which books?
- Thread starter agshooter
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rcmodel
Member in memoriam
http://bluebookofgunvalues.com/Products/Product_Detail.aspx?id=455
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gun-traders-guide-stephen-d-carpenteri/1102269533
Getting more specific then that brances off into collectors books covering specific manufactures.
Like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-Smith-Wesson-Supica/dp/0873492722
http://www.amazon.com/The-Winchester-Book-George-Madis/dp/0910156034
http://www.amazon.com/Marlin-Firearms-History-Guns-Company/dp/0811708772
Without knowing what type of guns your interest lies in, I can't recoommend anything beyound the first two traders guides.
rc
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gun-traders-guide-stephen-d-carpenteri/1102269533
Getting more specific then that brances off into collectors books covering specific manufactures.
Like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Standard-Catalog-Smith-Wesson-Supica/dp/0873492722
http://www.amazon.com/The-Winchester-Book-George-Madis/dp/0910156034
http://www.amazon.com/Marlin-Firearms-History-Guns-Company/dp/0811708772
Without knowing what type of guns your interest lies in, I can't recoommend anything beyound the first two traders guides.
rc
The last 20 years have seen a huge increase in the number and quality of the gun books available. Even the general books have improved (some not so much) and the books that concentrate on one manufacturer or even one model have become far more detailed than anything seen before. It is hard for a "newbie" to judge whether a book is any good, that comes with experience. Some will do nothing more than repeat warmed over nonsense taken from other books of warmed over nonsense. Others will have the results of original research that will enlighten anyone interested.
Price is a good guide, though not a perfect one. Good research costs money. It costs money for a writer from, say, California, to travel to Washington to work in the National Archives for weeks, so his book will probably not sell for $2.95. Expensive books might disappoint - cheap ones always will.
As the beginner learns, he will begin to see things in books that he knows are not true. That is the beginning of true learning.
Jim
Price is a good guide, though not a perfect one. Good research costs money. It costs money for a writer from, say, California, to travel to Washington to work in the National Archives for weeks, so his book will probably not sell for $2.95. Expensive books might disappoint - cheap ones always will.
As the beginner learns, he will begin to see things in books that he knows are not true. That is the beginning of true learning.
Jim
For value guides (and let me emphasize "guides") the Blue Book for modern and some antique guns and Flayderman's for Amerian antique guns are the best. The latter is rarely up to date, because it comes out only every couple of years.
Specialist books rarely pay off for the beginner. Sure, you can pay $300 for the three-volume set of Pistole Parabellum by Goertz and Sturgess, but unless you collect or deal in Lugers, the cost is not really worth it.
For the real newbie, something like Dudley Pope's "coffee table" book, Guns, presents the whole picture, from matchlock to magnums in a readable format.
Jim
Specialist books rarely pay off for the beginner. Sure, you can pay $300 for the three-volume set of Pistole Parabellum by Goertz and Sturgess, but unless you collect or deal in Lugers, the cost is not really worth it.
For the real newbie, something like Dudley Pope's "coffee table" book, Guns, presents the whole picture, from matchlock to magnums in a readable format.
Jim
agshooter, I am not dunning books. I own a number of them. For values I suggest you get familiar with the on-line auction sites particularly Gunbroker. Using sales history of the past 90 days is a very useful tool in setting values which are often very subjective. Other than that actual bids with respect to ongoing auctions. What people do with ridiculous starting numbers and undisclosed reserves are often ludicrous.
As a collector (enthusiast?) of some 30+years, I confess to buying more than a few educations along the way. There is much information out there and the market is now much more national in scope.
Good luck,
W.
As a collector (enthusiast?) of some 30+years, I confess to buying more than a few educations along the way. There is much information out there and the market is now much more national in scope.
Good luck,
W.
The problem with just looking at auction prices is that they mean nothing unless you really know what is involved. For example, one gun might be offered at $1000 and another seemingly identical one at $5,000. One could be a bargain and the other a ripoff, but only an expert can tell which is which.
Jim
Jim
Browning Guy
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One book I recommend is "John M Browning American Gunsmith" By his son John Browning and Curt Gentry. It doesn't give gun values but tells the life of JMB and his inventions. The second half lists and pictures all the guns he invented, but not necessarily in his own name. Its like one writer said if Brownings name went on all his inventions he would be more well known than Henry Ford.
I have continued to buy the Gun Digest every year, but for the past couple of years they have been disappointing, with very little of real interest, at least to me, and a bunch of articles about "How Dad and I went hunting" and similar stories. I miss John Amber.
Jim
Jim
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