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Let The Buyer Beware

1K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  guitarsweb 
#1 · (Edited)
Let The Buyer Beware..


Thought I might need to pass my story on to the Forum. Maybe it will save a member some heart ache in the future. By no means, is this GunBroker’s fault. I had been looking for an early 2nd. Generation .38 special shooter...just a nice old shooter. A very nice looking 1956 with a 5.5 barrel showed up on Gunbroker in late December 2018. It was a"Buy Now" for $1500, looked good so I bought it, no bidding, no 15 minute rule. Gun arrived, looked great, rough action. I took the cylinder out and noticed the assembly number on the cylinder didn’t match the loading gate or frame. As a matter of fact, it was a 2nd Generation 357 mag cylinder. The assembly number was prefaced with a “M”. Oh well, that will work, I just want a shooter. After about two weeks, I took the revolver to Joe Perkins in Tucson for an action job and one piece ebony grips. A few days later Joe called with the bad news. The Colt was a parts gun, NOTHING inside was Colt... maybe Italian and who knows what else. Even the hammer was not Colt. Anyway, Joe got a new Colt Factory .38 sp cylinder and all new Colt parts. Someone had even buggered up the old 357mag cylinder, trying to make it work with the wrong parts. To put the icing on the cake, today I received the Colt Factory letter. the revolver was originally a .45, with 5.5 inch barrel not a .38 special! Well, not the end of the world. When Joe Perking is all through I’ll have a total of about $2500 tops in the revolver, new Colt cylinder, all new Colt parts inside, action job with one piece ebony grips AND as a bonus, a factory letter for a .45. It will be a good shooter and a good lesson. For sure...NEVERY buy any 2nd Generation .44 special without a Colt Letter...you’re asking for heart ache, many are faked, converted from .38 and 357’s. Hope this helps some of our forum members. BTW, the seller paid $1800 on GunBroker from Foundation Pawn in Loveland, CO.
 
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#6 ·
I keep thinking someday I will save enough to take the plunge to buy a Colt SAA but stories like this just make me cringe.

Not to worry about 3rd Generations or “most" 2nd Generations. Buying a 1st Generation without a Colt Factory Letter is like buying a car with not title. As far as 2nd Gens go, IMO, any .44special, 38 special with a
4 3/4” barrel or any nickel plated, I would want a letter...or it’s a roll of the dice. In my case, I should have asked the seller if the cylinder assembly number matched the loading gate. That would have been easy to check.
 
#8 ·
Another reason I enjoy visiting here and learning but have only traded for one Colt single action and it was a 3rd generation gun. It seems like it is too easy to get duped on some of these guns if you are not very conversant in the Colt language. Rugers, USFAs and customer revolvers are much safer for guys like me to play with.
 
#10 ·
Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I just started dealing with GB. I was skeptical of buying a SAA sight unseen. But found this forum helpful. Basically, people here told me to deal with sellers that have high ratings and many transactions. So that's what I did. Got a wonderful Gen 3 SAA in .44 Spl. I think I'll continue to shop with the high volume, A+ sellers on GB from now on.
 
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