OT- Original Colt Walker for sell on GB!

[rangerider7]

Wow, you don't see this to often. Opinions please.

http://v2.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewIte ... =186786815

[jlchucker]

Decent looking gun, by the photo. However, that letter that accompanies it raises a lot of questions. Maybe the cylinder and barrel are original, but it seems that at best somebody's replaced some of the parts with modern ones. Also the letter didn't seem to say that the frame was an original. My first question is, if this gun is original, how come he's only got a $500 bid. I'm not a collector, but I suspect that GB has lots of very knowledgeable collectors surfing their site every day. I haven't looked at a Dixie Gun Works catalog in years, but when I used to get one every year (as much for the information contained therein as anything else) I seem to recall a listing of all known remaining Walker ID numbers. I wonder if this one is one of those that was included.

[Hobie]

The letter says that a couple of parts MIGHT be original but that the condition doesn't quite "add up". That's the why of the price. I wouldn't have anything to do with it myself.

[rangerider7]

Hobie, This so called Walker Colt has more fake to it than Joan Rivers, but it will be interesting to see if the reserve is met and what the amount is.

[lthardman]

If it were original, you would have to add a couple of zeros to the left of the decimal point. I think the mere fact that the starting bid is $500 is proof enough that it is not original. Got to credit the seller for publishing the letter in its entirety though. Caveat Emptor.

[Chas.]

The opening bid may be set at $500 but that doesn't mean squat. There's a reserve. I used to sell certain items that were '60's vintage that I knew would go for $200-$400 but I set the opening bid at 99¢ just to get the bidding frenzy going. Ignore that $500.

[Hobie]

As a repro, which I think it is, cleverly altered, it isn't worth $50. If the seller's own letter from Mr. Howze won't back up the gun AND it has been through a fire with those stocks... One sometimes has to wonder if the delusional aren't predominant on Gunbroker.

[Mike D.]

I cannot agree more with your assessment of GB, Hobie. It has become a haven for those individuals who wish to defraud the gun collecting community. For the most part they are successful in these activities, but the victim of their deception has little chance of recovering his/her funds. Most refuse refunds and GB offers little or no assistance. It is becoming a bad deal and a site to be avoided.

[Nazgul]

If it was an original, the reserve would be astronamical. If it even made Gunbroker.

Saw an original Hawken once. Papered, nice to look at but WAY out of my league.

Don

[Mich Hunter]

I cannot agree more with your assessment of GB, Hobie. It has become a haven for those individuals who wish to defraud the gun collecting community. For the most part they are successful in these activities, but the victim of their deception has little chance of recovering his/her funds. Most refuse refunds and GB offers little or no assistance. It is becoming a bad deal and a site to be avoided.

+1000 Spot on sir

[olyinaz]

I cannot agree more with your assessment of GB, Hobie. It has become a haven for those individuals who wish to defraud the gun collecting community. For the most part they are successful in these activities, but the victim of their deception has little chance of recovering his/her funds. Most refuse refunds and GB offers little or no assistance. It is becoming a bad deal and a site to be avoided.

I don't avoid it but sadly, you really have to know what you're doing if you're going to play there. Very very few good deals on anything used there. Some great deals on new stuff however.

Cheers,
Oly

[Hobie]

Yep, you have to be an educated buyer, deal with only certain vetted sellers AND be prepared to enforce the contract on your own. We could have a whole other topic just on the auction sites.

[Ysabel Kid]

If it were original, you would have to add a couple of zeros to the left of the decimal point. I think the mere fact that the starting bid is $500 is proof enough that it is not original. Got to credit the seller for publishing the letter in its entirety though. Caveat Emptor.

+1

With only 1200 or so ever made, this would be worth a small fortune in that condition if it could be completely authenticated.

I was in the DC area on business yesterday and took my lunch hour at the NRA's National Firearms Museum. I usually go once or twice a year while up in the area. Doesn't take me long to tour it as I have seen most of the displays so I can focus on the "new stuff" (the rotating/changing display) and the ones I really like ("western-period" firearms). They have a small case with about 10 firearms that are all fakes, originally sold as originals. As with anything valuable, someone is going to try to make money off the unknowledgable...

[blackhawk44]

Back in the late 1970's through the 1980's, a friend of mine, Tom Keilman, was one of the better known antique arms and western art auctioneers of the period. In order to gasp over the great toys, I served as go-fer at several of his sales. His sales were such that each one took several days to complete. At the time, I understood that there were fewer than three dozen known verified original Walkers in existance. Not being well versed in collecting early Colt, I could be very wrong about that number. Anyway, one of those Walkers was consigned to Tom in 1980 and its sale brought out both the newpaper and TV cameras in Austin, Texas. It brought $15,000.00. Remember that was 30 years ago.

At those auctions, I came to be around a few of those dedicated collectors for a short time and its hard to imagine an original Walker ever appearing on a web site like this one. Those collectors can recite who owns which Walker (they each have a name, such as Company D, #27), who that man got it from and where the man before got it, and on and on. They are sticklers for detail.

One big question is why is this gun here instead of James Julia's or Sotheby's or several others with worldwide followings?

The enclosed letter instantly makes me ask "what are this gentleman's credentials?". He does not list his affiliations or experience. Surely, any one of several well known, major collectors/curators would have been glad to sign his name to the discovery of a previously unknown orginal Walker. The letter seems circumspect and vague in comparison to the letters of authentication that I have seen in the past.

I could be totally off the mark, but these are my impressions. BH

[Hobie]

To be legit he would have to list it as a faked Colt Walker repro with possible (and I think Howze was hedging in the letter) original parts. He did not. He is misleading, deliberately so, while trying to appear honest just in case the mark, er... buyer takes him to court.

[rangerider7]

blackhawk44, I went to almost all Tom's early auctions. I was sorry to here he had passed. I probably would recognize your face. My sister also made the auctions. She bought an original Koerner painting from him at the auction. I bought (won) more spurs and cartridge belts than anything else, brings back a lot of good memories.

[stanforth]

Colt Walkers have been faked since the mid 1800's.
I have one in my collection that is obviously very old. It is numbered in the civilian range (1077) and if one wanted to one could convince himself that it was original.

There were many conterfiet Walkers and Pattersons made but they are not all based on modern replicas.