Gunbroker is current to the day. You can see the gun that was sold and guess the condition. My local shop has not used a book for years.

 

Neither have I. My guess is that Blue Book prices are just averages compiled from old auctions. They really don't have a grasp of condition or geographical trends let alone higher than normal fliers. A friend of mine used to carry one at all the gun shows he set up at. His standard comment was "The books says it's worth..." To which I always replied "Sell it to the book then".
Dan 🤠

 

For me, the 'Blue Book' is more valuable for the incidental information. The valuations for me only hold sway within the parameters of each gun model individually rather than an open market representation.
What I mean here is; if one has a particular firearm of a particular version/year/configuration - it helps to sometimes see that it is higher-valued than other versions of the same gun... or not.

As far as real-world, local values... that is still (even in the days of the internets) a seriously regional issue much of the time. My favorite learning curve was FALs vs. H&K G3s. Couldn't hardly give the H&K away on the West Coast at one time while the FALs flew off the tables. Opposite the East Coast.

Nope, for sincere, stand-alone valuations, the Blue Book is not your best bet but then too, it only takes two weirdos to queer an auction-based valuation.

In the end, I buy a print copy of the Blue Book a couple-three times a decade and use them quite often but not so much for establishing a final valuation. It's packed full of useful information that has nothing directly to do with cost.

Besides - I absolutely LOATHE 'subscriptions' and in this case one must have access electronically rather than walking over to one's bookshelf.

 

I absolutely LOATHE 'subscriptions' and in this case one must have access electronically rather than walking over to one's bookshelf.

Exactly. Plus, the information in online subscriptions is vulnerable to being hacked and changed, whereas if it's already on the printed page in a book in your hands, it isn't going to change until the next updated edition.

I enjoy online research, and the Internet is an invaluable tool. Doing in-depth research (searches) definitely saves lots of time. But I have to admit it can get tiresome and boring staring at a computer monitor or some other type of electronic screen. Ditto for "entertainment". I just ditched a couple of streaming services, so I'm down to just two now. Don't get me started on those things.

 

They've tweaked and "improved" the online Blue Book a lot in the past couple years. I find it those to be a PITA now, but it does have some advantages, like color pics, value history, etc. The search is a lot better now. It has more features that I haven't (and probably won't) taken advantage of - they've tried to make it much more than just a value lookup tool. Some stuff is pretty up to date (P.38's for instance) and some Colts haven't been updated in 10+ years. That's where the history feature can be helpful. Like Todd said it's useful for looking at relative values, and picking out variants and models I would otherwise never know about. It's not the end-all, beat-all but it's better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick.

They used to offer a 3-year subscription at not much more than the physical book but not so much anymore...

 

They've tweaked and "improved" the online Blue Book a lot in the past couple years. I find it those to be a PITA now, but it does have some advantages, like color pics, value history, etc. The search is a lot better now.

I hadn't thought about the electronic search advantage. Everyone knows how, from time to time, finding exactly what you want in the print version can be aggravating as things are not always presented in what I would call an 'intuitive' manner.

 

Does BBGV still print hardcopy books? I should buy one if so. Like Todd says, their value is instant access to the basics of almost any gun model. Not the values. But back when the owner was alive, they did base the values on their research of auctions that year.

I have an old Blue Book from the 90s. Don't use it that often with the Internet, but sometimes I do. Scenerio: you walk into a gun shop and find an obscure single shot rifle you've never heard of. It looks like quality, and you want to make sure the marked caliber, .32-40, is the standard one, or some specialty one-off that a lot of schuetzen rifles had back in the day. Ballard, Winchesters, Stevens, all had versions of calibers with the same "numbers". You can open a Blue Book from any year, do a little research on that make. I've done that.

The internet has basic information for common guns. Like the Colt Fever site. Yet still many people who inherit a Colt will come here, and post a simplistic question like 'Got a .38 Colt....what is it and value??' Before the internet they had to go to a book store and buy the Blue Book, or go to a gun shop and ask the counter man. But if they have a Reisling .22, or a Whitney, , or a Manurhin, or a Wurfflein, they're not going to find much on the internet. At least not 10 years ago...more is added to the internet every week....by unknown strangers on the internet, much of it wrong.

 

Saw this on the Ruger forum. "The end of The Blue Book of Gun Values"

https://www.lugerforums.com/threads/the-end-of-the-blue-book-of-gun-values.132016/

 

If anyone would know, Anthony Vanderlinden would. That's sad and unfortunate.

 

Anthony Vanderlinden was a valued contributor to the BBGV for many years. He is correct that long-standing contributors and experts in the field are no longer being consulted for value updates.

 

That's another great gun resource passing. "...the new owners only entertain a web based subscription service. It appears that the many contributors, with their lifelong expertise, will be replaced by an A.I. ..."

Another is the Gun Values forum website. According to my source, "Gun Values Board is no more. The owners of the website had to close it due to a significant drop in traffic this past year that made it no longer profitable. "

People that think the Internet is permanent or forever are mistaken too....any site, even this one, can go away in the blink of an eye. And all it's decades of expertise and content dissappear with it.

 

The 'Blue Book' is like those 'antique guides' that are printed - the information is only as current as the input forwarded by dealer sales, and if sales have been slow in a given time frame, that's what they go with.

Where it has value lies in two things - serial number lists and the color pages dealing with finish percentages - and those pages really don't change over time, so any old copy will do.

 

This was the last one I bought 1993/94 I believe this was first year they added photos? Good info inside for specific model and date info .

Good thing is I'm a media junkie . I have stacks and stacks of Gun List, Gun Journal, Shotgun News . I can easily go back and compare the retail sales to it from the period.

Pre internet , Gun List was the premier pricing guide for most firearms. Anybody that was into guns kept a fresh copy to take a glance to get average across country values.

Blue Book was used for specifics about model , maybe disclose rarities.

 

My thanks to everyone who responded. I just ordered the hardcopy 44th edition.