Guide · Valuation

What is my gun worth?

No firearm can be priced properly without somebody looking at it. But the things that decide the number are knowable, and once you know them you can look at your own gun and form a real idea of where it sits.

Condition moves value more than everything else combined — and it is graded far more precisely than most people expect.

The four things that set the price

Roughly in the order they matter. Note that the maker and model — the thing most people lead with — is only part of the third one.

1. Condition, and it is not close

Condition moves value more than everything else combined. The same model in excellent original condition and in rough condition are not the same item with different price tags; they are two different markets. A collectible rifle at 95% original finish can be worth several times the same rifle at 60%.

Condition is graded more precisely than most people expect. A collector is looking at the sharpness of the edges, whether screw slots are undamaged, whether the finish on the receiver matches the barrel, how much bluing remains at the muzzle and around the cylinder mouth, and what the bore looks like. Small differences carry real money.

Mechanical condition matters too, but usually less than people expect — a collectible gun that needs a spring is still a collectible gun. Cosmetic condition is much harder to fix and much easier to ruin.

2. Originality

Is it as it left the factory? Every departure from original costs money, and some cost a great deal:

• Refinishing. A re-blued receiver or a sanded and re-varnished stock can remove most of a collectible gun's value. Buyers can tell, always.
• Replaced parts. A non-original stock, barrel, sight or magazine drops the value, particularly where the gun's appeal was completeness.
• Matching numbers. On military rifles especially, whether the serial numbers on the receiver, bolt, barrel and stock still match one another can be the difference between an ordinary gun and a scarce one.
• Modifications. Drilling and tapping for a scope, shortening a barrel, altering a stock — all normal things owners did, all of which reduce collector value even when they improved the gun as a tool.

There is one exception worth knowing: period, documented, high-quality custom work by a known maker can be worth more than the original. That is rare and it needs proof.

3. Scarcity and demand — which are not the same thing

Rare and valuable are different words. There are plenty of genuinely uncommon firearms that nobody collects, and they are worth very little, because value needs somebody who wants the thing. Conversely, some extremely common guns hold strong prices because demand for them never went away.

What tends to carry real money: early production or first-year examples, unusual factory configurations, short-lived variants, guns from makers who stopped producing, and anything the market has been unable to buy new for a long time. What tends not to: ordinary examples of models produced in the millions and still easy to find.

4. Provenance and paperwork

Documented history adds value when it is documented. A story does not — "my grandfather brought it back from the war" is true of an enormous number of rifles and adds nothing on its own. What does add: factory letters, original receipts, the original box with matching numbers, unit or issue paperwork, or a documented connection to a specific person or event.

The mistakes that cost sellers the most money

In rough order of cost. Every one is avoidable, and most happen before anyone is called.

• Cleaning it up first. By far the most expensive. Sellers polish, buff, oil, re-blue and refinish with the best intentions and take thousands off a collection in an afternoon. Surface dirt and honest patina are wanted. If you do nothing else on this page, do nothing to the gun.
• Throwing away the boxes and paper. They look like rubbish in a clear-out. On the right gun they are a third of the value.
• Selling the good pieces separately and being left with the rest.Once the most wanted guns are gone, the remainder is harder to move and it is still sitting in your house.
• Accepting a single lump-sum figure for a whole collection. In most collections a handful of pieces carry most of the money, and one total tells you nothing about which.
• Letting the ammunition and equipment go for nothing. Ammunition, optics, mounts and safes carry real value and are routinely given away.

What a real valuation involves

Identifying the exact model and variant — which is frequently not what is written on the outside — then grading condition honestly, checking originality part by part, and comparing against what similar examples have actually sold for rather than what people are asking.

That last distinction matters more than anything else in this section. Asking prices on the internet are not values. Anyone can list a gun at any number and leave it there for two years. Realized auction results and recorded sales are the evidence; listings are advertising.

By maker

The four things above apply to every firearm. On top of them, each maker has its own dividing lines — a year the factory changed how it built things, a mark that is either on the barrel or is not — and those are frequently what decides whether a gun is ordinary or not:Winchester,Remington,Colt,Smith & Wesson,Marlin,Browning,Ruger andmilitary surplus rifles.

Getting a number for yours

We appraise firearms, collections and estates anywhere in Michigan and across the Great Lakes region, free and with no obligation. You get a written list with a value against each firearm, and it is yours to keep whether you sell to us or not.

If you would rather start with a photograph, that is usually enough for us to tell you whether you are dealing with something ordinary or something worth a proper look.

Common questions

Can you tell me what it's worth from a photograph?

Often roughly, yes — enough to say whether you are dealing with a two-hundred-dollar gun or a five-thousand-dollar one. What a photograph cannot show is bore condition, mechanical function, or whether a finish is original or reapplied, and those are exactly the things that separate the top of a value range from the bottom.

Is a gun worth more because it's old?

No — age on its own counts for very little. A mass-produced shotgun from 1955 in poor condition is worth less than a well-kept rifle from 2015. What matters is scarcity, condition, originality and demand — age only helps when it brings one of those with it.

Does a box double the value?

Not double, but on a collectible firearm the original box, papers and accessories can be a substantial part of the total — sometimes a third. On an ordinary working gun it makes very little difference. Either way, never throw them out before someone has looked.

Should I clean it up first?

No. Please do not. Cleaning is the single most expensive mistake a seller makes. Removing original finish, buffing out marks, or refinishing a stock can take most of the value off a collectible gun in an afternoon, and it cannot be undone.

What about guns that were fired a lot?

Honest wear from use is normal and expected — it is damage and neglect that hurt. A rifle carried every season for forty years and looked after is worth far more than one that sat in a damp basement untouched.