Price check 1889 colt

dafydd

dafydd

Member
Rating - 99.3%
136   1   2
Location
Waterloo, Ontario
Hi Guys,

Whats this one worth? Model 1889 Colt in .41 Colt, very good bore, works perfectly. See the picture. Thanks, Dave

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y95/dafydd1957/Colt_1889.jpg
 
Apparently they don't swing as much cash as a shooter because the cylinder relies totally on timing for the it's proper positioning. The 92's lock into place prior to firing; better shooter's.
But they are older and much rarer than 1892's.
Starpuss has some video's of him & his collection of 1892's. He's pretty knowledgeable on this topic.
They can be upgraded to a 92 lockup system for 200-250ish if you are mechanically inclined.
I've got an 1889 with a 4.5 bbl...in the white sadly. But I'll remedy that soon enough.
I'm curious about their value myself.
Have you purchased it or just getting ready to?
 
1889's are solid guns. I own a pair including one set up in 357. Although they don't have a conventional cylinder stop mine both lock up like a vault. I have no idea what going price would be for a 1889 in 41 though.... My restricted 1889 in 38 LC was $425 from a dealer.
 
EE prices are usually in the $800-1200

The following info is from Blue book which is more US centric

MODEL 1889 "NAVY" (NEW NAVY DA, MODEL OF 1889) Add to Collection
- .38 Short and Long Colt, and .41 Short and Long Colt cal., 3, 4 1/2, and 6 in. barrel, blue (military and civilian) or nickel (civilian only) finish, wood (U.S.Navy) or hard rubber (civilian) grips with the world "Colt" in oval at top; the first solid frame, swing out cylinder with no visible locking latches (rotates counter-clockwise), sideplate is also on the right-hand side of frame, Colt produced approx. 31,000 mfg. 1889-1894, 1st 5,000 were ordered by U.S. Navy, with some additional orders later in production - hence name.
Grading 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10%
$2,250 $1350 $1,050 $850 $700 $600 $500 $425 $350 $300
Add 40% for 3 in. barrel. Subtract $100-$200 for broken hard rubber grips or broken action.
Add 65%-100% for U.S. Navy Contract (ser. no. 1-5,000), U.S.N. on butt (.38 LC cal. only), depending on condition. Beware of fakes.
 
scianna54 said:
Looks as if it's in very nice condition, to be safe, you should pay less than $1,000, demand in Canada is weak at the moment,
Click to expand...

If I may take the liberty to qualify your remark, IMHO I think demand for poor quality expensive antique hand guns may be more tepid. However, I think if a nice example of whatever shows up on EE and it is not priced too aggressively it will often sell very quickly. The exception to this being antique rifles. Fine antique rifles tend to sell a little cheaper than US. It seems to a buyer's market in this corner, I suspect this is because there are much less serious collectors in Canada. The market at least on EE seemed to be defined by cheaper rifles(again poor quality rubish) that were often bought by non collectors to skirt long gun registration. While nice collector examples would linger until an actual collector showed up and beat the seller up on price.

It would seem that most of the guns brought in from the states are done so primarily on the basis of inexpensive purchase price alone(which often has a direct relationship to quality).

I am almost always in the market, but honestly in the last 6-12 months I probably glazed over 90-95% of the EE ads because of the poor quality of the offerings. I guess I have reached a point in my collecting that I won't buy junk regardless of how inexpensive(or paradoxically expensive on EE) it is.
 
if it works perfectly it's worth 1200-1800 seeing it has a 3" barrel.

1889.bmp
 
I think that the pricing of antique handguns in Canada is based largely on how functional and easy to feed they are, as opposed to what some would define as collectable in the US. For this piece, I think you will find bore condition and lock up/timing more important than barrel length or the condition of metal finish.
 
As you may have noticed, Starpuss's 38 spl 1892 sold well above the "average" 1892 price. Easy to feed or availability of components is a huge factor in antiques. 41 colt is not an overly desireable caliber.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom