Hey OKCSHOOTER,

I have to agree with you. If your looking at 1899 and earlier, I think it helps to have a Colt letter to verify the main facts, serial number, possible location of delivery, possible barrel length, etc. This can weed out the others that are trying to get your dollars. If you invest $3500-$15,000, you need that letter and then have an expert go over it to verify that, if anything, that all the parts match and they are from the correct time period. There have been more than a few deals out on the auction sites that I am pretty sure that they are parts guns. Not something that I would like to pay that kind of money for. I hope that you have several books on Colts. There is an aweful lot of variance and one good source is the COLT PEACEMAKER ENCYCLOPEDIA - VOLUME 1 by Keith Cochran.

A possible reason why someone may not want to get a COLT letter, is the time frame , I am waiting on one, and it will take over 145 days to receive it,unless I want to tack on another $50 and that helps speed things up.

I also would make sure that I have a 3 day inspection period, to verify that it is what they said and that my expert agrees.

Great luck in your search!

Oklahoma Dee

 

Remember...Buy the Gun, Not the Story. The Colt Letter only establishes origin and original configuration. Sometimes a interesting point of history can develop on older Colts.

To Letter a brand new gun, Unless you're well known and to prove provenance at a later date, it may not have much value.

Having said that, I have lettered all my Colts. The Old and New, and a majority of what I have sold. Have I got more money? Many Times Yes, But then again I haven't sold any clunkers either.

 

Any thoughts on guns that have been customized by the Colt Custom Shop? Wouldnt a letter be helpful for proving that Colt did the work or does it really matter for custom work as to who did the work?

 

Sometimes, there is no reference, or the Factory did not keep track of such things...

 

Best to keep the work order with the gun then I guess.

 

I would letter my four-digit '73 but from what I have been told, there isn't much to find out with guns under 30,000.
Right now, I don't have the hundred-and-fifty bucks, being out of work for the first time in forty-five years.

 

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one...as I'm looking at only 1st Gen SAA's I can't help but be drawn to the lettered guns over non-lettered.

I do know that if a gun is worth $3K - $15K+ and one could pay a small sum to include FACTORY documentation and doesn't, I find it odd.

 

there are a LOT of parts guns out there! in fact, i think that people started putting parts guns together almost as soon as they started selling the saa to civilians. reputable dealers -- armchair gunshow comes to mind -- sell them for what they are and you can pick up a pretty nice one in the $1,500-$2,500 range. others attempt to deceive.

other alterations, like cutting barrels from 7-1/2" to 4-3/4" and nickeling over blued guns were also popular, and i don't think were originally done to con anyone but just to make the gun more useable for the original owner, or the second owner or the third owner. these things were often very well done, and without the letter, you sometimes can't tell it's not original.

 

Not to open a can of worms, keep in mind sometimes the letters are wrong! Personally I have gotten in the neighborhood of twenty letters in the last couple years, and five of those were wrong. They were re-researched and corrected by Colt. The Archive dept. does us a great service, and having this incredible information is priceless to me. I letter every Bisley I aquire regardless. One other consideration is that even reputable dealears work with pretty small profit margins. Especially on First gen SAA's, most people who sell them to dealers know going in that they are worth some good money. So the dealer who sets up at shows or has a small store etc. just needs to sell these to stay in business or to keep enjoying his hobby. He would have to either fork out the 200 bucks for the expedited phone service or sit on the gun for six months and still fork out a 100 bucks waiting for a Factory letter. I could see where it could maybe not add to the value enough to risk a couple hundred dollars of profit. I personaly enjoy seeing that tan envelope in the mail box, and feel like a kid on Christmas morning when I get to open it and see history with my name on it! Again my 2 cents.

 

Not to open a can of worms, keep in mind sometimes the letters are wrong! Personally I have gotten in the neighborhood of twenty letters in the last couple years, and five of those were wrong. They were re-researched and corrected by Colt.

Those aren't very good odds, are they?

What was it on the ones that caused you to ask Colt for rechecks, and Colt to feel rechecks were justified?

 

Don't forget that some people, including some of the big-name dealers, are just plain lazy. Getting the letter seems like more work to them than trying to sell it without.

 

I forgot that part too! I dont know how many guns I have inspected at shows etc., and the bores are full of crud. If I was selling I would at least make sure they were clean and wiped down!

 

Letters are great and all, but I like buying no letter guns myself....you never know when you might come across a William Masterson shipped single action like a friend of mine did a few years ago.

 

I've wondered about this

I have a 1st gen SAA in the 164,000 range I picked up at a local shop a few years ago and never got around to getting a letter partly becuase it's not what I think is real cheap and I'm wondering what a letter can tell me I don't already know. I'm sure it hasn't been messed with and there is nothing special about it so why get a letter? (that's my thinking). the only thing a letter might tell me is where it was shipped. Would it (letter) add any value or just settle my curiosity about where it was shipped?

 

I have a 1st gen SAA in the 164,000 range I picked up at a local shop a few years ago and never got around to getting a letter partly becuase it's not what I think is real cheap and I'm wondering what a letter can tell me I don't already know. I'm sure it hasn't been messed with and there is nothing special about it so why get a letter? (that's my thinking). the only thing a letter might tell me is where it was shipped. Would it (letter) add any value or just settle my curiosity about where it was shipped?

The letter usually adds at least enough value to compensate for its cost. Often, a letter is the difference between a sale and a tire kicker. In my experience, most SAA "collectors" do not do the research necessary to know a good gun from a bad gun themselves. They rely heavily on letters (primary) and opinions of other "collectors" (secondary) to decide if a gun is worth buying. If you want to sell a 1st Gen SAA, the letter is what will often get one of those guys (and they are in the majority) to bite rather than kick it around and hassle you for an entire weekend as they try to make up their minds. I've been the recipient of both treatments more times than I care to count.

Aside from that, shipping destinations are sometimes fascinating.

 

I guess I should get a letter just to see what info it might give. shipped to a famous western town would be neat but I'm not planning on selling it yet and it "is what it is" so I don't know if it's really worth the money but as mentioned maybe a letter would help sell it when the time comes. Thanks for the comments reqarding my thoughts.
Brad

 

I letter my Colts, S&W's, & Winchesters if for no other reason than the letters add just a "little" more history to the gun "for my pleasure." The monetary value the letter might add is a distant second to its intristic value.

For those collectables I do not letter, and before purchasing, I always research the gun, the serial #'s, and its variations to place them in time. The rarer; the more interesting. I've rarely purchased a gun with re-sale in mind.

I'd lettered a S& W Model 57 .41 Magnum, a relative new-comer, only to find it had been shipped on the first day of introduction of this model, the only one reported! To me, that added a ton of value. I've lettered another only to find it had been shipped to my hometown, 30 years earlier than I bought it 1,000 miles away.

 

The history of a gun fascinates me, too. For my personal guns, letters are more for my enjoyment and interest than anything else. For a client's guns, the letters have to be viewed with sale in mind. If the letter (or any other form of documentation) won't likely help a sale in a tangible way (either by increasing the selling price or speeding the sale of the gun), then I can't in good faith letter the gun or pursue that documentation.

That S&W Model 57 sounds like a neat one! I love guns like that.