Picked up that unissued 1945 Remington Rand 1911. Need help with value

There were some questions concerning the authenticity of the box when I posted about this gun a week ago. I took some hasty pictures at the shop but didn't know what I was looking for at the time to authenticate the box. Now I know a little more and have the box and gun in my hands so I can get a little deeper into the box and the package, and I need to figure out the value of what I've got.

So the box. It was questionable if the box was an Ebay repro. From what i've researched, genuine boxes were all taped shut from the government with paper tape. Sometimes pen was used to mark various things on the top of the boxes. My box did not show tape marks in the pictures I took and so was questioned. Here are better pictures.

Tape marks on the sides and faintly across the top including missing paper from when the tape was removed

And clear tape marks on the bottom of the box that match up with the marks on the sides.

The writing on the top coincides with what I believe to be the original price of the guns, $17.00, the shipping cost of $2.94, and the total price of $19.94.
Man a $20 bill went a long ways back then.



Is this proof? No, but it is pretty solid evidence, especially considering a forger would have likely have made attempts to be more obvious and the tape markings and writing are subtle and easily overlooked. At least that's my thinking

Now the gun. Others have pointed out that the gun has been fired. I'm on the fence about that and of course i'm biased although i'm trying not to be. I do not know if the guns were proof fired at the factory, but I don't see a lot of evidence that the gun was fired, all the gunk I see looks to me like residual cosmoline, including whats in the barrel. I do think the gun entered civilian hands unfired and unissued but I am not convinced it remains unfired.

There is one person on Gunsinternational.com with an identical package of gun and box with mags claiming that their gun is genuinely unfired, showing things like the tip of the firing pin being unmarred and no wear patterns on parts as signs of this. Such claims are accompanied by a very steep premium.
I do think my gun is complete and matching, and in very high condition. I do not think it has been refinished.









So going by what i'm seeing online with completed auctions and asking prices, I think I'm somewhere between $2k and $10k. I think with an authentic box, no mags, and assuming the guns been fired but very little, maybe $5k? What do you all think? If its truly a high dollar item that would be good and kind of sad, as I'd have to sell and reinvest the money as we are saving up for a house on land and it would be nice to knock down a chunk of that downpayment. Would it be fraudulent to hunt down 2 Scovill magazines to complete the package, and would the money gained be worth the $300 or so the 2 Scovill mags cost?

Also, now i'm a little worried since I live in an area that is humid, its hard to keep guns completely rust free, and I cannot have this gun rusting or fading in any way, so my first instinct is to field strip it and slather it in RIGG, and store it the box and the gun separate from one another so the gun doesn't grease up the box. How would you store this gun?

Thanks to those who have more experience with these higher dollar firearms, I'm not afraid to admit i'm out of my league.

Some pictures of the insides. Cosmoline? Powder residue? Should I clean it up with a toothbrush and get the bore shiny, or is that considered fraudulent if my intention is to find out if the gun is truly unfired?

Welp, after a bit more research, and speaking with a few highly knowledgeable collectors, this gun and box have been authenticated as being genuine.
It truly is one of the last remaining examples of a ww2 era 1911A1 as it came off of the assembly line.
I did indeed hit the lottery on this one, as in its current condition it is worth multiples of what I paid and is a piece of history.
This has been a lot of fun to research.

Madcap_Magician said:

At a guess it's a DCM gun, apparently quite a number of those were sold nearly new in the box, which is about the only place you'd see the box unmolested. A great-condition, matching R-R could bring $2,000, plus whatever the box is worth. Those are uncommon enough I couldn't say. The box but missing magazine is a bit a mystery.

You won't get full price unless you take better pictures and learn to tell everything apart. I myself just took a gamble on a GunBroker Colt 1911A1 with poor-ish pictures that probably would have sold for another $1,500 over what I paid off the seller had known how to take good pictures and what serious WW2 collectors were looking to see in them.

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These aren't unobtanium, but they only rarely come on the market and usually collect a pretty steep premium when they do.


Things being what they are these days, even arsenal refinished CMP guns are going for over $3k if the parts are original and the refinish is in good shape. 99% original finish, all original parts wartime guns are a whole different story.



With the interest over CMP guns and the ridiculous prices they command at auction when people resell them, I wouldn't be surprised if these guns today would bring significantly more than three to five years ago when these auctions took place.

AlexanderA said:

I would agree with this assessment. I think the likely price you could get out of this is close to $2,500, not $5,000.

I notice that it has the typical "idiot mark" (scratch) below the slide stop. Someone has tried to hide it with cold blue.

I have an almost identical Remington Rand, and the hammer is indeed darker than the slide.

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Thank you for your opinion.

One of the experts in the field, Scott Gahimer has weighed in on this pistol. According to his assesment, this pistol is correct, genuine, and unmolested since leaving the factory. The box is genuine.
There is no cold blue on the gun.

Its the real deal and no, lol, its not a "$2500 gun" when arsenal rebuilt RR's are going for $3k.
https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/1042/6479/us-world-war-ii-remingtonrand-model-1911a1-pistol

AlexanderA said:

I didn't say it was a $2,500 gun. I said that "the likely price you could get out of this is close to $2,500." That assumes that there are selling expenses, such as the hefty cut for the auction houses. The fallacy here is that the retail value is what the seller would get. There is usually a substantial difference.

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Well, it's up to any seller to decide what they are willing to accept and how much effort they are willing to put in to get that price.
I have no doubt that if I wanted to accept half the value of my gun, it would be a quick sell with little effort involved.