Good deal gone bad!!

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bigtubby

bigtubby

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Good deal gone bad!! Pics Added

Well I thought I got lucky today found a excellent condition both mechanically and cosmetically S&W 14-1 Got in a hurry going to look & possibly buy and forgot my screwdriver you can guess the rest of the story get her home pull the non factory grips and it is a factory refinish from April 1978. So looks like I got a nice 14-1 Shooter for $425.00 probably would have bought it anyways but I would have got a better deal!!

I should have known the sideplate joint wasn't looking quite right and the logo stamp looked faint.

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I've been snookered on more than one occasion. Consider it a teaching moment, one you will survive. That won't help you feel better about the deal, maybe my empathy will :)
 
Can you post picture of what you mean? I wouldn't know where to check for a factory refinish.
 
It is stamped in large letters "F S" = Factory Same, meaning factory refinish same finish as original, Blue. so it has the F S and then in smaller numbers a date code in this case 4 78 meaning April of 1978 and yes will post some pics for you tomorrow.
 
Actually, when a S&W revolver is refinished by the factory it takes very little away from the value if anything. It's not like it was a NIB revolver, it obviously has well well used if it needed to be refinished. I don't think you did bad at that price...
 
Actually, when a S&W revolver is refinished by the factory it takes very little away from the value if anything.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. And a refinish done back then was probably very nicely done as they still had the old-school craftsmen there. Well done on a great wheelgun!!!!
 
I probably could have saved $50 on it had I known or maybe the seller would have just sold it to someone else at asking price. After sleeping on it I figure if it is a good shooter which I am sure it will be I did okay. After all the original magna grips are missing so that really hurts any collectibilty as well. It is a nice 4 screw .38 special target gun in good shape with factory bluing with cylinder and barrel all numbered to the gun.
 
bigtubby

I have to agree with everyone else and say you still got a good deal on a great revolver. To me a factory refinish is definitely the best one to have and has obviously held up very well over the years. Enjoy your "like new" Model 14.
 
I picked up a Model 14 a couple of months back. Sweet gun.

My daughter had wandered off to go buy some overpriced pecans at the gun show and came back saying "there is a model 14 over there for $425". It was the end of the show and the vendor was selling it for a buddy who needed the money. I didn't even dicker. (why beat up a guy who is bad enough off that he is selling his guns?)

After an action job by Clark Custom I am into it for $550.

If your gun is anywhere as accurate as mine you will LOVE it. It is somehow connected to your mind. You think where you want the bullet to hit and it does.
 
Sounds more like "Great deal gone good".

Given history, it's only a matter of time till you'll be sayin' something like "... and I only paid $425 for it, a lot of money at the time but still..."

I sure wouldn't have minded paying too much for perceived higher quality on many guns in the past if I could still have them today.
 
I agree with the other posters regarding the effect a factory refinish has on the value of a firearm: very little if any (unless it was refinished after someone like Wyatt Earp owned it :eek:). Of course, it should go without saying that the original finish in the same condition is always preferable.
 
I don't think you got snookered at all. I've seen "original" S&Ws go for much more then that. Plus it was a factory refinish, not some home job.
 
Must had some serious corrosion requiring a lot of buffing. Usually S&W doesn't buff out the logo like that.

First clue might have been the incorrect stocks. When one detail is wrong, I get suspicious there are others.
 
It came with rubber grips I didn't have a pair of diamond magna square butts to put on it. So I kind of new the grips weren't correct I was pretty sure S&W wasn't putting pachs on there guns in 1961. If you would have read the OP a little more carefully I said "pull the non-factory grips"
 
Bigtubby, let me assuage your feelings with this -

A few months ago one of my LGS showed me a very nice Model 48, 6" barrel, box, papers, triple T's. He was asking $700. I pulled out a 10x loupe, and commented that the S&W logo, and barrel roll marks looked a bit soft on the edges. I wasn't positive, but I'd been burned on a refinished Python a couple of years before, so everything gets the 10x loupe treatment. The counter guy and I removed the stocks, and it had been re-blued by S&W in 1980.

Seems that the owner bought the gun, paid the seller $550 for it, and put it in the case without having the gunsmith check it out. He finally sold it for $525.
 
Bigtubby,

That's one sweet example of one of the finest revolvers ever made. Maybe you didn't catch a seller with his pants down, but when I see what Diamondbacks and Pythons go for now and contemplate their relationship to what you have objectively....man you did good.
 
Thanks for the kind words, in retrospect it wasn't a collector in the first place so i got a decent deal on hopefully a great shooter and it wasn't bought to resell so the refinish is pretty much a moot point. I have got no one to blame but myself for not being prepared to properly inspect the gun. As far as I know the seller didn't know it was a refinish either that is my responsibility not the sellers. Lesson learned.
 
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Stainless 14-2

Ironically I ran across a stainless 14-2 6" at a LGS this afternoon, they want $425 for it. It's really beautiful and in fine condition, has a first-class action job. Pachmayer grips. I know the shopkeep real well and mentioned that I'd never seen a model 14 stainless gun, that's when he told me the previous owner had it hard chromed.

If I had no other more pressing use for the $425 I would have left with the gun. Whoever finished it in hard chrome did a first class job.

So, maybe $425 is the going rate for a refinished model 14.
 
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