Red Book of Winchesters vs Blue Book of Gun Values ?|General Discussions & Questions|Forum|Winchester Collector

I will second 1873man’s opinion.  The Red Book is by far the better resource for Winchester information and prices.

Regards,

Dale,

I purposely refrained from answering your question because I am the co-author of the Red Book, and therefore I am somewhat biased in my opinion of the Blue Book. What I will state, is that Larry and I formulated the idea and construction of the Red Book because of very poor information found in the Blue Book (our personal opinion).

What I will tell you, is that the Red Book is 438-pages dedicated solely to Pre-1964 production Winchesters (we do not cover any of the Post-163 or U.S. Repeating Arms Company manufactured Winchester marked firearms). In the Red Book, there are nearly 800 photos showing the reader nearly 100% of all the many different models and cataloged configurations of each model. I included descriptive information and correct serial number ranges for each model in the various chapters. Chapter 8 contains the verified (accurate) date of manufacture tables for all models that have surviving records (from the records at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, CFM).

In regards to the values, they were derived directly from actual sales during the past 2.5-years. Larry and I track the sales prices from all of the major auction houses, and from the 300 small auction companys that occur across the country on nearly a daily basis. It is a time consuming process, but with the aid of a well built (programmed) Excel spreadsheet, the value numbers are now relatively easy to calculate. With the advent of internet sites like Proxibid, Auctionzip, icollector, and all of the many dealers that have their own websites, it is relatively easy to find the current sales figures. The work comes with the scanning through more than 300 auctions per year, and then collating and entering the sales date into the spreadsheet. Larry and I began the Red Book project back in early 2010, published and printed the 1st edition in 2011, revised (improved it) and released the 2nd edition in 2012. We then spent 2-years revising and improving it and released the 3rd edition in November of 2013. The 4th edition was a major revision (the book went from 260-pages to 438-pages) as we added more (and better quality) pictures, and I rewrote and expanded nearly all of the model and variation descriptions. Eventually, I envision the Red Book being “go to” book for most any Winchester related question. Larry & I intend to publish update editions on a 2-3 year cycle as the values do not move enough on a yearly basis to warrant a new edition every year (like the Blue Book does).

Bert

We do ship internationally, but the cost is significantly higher. I shipped a few of the 3rd editions to Australia, but the cost was very close to $50 to ship it.

Bert

Tony,

Holy cow! Amazon is really charging you $88 to ship it??

Bert