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I have a small collection of Winchester catalogs–around 60 or so with maybe 10 or more pre-1935. I spotted this lot of 5 early catalogs in a Dan Morphy auction around the end of May. I already had 3 of them, but thought if I could get them for a reasonable bid, I could sell off the lessor condition duplicates and keep the two I don’t already have.
I picked up two of the three that I already have on eBay over a two or three year period and found one in a local antique mall. I never paid over $75 each for any and the one I found locally, I got for $25. I signed up for the auction and waited for the listing to come up. I had set my limit at $500 plus premium. That turned out to be a total waste since other bidders on-line seemed to go nuts.
Here’s the final auction price not including the whopping 27% buyer’s premium that one has to pay to Morphy and Live auctioneers.
https://new.liveauctioneers.com/item/52271413_lot-of-5-assorted-winchester-repeating-arms-co
$1500 plus $405 premium is $1905 total. Of course one is not going to find such a lot overnight on eBay and there are a lot of people selling reprints as originals, but nobody ever seems to list them for over $135-$150–even for the really old ones.
Still, doesn’t $1905 seem a bit excessive for five catalogs or am I just a perennial optimistic cheapskate?
I’ll say! That’s $300 a pop before the buyers premium. I think it would take some time but you could probably get those for around the high end of $100-150 buying one at a time on Ebay. For that much money you could buy a copy of the nice bound set that was reprinted in 1992 that covers the catalogs from the 1860s – 1920s or so.
Somebody had some fast back and forth bidding or something going on there.
Sincerely,
Maverick
WACA #8783 - Checkout my Reloading Tool Survey!
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-research-surveys/winchester-reloading-tool-survey/
Wow!!! i have catalogs 77-80 and i didn’t pay nowhere near that!! Although there is a site that has a few pre 1899 catalogs that are $300/piece…..
November 7, 2015
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I wish I knew, Forward Observer. I guess that’s why I get uneasy about collectibles. I know there’s money to be made, I just don’t want them making it off me!
Thank you for your service, my shooting buddy was a B-52 pilot. You likely know some of the same people, may have even interacted at some time.
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