doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Ultimate Winchester 21 collection, up for grabs...

If I had that kind of money I probably would have purchased something different but sounds like to me he is in a different league$$$$ than most on this site.It's probably front pocket money.. I would be willing to bet he won't loose one minutes sleep if they sell for half.
I have a friend that purchased a 21 not sure what grade but not a field grade and ported it and put choke tubes....probably lost 1/2 the value but it was what he wanted....and he has the money to get what ever he wants.
I hate being poor.

Daryl is correct. Some folks invest big bucks in stock certificates & bonds. This gentleman chose to invest in something beautiful to look at with the realisation that the value would probably increase. JMHO.....George

From 1972-1975 the Grand American price increased over 50% of the 1972 price of $3850. Not a bad three year investment. Shortly after that Gun Digest lists the price of the Model 21 as POR from the Winchester Custom Shop. Let's see what they bring at Julia's, but I would think the guns purchased through the years, still new in the boxes, will show to be fine investments.

Gamblers and investors believe (usually) that one can predict the future.
I have not found anyone who can predict the future.
So, all one can do is to use as much information as one can gather and throw the dice.
But it is inevitable that when such a large collection is being put on the market as individual sales that the price will be less than optimum because there is just not that much money on the maket to absorb it all.
That is the reason that the market has brokers affixed to stocks and bonds to assure liquidity. If you want to sell a stock and there is no buyer, the broker steps in and purchases until a buyer is found.
In this case, there is no one to step in and if a true auction, the market fixes the price.
There is not a big market for Custom Shop Winchester 21's because of the price.
CSMC somewhat fixes the base price because that is an actual cost of making a Model 21 today. Collectors who just have to have a Winchester Custom Shop Model 21 will usually pay more for that attribute.
But how many collectors are in the market?
The dealers have deeper pockets and if a gun is underpriced and they can turn a profit, they will purchase but how many dealers have the resources to purchase that many Custom Shop guns. I don't know of any except maybe CSMC, maybe.
My guess is that the dealers collectively will keep the prices high enough that thier won't be any fire sales and/or that there will be reserves on the guns.
If your in the market for a Custom Shop 21, then this is one auction you don't want to miss.
But the prices may be too high if a collective frenzy occurs in the market as has recently happened in the vintage car market.
The fun part is that "we will see".-Dick

I don't know about this particular situation but from an economics point any time a great deal of specific item hits the market at once it tends to depress prices.
This is just college Economics 101 supply and demand. The pricing also uses the assumption of elasticity in demand. In this case price depression will be a factor of how elastic the demand is for Winchester Models 21s?
Since they certainly aren't in the "commodity" category and they aren't great numbers available to start with I would expect minimal price softening in this case.
I guess time as always will tell.
I guess a parallel would be if a 100 63 to 67 Corvettes hit the market at the same time. I seriously if this would depress the market for them to any great degree.
Jim

It's my understanding the collection is to be sold as a whole; not broken up as individual guns which is why it hasn't sold previously. I would bet they will eventually be broken up, perhaps into 2 or 3 gun sets.
20 years ago, there was a collection for sale of pre-1960 standard grade 21's that were unfired in their original boxes...they didn't last long.
As to why someone would have such a collection of custom ordered high grade guns and never fire them.....why the hell do people collect stamps they never lick and stick on an envelope?

GaryW, this if from the Julia teaser ads for the auction.

The collection will be sold, as individual guns, in its entirety as part of Julia�s October 7-9, 2014 Firearms Auction and represent the most significant offering of Model 21′s to ever come to public auction

This little collection of Custom Years Model 21s won't be a blip on the high end Model 21 market. In fact, once these guns disappear into collections, similar Custom Years Model 21s will become even more interesting to collectors.

Eightbore, I don't know about this "little" collection of Winchester Custom Shop 21s, but I have seen most of them, if not all, and all guns are perfect, and unused. They cover the gamut, and a bit more, of all that the Custom Shop offered at the time. That's hard to find. I don't know of any others comparable, but I am not in that group of collecting. I have a few unfired guns, but they are maybe a century older , and do not compare in condition to the Julia auction guns.

Let's not kid ourselves. It is a very significant collection. It may or may not wholly effect future value of Winchester Model 21's. Maybe Dick Dup is right, maybe not. Time will tell the tale. I only wish I had the money where I could invest in some of these surely high priced guns, and roll the dice, so to speak.