Value guides

What is it actually worth?

Every maker has two or three dividing lines that move value more than anything else — a year the factory changed how it built things, a mark that’s either on the barrel or isn’t, a plant in a different country. Knowing them is most of the difference between selling a gun and selling the right gun.

There are no prices on these pages, deliberately. A number published today is wrong within a year, and we buy these guns — a page of our own figures would be a page with our thumb on the scale. What is here instead is what to look at.

By maker

WinchesterPre-64 and post-64, and it matters more than anything else RemingtonWingmaster or Express, and the same question for every model ColtWhen it was made, and whether the finish is the one it left with Smith & WessonPinned barrels and recessed cylinders, and what happened around 1982 MarlinThe JM stamp, and what happened after 2007 BrowningBelgium, Japan or Portugal RugerOld model three-screw revolvers, before the transfer bar military surplus riflesMatching numbers, and whether it has been sporterized GlockWhich generation, and whether it is still in its original box BerettaItaly or Accokeek, and what it was built for IntratecBefore the ban or after it SavageA Model 99 is a collector rifle. Almost everything else is a shooter.MossbergWorking guns, with a few early ones that are not IthacaThe Model 37 is common. The doubles are not.WaltherWhere it was made, and when SIG SauerWest German, German, or American

Not on the list? We buy and value everything else too — these are simply the names that turn up most often. What determines value on any firearmcovers the principles that apply whatever is stamped on the barrel.

Tell us what you have

A description is plenty to start, and photographs help.

Would rather talk? Call or text (269) 399-4867 (399-GUNS). Photographs welcome.