I saw a nice one at the show this weekend. I'd only seen one or two before and they were always out of my price range. I'd seen one for $5,000 and one for $3500 several years ago. Since then the prices have gone up a little, but not more than a grand or two. I've seen them on Gunbroker for $6-7k. Sometimes as high as $8k, so you can imagine my surprise at this conversation...



Me: How much for the Webley?

Guy: Fourteen thousand.

Me: Wait, what? How much?

Guy: Fourteen thousand.

Me: With four zeros?

Guy: That's a Webley-Fosbury, mate! Very rare!

Me: Uhh, not $14,000 rare.

Guy: I take credit cards.

Me: Oh, I bet you do.

Guy: You won't see many of these around.

Me: I've seen a few, but for around 5 grand, sometimes a little more.

Guy: Must have been a long time ago.

Me: No, not really. Hey, if you can move that for $14k, more power to you.



He probably bought it for a pittance and has no motivation to sell it, so he's just going to see how much he can wring out of it. The thing is, anyone in the market for a W-F is going to know the market value, and won't touch it at his asking price. The only way he'll see $14k is if someone with a LOT of money and no common sense comes along and decides they can't live without it.



I just don't understand people sometimes.

Whatever the market will pay... Still...

I saw a plain-jane 1903 Springfield selling for $3k. I looked it over, trying to see what was so special about it. Looked over it twice again just to make sure. Some wealthy, uninformed guy may actually buy that some day.