Has Kimber raised their prices beyond the value of their product?

LoL! $1000 for a firearm! The idea is hilarious.

I drive a truck that I paid $1300 for 20 years ago. If I pay $1000 for something, I'd better be able to drive it or live in it!

Other people can spend their money on whatever they want. I don't care. The idea is just funny to me personally.

I traded a Colt for a Kimber . That was a big mistake . Took a real beating when I tried to trade the mistake for another Colt . Another over priced 1911 I feel is a Dan Wesson I bought a CBOB new for 800. Was worth that. But seen none worth the asking price of todays DW 's

The quality of Kimber is moderate at best these days. You couldn't pay me to own one of those jam-o-matics.

I guess I don't really understand the OP.
If the OP doesn't think that Kimbers are worth what they sell for then just don't buy one. There are many price points for different companies. I'm sure he can find a nice 1911 in his price range.

It just sounds like he wants a Kimber but doesn't have the coin so he bashes the selling price. I may be wrong but Kimber seems to be selling every gun they make at their inflated price so I guess that their pricing might be right on. It's like wanting a Lexus with a budget of a Toyota. If it's not worth it to you just buy what you feel is a good bargain for your pocketbook. Millions of people have no issue paying the price for what they feel is a good gun.

If interested, there are some good prices out there. If you just want to complain about Kimber then these ads aren't for you.


http://www.gandermountain.com/modpe...?pdesc=Kimber-Micro-Two-Tone-Handgun&i=959087

http://www.gandermountain.com/modpe...sc=Kimber-Custom-II-Two-Tone-Handgun&i=879083

entropy said:

Has Kimber raised their prices beyond the value of their product?

In my eyes, long ago.

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I basically feel this way, however I also feel they make pretty good guns. Kimber is not the only gun brand that I feel is a tab bit over priced. If I were to spend around $1500 for a 1911 I would probably go for a DW or Springfield TRP. But for under $1000 you could do worse than a Kimber for sure

I shot a few Grand Raptors, Custom CDP's and a Custom Tactical HD.

After that I bought a Springfield TRP. Not 1 failure to feed, or a jam of any kind. Not to mention I think all the fit and finish is better.
I'm happy

To each his own, me, I dont own a Kimber.

I have colts and tried a used kimber custom years ago...made the colts seem kind of junky(commander and gold cup). I have other kimber pistols since. They are not all winners but most are great guns, their rifles are better than expensive customs I have had built for me. I always though colts traded on their name and that they were overpriced for what you got. I have a 4k wilson combat which is fitted together like a swiss watch and it does not shoot any better than most of my "overpriced" kimbers. I guess it depends on what one calls overpriced. lol

Beyond $800 and certainly $1000 those guns suffer from diminishing returns. I am guilty of buying a couple $1000 1911's back when I thought they were the stuff, I also sold some for that that cost me considerably less so I call it even.
Someday they may start making Model T cars again, perhaps multiple manufacturers, they will all look like Model T's but some will be better than others at different times but they will all be overpriced.

I wouldn't even contemplate a $1500 Kimber, so I saved $200 more and got a Les Baer. Ok, so I'm not the type to pull em out of the safe and gush over em. What I need are mac truck reliable accurate shooters.

From my recliner, I would say that Kimber handguns have never been worth the money. They took an existing gun (somebody else's design) and made it pretty and charged a bunch for looks. I have had 3 now, all 3 secondhand guns with very little wear...and they didn't work. Kimber rifles fall kinda into the same category, but at least they work.

X-Rap said:

Beyond $800 and certainly $1000 those guns suffer from diminishing returns.

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I believe this applies to most high end 1911s (been discussed many times over).
Is a Wilson Combat 3x better than a $1000 Kimber, Colt or Springfield? (assume all work as intended)
Is bar stock parts instead of high quality MIM worth 3x more?
Is the finish worth 3x more than that of the mentioned companies?
Is a 2" guarantee worth 3x more than a $1000 1911 at 3"?

Yes, the name gives it value but what about real life use assuming, again, that all are reliable and accurate as intended.
Is the Les Baer worth the price of an entire gun more than a Dan Wesson or is the WC worth 2 guns more than the DW or 1 gun more than
a Les Baer?

Well, many thousands of buyers think that spending $1000 more or $2000 more is nothing when they get what they want.
So, to you, the Kimber may not be worth $1200 or $1500 but to the guy who wants one and buys one, it is worth it. Your reference of the guy
buying his Kimber for $1500 one day and was offered $1000 the next day for the same gun. I guess there is a point there but that is a very normal thing. Ever drive a $30,000 car off the lot and the next day realize it's not for you? Yeah, try losing $6000 for 1 day of driving a new car. It's called life.

I bought a Kimber Royal when I worked at Arizona Sportsman at the Cave Creek store in the late 90's using my employee discount. Back then they were great guns as they were offering custom features on 1911's as being standard from the factory.

Instead of buying a Colt and then having that gun start its life by sending it off to a smith for 6 months to a year and a half to finish it you could just buy a Kimber and shoot immediately.

In the late 90's they were reliable as all hell too. After they changed hands and moved though and they started the slick last page promotional ads at the tail end of every gun magazine and started producing their own catalog to show off their various pistols their reliability seemed to go downhill. Too many models to keep up with and many of them stank and then not enough work was put into the reliability and development of many of those models. Many of them were for defense too as many States were getting on board with Shall Issue permits right then. Many of those smaller new models were not reliable at all.

That one I had kept chugging along though, nothing stopped it. The Royal was a large Govt Model and they'd worked the bugs out of those. I eventually sold it instead of saving up for a custom BHP I wanted, I actually kind of miss it.

But buy a Kimber NOW?

Not a chance.

They were good for the custom 1911 in general though as they introduced the concept of the semi-custom 1911 all ready to go at the store. I paid $550 for mine.

Having dipped my toes into the Kimber pond several times over the years with the best experience being "meh", I'd say that they definitely charge more for the myriad number of guns they produce than what they're actually worth. The biggest problem I've run into with the Kimber 1911s that I've had over the years (Eclipse Target II; Custom Royal II; Desert Warrior; Custom TLE II) is consistency/QC. The only one of the lot to function problem free was the Desert Warrior, but it wasn't without its own set of issues that frankly, I did not have interest in putting the time and money into correcting, so, off it went. Once upon a time, Kimber was a great dollar for dollar 1911, but now, not so much.

Kimber started out building (actually having them built by Chip McCormick) very nice 1911s. They were every bit as good as a Wilson gun at that time (1996). That lasted only a about one year. Then came MASS production with little or no QC. Now they spend far more on marketing and advertising than on QC. There are much better 1911s available in the price range they are asking. They also gave us the old "just keep shooting it until it is broken in" excuse because they were being buried alive in defective guns that would take them years to fix. And incredibly - the masses bought into that absurd reasoning. Most guys actually believe today that a 1911 must be "broken in" and that it's perfectly normal for their new gun to not run AT ALL out of the box. P.T. Barnum was right....... Know what the difference is between a Kimber and a Remington? The price tag mostly..........

When I can buy a Dan Wesson ECO for the same price as a Kimber CDP....I say...give me the DW.

Since I just bought an HK P30 for $500, I would say absolutely! The HK will walk all over that Kimber, even if it is a plastic gun.

Performance being only part of what motivates some.
Most modern handguns walk all over a SAA Colt but people pay thousands for the privilege of calling one their own.

I bought my barely used wilson combat for 1500 less than it sold for originally. Does that mean wilson makes poor for the dollar guns? If you think Kimber rifles are not worth what they cost, try and duplicate the features, the weight, and the accuracy of one by customizing another rifle or having one built. You cannot do it. Most of their pistols are above average 1911's...whether they are worth it is up to the buying public and has been said until they cannot sell them at the prices they charge then they are not overpriced.

Most modern handguns walk all over a SAA Colt but people pay thousands for the privilege of calling one their own.

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HA HA. I remember 25 years ago, I handled a 1500 colt revolver at a legs. I was used to ruger revolvers which were 'loose' compared to my cassull revolver. The colt was sloppy compared to the ruger revolvers. My brother and I started out with colt 1911's and shot a lot. We got real good at tapping in the slide edges to tighten up the sloppy tolerances and custom bending mag lips, and fixing throats so the guns would be accurate and run right. Then I picked up a used kimber custom and realized I had been shooting junk for 10 years. lol

I could never justify $1000+ for an 8 round 45 acp, that's just absurd to me.

I would never pay $800 for an HK either, but at $500.....I'm all over it!

The whole thread is the same boring hate that I was reading in every Kimber thread on every gun forum since 1999, only without the good bits. Nobody even mentioned K6s and Kimber Rust so far. The Internet is getting weak!

13 to 14 years ago, I built three M1911s. I bought what were considered top drawer parts at the time and each gun cost about $1200 in parts. Can't imagine what it would take to duplicate them these days.

So, maybe Kimber prices aren't so bad if you disregard the Special Editions with their fru-fru color schemes.

All three of my Kimbers and my daughter's Micro9 have the reliability of a light switch. Sounds like we are lucky.