Can anyone date this ad?

e rex said:

late '50s early '60s. I remember those prices well and I didn't have the extra money then either.

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I think that is a good time range. In 1970 I bought a Volkswagen. The Bug cost $1800 dollars. I bought the Karmen Gha model for $2300. Yes it was red. A decade ado introduced the modern bug. It cost $17,000. That was near 10x the 197o price. So considering today’s prices for advanced models of the advertised guns I think 50’s to 60’s is a good bet.

I was born in '61, but still remember mowing yards and BEGGING parents to let me buy any one of the surplus rifles advertised in the Sears & Roebuck catalogue. Dad would just say, "those are all a bunch of junk!"

They bought me a Mossberg, bolt-action .410 when I turned 10. Still have it.

I remember those ads ... My Dad and one of his friends each ordered a WWII Walther P-38's and 500 rounds of ammo . I lobbied hard for the P-08 Luger but Dad and Mr. Green both were adamant that the P-38 was the better pistol... I tried my best but no P-08 Luger !
It was 1961 and the mailman leaves a big box containing two Walther P-38 handguns and 1,000 rounnds of ammo with a twelve year old boy sitting on the front steps of his house . I waited there every afternoon untill the order arrived . I don't even remembering signing for the box or anything ! Those were some good times !
I started reloading for Dads P-38 with a Lee Loader (Whack-A-Mole was $9.99) a couple years later .
Gary

So thankful our glorious goobermint put an end to those deadly unregulated sales.
Imagine what society would be like now, had those rampant mass shootings and school attacks not been stopped with their common sense legislation.

My first new car was a Chevy Suburban (bet not many can say that ever!). We paid $3,300.00 for it in 1974 and we bought three more over the years, the last one being in 1996. You can easily pay less for a modest house today than you will for a new Suburban-and guess which of the two by definition appreciates in value and which depreciates in value over time?

In 1960 I bought a 1917 Eddystone from Kleins Sporting Goods of Chicago. Paid less than $25.00. It came in the mail to our post office, like to never got the cosmoline (spelling) washed out of it.

My lee -enfield No 1 mark 3* cost $ 9.99 delivered in 1959. Bought from Ye olde Hunter, and it was COD. Paid the UPS driver. I was a college freshman.

I'm looking at a January 1960 issue of American Rifleman and it has colt model 1917 revolvers priced at $29.95 from Gart Bros. Condition is unspecified. Hudson Sporting goods is selling them in Good condition for 24.95 and in VG condition for $29.95. Hunter's Lodge/ye old hunter has a couple adds for rifles only but lists their address as 200 s. Un ion st Alexandria Virginia.

These old ads are amazing. I picked up a 1963 shooter's bible at a antique store a few years ago for a couple of dollars I look at sometimes.

Around 1962 was when I started collecting guns (I remember paying $10 for a Carcano and $12 for an Australian SMLE). The prices in those ads seem low to us now, but they weren't so low when you didn't have the money!

Somewhere around 12-13 years ago you could get a decent Mosin Nagant for $79-99. Back in around 2007 a shop in my area was selling Argentine Mausers for $129

I used to sit in high school study hall and read old issues of American Rifleman, they had adds like that.

I ordered one gun every other week in '61 and '62 while working at a grocery store for $1.17/hour in high school.. Going off to college I had a pile of Hunters Lodge guns. All went away to pay tuition and I was so proud to have made 100-200% on each. Now, that 7mm rolling block with bayonet would be worth over a grand, compared to the $15 or so I paid for it. Fun times.

1964 Savage 99F 308 from EJ Korvette $115.00 Victor Sarasquata double barrel $152.00 Still have the D/B

WestKentucky said:

One of these days I will have a room with a nice leather sitting chair, a reloading bench, a lathe, a mill, a gunsmithing bench, fly tying bench, casting area complete with high powered suction hood, all surrounded by vintage ads for the things that I love so dearly. And if I can ever make it happen, a nice but not perfect 62 Apache in the garage (really nice driver, not a garage queen) with ads for that truck around it as well. Gun rack in the window with my Stevens 16ga side by side and a Savage 99 in 250-3000 hanging in the hooks. Victory model 38-200 in the glove box. Fly rod and accoutrements in the bed of the truck.

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Wow! Other than that I’d prefer a 58-59 Apache, and a second garage stall with a vette of the same years, that sounds like my dream!!! And listen to Jack Benny and Johnny Dollar all the time.

According to this Inflation Calculator (https://www.in2013dollars.com), $39.95 in 1963 dollars is equivalent to $370.41 today. I'd happily pay that for a Luger today.

e rex said:

cosmoline (spelling)

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Correct.

I recently sold a pretty worn and mismatched Luger for about $850. It still had the receipt $39.99 or $44.99 I forget which. Dated 1963.

If the original owner had the luck to get a matching example it would have been more like $1700.

Jonesy814 said:

Somewhere around 12-13 years ago you could get a decent Mosin Nagant for $79-99.

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Yep I picked up some then. But in '58 I was 3 so I didn't buy many guns. Couldn't read yet!

Got a kick out of the ad for the Enfields, since that's one of the milsurps I'm on the lookout for right now. One of those $24.95 sniper rifles was going for $1100+ ....

On the second page for the Mark V Enfield it says "again in 59" so... my guess is 1959.