Value of old primers?

[GaryL]

So, I have an opportunity to purchase some Herter's primers from a guy I know who is selling off his reloading stuff. Actually, I think most of it is long gone, he just called and told me he found several bricks and asked if I'm interested. Of course!

Sounds like he has SP, LP, and SR.

So, any thoughts from the gang on a fair price for 35 to 40+ yr old primers?

 

[jwrowland77]

The old primers I found, I loaded them up and shot them. LOL

 

[jcwit]

Collectors value? Doubtful!

I buy them and use them, or are they corrosive?

 

[ColtPythonElite]

$15 per k would have him making money and be a deal for you.

 

[GaryL]

Collectors value? Doubtful!

I buy them and use them, or are they corrosive?

No reason to collect Herter's primers. That's like comparing an old Sears 22 rifle made by Western Field to an old Winchester 22.

I don't think there were any corrosive primers for reloading made after 1960. I want to say that changed in the late '40s, early '50s, but I defer to the older and wiser among us regarding that. These are probably late '60s into the '70s.

$15 per k would have him making money and be a deal for you.

Thank you. I was just looking for ideas so I could say I checked online to see what they might be worth.

I want to be fair, and get a good deal. I've had the guy offer me 40 yr old premium rifle bullets at current market value, and I just said no. Told him I could use most of the box working up a load, have a few worth shooting, and then have to start over with something else since those are no longer being made. I could value them for blasting ammo, but that's about it. I think he eventually sold them for about what they were worth.

 

[FROGO207]

There is a local gun store in a city nearby. The first (and ONLY) time I went there my eyes almost bugged out of my head. It was positively jammed full of used firearms, old boxes of bullets, part cans of propellant, ---you know the drill. I selected a pile of reloading stuff and took it to the counter and asked "how much". He gets out a set of scales and weighs the partly full propellant cans, gets onto the internet finds a price and calculates it out to be more than a full can of new at a more local gun store! Then he starts to count out the bullets in a partial box to do the same with them. I stopped him then and said that I could not afford to pay those prices and offered to put them back where I found them. He got really angry and told me to just leave the store. Someday his heirs are going to have a heck of an estate sale as long as they weren't taught how to price by him.:banghead: I wonder how he actually makes a living??

So 15 dollars a K would be a really fair price I would think also. I think that they were actually made by CCI and packaged with the Hearters name.

 

[jcwit]

Hey, that's only capitalism at work! Or that's what some claim.

Don't blame you at all, I'd have walked too.

 

[243winxb]

Old Primers

1/2 of current retail is a fair price. After all, they are old. If there is a problem with them its your loss. It takes a lot to ruin a primer, so not likely. These were free to me.

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[GaryL]

So 15 dollars a K would be a really fair price I would think also. I think that they were actually made by CCI and packaged with the Hearters name.

Thanks! Good to know. I had no idea who might have supplied them.

This is an older guy, and he can be kind of funny about stuff. One time a few years back he sold me a 4 lb tin of Green Dot for $30, about half of new. Another time he wanted $200 for a 15 lb tin of Red Dot that had "some used out of it". I didn't see that one, and can't be sure it was really a 15lb tin, but I do know both were tins from the early '70s when he used to shoot a lot of shotgun. I passed on the Red Dot.

 

[d'Artagnan]

Primer collector here. Herter's primers are collectable. Usually marked "Made in Japan". I pay $25/1000 usually for collector primers and would do so for the Herter's primers. By the way, Remington went over to non-corrosive, non-mercuric primers in 1926 and Winchester by 1928. As for the date on the pictured Federal primers...August 1st, 1958. I recently bought some Federal SP primers dated January 22nd, 1958. A sampling of them showed all went bang. By the way, the wooden trays (like in the pictured Federal primers) are a hoot and get alot of attention. Even empty boxes with the wooden tray have value.

 

[GaryL]

Well, ended up buying a couple boxes of SP & LP. Wasn't even going to do that....

When we last talked, he was "selling them for a great price". Should have known better. I stop by today after work, and he wanted $40 a box. I said I wasn't going over half of new, so thanks but no. I swear, he was trained by a used car salesman. He starts in on the haggling:

didn't you pay $35 for your last box - nope, never paid more than $25, and that was several years back

you didn't buy any at that last show we went to - nope

you can't find them anywhere these days - I pull out my phone, Google Cabela's, SP in stock, $35

well, I have another guy interested - oh good, glad to hear it, he'll probably buy some of them

etc - there was quite a bit more, but that gives an idea.

Understand, he's a friend and I like him, but sometimes he acts like people are trying to screw him left & right, and yet he doesn't give up until he has your cash in his hand. In the end he says "so you'd pay $20 a box?" "I'd take a couple boxes at that price". He had a couple more that I would have taken, if he had been asking $15, but that's only because I know a couple guys I'd be willing to sell them to for the same price, but I'd be reluctant to ask for more, and I wasn't going to buy any when he insisted on $40.

 

[Comrade Mike]

interesting boxes, if you're just going to throw them out I could throw a couple bucks your way. I have a shelf they'd look great on

 

[GaryL]

interesting boxes, if you're just going to throw them out I could throw a couple bucks your way. I have a shelf they'd look great on

Remind me nicely sometime after Christmas and I may have a couple empty 100 rnd packs I can send you. They are interesting enough to not toss out, but I don't need them all.

 

[mtrmn]

$15 per k would have him making money and be a deal for you.

This.
I'm sure the primers will be useable as long as they were stored somewhat reasonably.

I'm a nostalgist as well when it comes to Herter's, they were the poor man's Abercrombie & Fitch. ( Yes, A&F at one time was a respectable business--they were the one of the biggest outdoor outfitters in the world. Not so much now for whoever bought the name.) I spent money on ebay recently buying some of the old Herter's catalogs like I used to get as a teenager.

 

[Garyshome]

I collect primers for a very short time. But I always need to collect more for some odd reason.

 

[orionengnr]

I did not get the impression the OP was talking about buying these as a collectible, but as a usable component.

As far as value as a reloading component, some others hit it right on the head, and the OP's final post reinforces that notion.