not gonna be too common. As for rifle, definitely a AK, SKS or America's AR-15 in .223. Obviously what this is going towards is picking what is just downright the most common weapons you'll encounter equipment and ammunition for. If the cartridge is sufficient to penetrate a zombies skull, the next big question is how often will my supply of said ammunition be refueled? But this is going towards a need for another thread.
Trunk Monkey
member
Honestly I don't think I've ever seen a complete episode. If I remember I didn't sound cable and I don't have cable. They were showing reruns on some antenna channel one day and I watched about 5 minutes and it was just boring. I never made any attempt to watch it again.
I saw the scene were the two guys got beat to death with a baseball bat on YouTube
Charlie98
Member
Since this subject involves TV popularity, I submit the original Python TV/Movie insert was Magnum Force. I would rather think that, than some stupid zombie show like TWD.
mcb
Member
There is little doubt that The Walking Dead affected interest in the Colt Python to at least some degree.
Quick graph I made using Google Trends data that tracks how often particular search terms are used. I plotted the search terms [Colt Python] (blue) and [Walking Dead] (red) As you can see there is a noticeable correlation (not necessarily a causation that would take a bit more effort to show) between the rise of Walking Dead searches and an increase in searches for Colt Python. There is a noticeable spike in searches for both terms with each new season of The Walking Dead. Also notice that these modest increases in interest in the Colt Python are relatively small compared to the huge spike in searches at the first of the year with the re-introduction of the Colt Python 2020. -rambling
Quick graph I made using Google Trends data that tracks how often particular search terms are used. I plotted the search terms [Colt Python] (blue) and [Walking Dead] (red) As you can see there is a noticeable correlation (not necessarily a causation that would take a bit more effort to show) between the rise of Walking Dead searches and an increase in searches for Colt Python. There is a noticeable spike in searches for both terms with each new season of The Walking Dead. Also notice that these modest increases in interest in the Colt Python are relatively small compared to the huge spike in searches at the first of the year with the re-introduction of the Colt Python 2020. -rambling
ontarget
Member
Ok now, did we all forget about Dirty Harry and the Model 29. How many of those sold just because of a movie?
Again pop culture DOES effect people's buying decisions.
Again pop culture DOES effect people's buying decisions.
mcb
Member
Right, Rambo and the silly survival knife with a compass in the handle-cap.
FlSwampRat
Member
And thus the importance of and willingness of companies to pay for product placement. Not sure how many PPK's James Bond sold but the movies sold a lot of watches and cars.
FlSwampRat
Member
People who are buying Pythons because of a television show inspired by a comic book aren't particularly interested in the innards of a Python nor it's 'fabled bank vault lockup'”. For them it's the look and mystique and the Anaconda looks like a Python on steroids. As I have both revolvers I certainly know the Anaconda doesn't approach the Python in quality, although it's a good, dependable wheel gun.
A current check of Gunwatcher shows that 6 Anaconda sales tracked 3 years ago were all above $1,800.
https://gunwatcher.com/colt-anaconda-for-sale-in-stock/guns-best-price-link
CajunBass
Member
I have often wondered just why and how a cop from a small, rural Kentucky town would be issued a Python
.357s are outside toys, boys and girls.
I always figured his Python was a personally owned weapon. Not all that unusual, especially in small, rural departments.
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