doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Purdey at Julia's - great deal or problem child?

The 24K refered to in the first post was the hammer price. Added to this is 15% buyers premium: $3600, or $27,600 total. The price for the pair was $25,875 with the premium already added. If you are a Maine resident, or pick the gun up in Maine without having a tax resale number, you would pay 6% sales tax. If you don't like this , you can have the gun shipped to your local dealer paying packing, shipping, and insurance. In this case probably about $150 or $200.
All the best, Mal

Thank you Mal, it does.

For a not too picky buyer I thought the pair looked rather appealing. Shooters after all.

JC

I've never thought of Purdey buyers as bargain hunters - you'd have to wonder if these even made shooter grade?
A bargain Purdey[s] must have it's share of woes(more so than most) - that's why it's a bargain!
No way around that.

This is a "$40,000 gun". It hammered at £17,500. Considering exchange rate, buyer's premium, and import, I'd multiply by 2.5 to get a delivered retail price of $43,750. Note that it is a 28" barreled lightweight game gun configuration from 1953 that "appears to be little used." BV1-OQ1-CC1 = $40,000. If you could call the Julia's gun "slightly used," then BV1-OQ1-CC2 = $27,959. If it was better described as "significantly used," then BV1-OQ1-CC3 = $20,915. Certainly it is useful to divide the CC range by fractions or decimals in this price range; BV1-OQ1-CC2.5 = $24,437. Hndividual auction prices are always subject to bargain or self-inflicted rip-off. However, averages, especially when combined with like item retail prices, are a pretty accurate reflection of the market.

http://213.219.62.57/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=1016++++1404+&refno=+++14670&saletype=

Lowell, everyone is a bargain hunter. As they say:"only a fool pays retail". The problem with auctions, is that it is the place where "retail" is truely established. After Julia's, retail for machine guns, British single shots, fancy LC Smiths and good double rifles and many other things is much higher than it was last month.
The Purdey pair were good used guns that went for a relatively low price, especially when you consider the original case etc. This often happens at auction, especially for guns and rifles that are not the "stars" of the show. If you know what you are looking at, you can find real bargains. You can also buy some real junk if you don't.

I try very hard to "tell it like it is" in my descriptions. However, remember that is my job as an employee of the auction company, and therefore, by extension, the consigner, to promote the product. Read the descriptions carefully, and note what is not said, compare actual measurements to factory letters, etc. [I put the bit about the looseness of item 580 in my write-up, but it seemed to disappear in the catalog and I'm not real happy about it.]

Rocketman: I know you have also quantified gun feel and swing; but how do you reconcile that with value? The Purdey 27 incher was a dynamic gun and would be an absolute joy in the field. Probably why it showed so much "use".

All the best, Mal

Well, Mal, that is a very good question and I'm glad you asked it!! Boy, don't I wish I'd copy righted that phrase and could collect royaltys on its use!!!!

I have a valuation system based on Brand Value level (BV), Original Quality grade (OQ), and the Current Condition level (CC). Objective handling measures are weight, balance, unmounted swing effort, and mounted swing effort. Note that these two systems have no factors in common. This seems to be true because for any given price pigeon hole there will be some spectrum of handling reaily available. For example, the pigeon hole for BV1-OQ1 (Boss/H&H/Purdey/Woodward best SLE) will have a range from light game gun (around 6 1/4#), to game gun (6 1/2#), to heavy game gun (7#), to light pigeon gun (7 1/4#), to pigeon gun (7 5/8#), and to duck gun (8#). These guns will have differing handling and will be prefered by differing individuals for differing purposes. The price will vary more or less by Current Condition only. However, if the gun is a small bore with differing handling, there will be a premium associated with its price. Curiously, if the gun were a fowler, it would likely have a negative premium. BV3-OQ6 (many brands of second grade BLE) has uniform pricing based on CC, but seems to have a positive premium for both fowler and small bore. Small bores and fowlers seem to be the only place price is influenced by handling numbers.

Hope that helps. Questions and observations welcome.

I think that any buyer looking for a $40,000 Purdey would have passed on this gun. Why? Because once one knows what it is that is attractive about a Purdey best, finding one that had been shot enough to go off face would be extremely off putting. If that is what happened to the metal, what about the stock? Etc.

Logic might dictate that a given buyer should pursue the gun at less than half the expected price anyway. But I would not assume the buyer is looking for an abused gun usually.

Perhaps those with more experience will address this. For example, I'm not sure I've ever found a gun that Nick Makinson thought was on face enough. On the other hand, I have shot many guns that probably really weren't on face. None were Purdeys and none were anywhere near the money mentioned.

This particular gun had been used, but not abused. My guess is that it might have seen 20-30 thousand rounds over the thirty or so years that it's original owner enjoyed his Purdey. A new hinge pin properly fitted, engraved, and blued with the barrels properly blacked down and faces polished might set one back $1K. One might want the trigger guard reblacked as well. The gun would now be ready for it's next 30 years. All for less than a third of the price of a new one. The Auction estimate was 20-30K, not 40. My guess is that with the gunsmithing done, this gun would sell in the 33-37K range. I hope the new owner enjoys it as much as the old one did.
All the best, Mal

Rocketman, I am always impressed at how well your system works most of the time, but I do find a major difference in the price that a dynamic gun will bring, or mostly, in my case, cost, versus a poorly dimensioned and balanced gun of the same make and condition.
Mal

Interesting observation, Mal. Descriptions of a gun such as "dynamic," "poorly balanced," and "poorly dimensioned" tend to be very subjective, or so I've found. One men's "dynamic" is another man's "whippy." One man's "finely balanced" can be another's "butt or barrel heavy." Such diverse opinions is why, IMO, the market has a fairly wide spread of handling performance guns that fetch about the same price for the same BV-OQ-CC. You, personally, gotta admit that you can shoot a wide range of handling numbers very well; I can invoke Vintage Cup scores to prove that if necessary, too!! Now, you may very well ENJOY shooting "dynamic" guns much more than others. What one shoots well and and what one enjoys shooting can, and very likely are, two different sets of handling numbers. A few years ago, pigeon guns didn't sell well and you could hardly give away a fowler. Vintage shooting of clays seems to have created a market for SXS guns more suited to clays shooting than are the typical game pattern guns. Interesting!!