through the roof.
RS: So what do collectors say about Colt? What’s the future look like?
Ed: It’s hard to say what’ll happen to Colt. They still produce guns for us consumers, but it’s got to come out of the Custom Shop so that’s limited in quantity. It’s just depends on their management and ownership. I don’t want to speak publicly about Colt, but I don’t know where they are going to go, either. Colt is an icon, but I’ve even seen articles that have said they’ve gone out of the commercial business. Of course, Colt says it’s going to be around a long time, but whether they are or not, I don’t know.
RS: When somebody gets into collecting Colt or Smith & Wesson or any other brand, will they get to a point where they want to show off their collection, say at the annual meeting of the Colt Collector’s Association … or do most people keep their guns locked away and private for safe keeping?
Ed: The Collector’s Association holds a convention somewhere in the U.S. every year. But there again, I live in Nevada and if the convention is in West Virginia, that’s a long drive. I’m lucky this year because the convention is in Reno and I’m right here.
As far as showing off fine collections of guns, that’s nice, but I know guys who have a lot of guns and they don’t show them at all.
I think a lot of collectors don’t want to display their guns. They keep them under lock and key. Some of the people who can afford it eventually build some kind of place to show their gun collection. I know guys in the CCA who have vaults and have their guns hanging up on display in there so they can just go in and look up and enjoy them any time they want, but that costs quite a bit of money.
RS: When someone decides to get into collecting, is it customary for them to identify some niche that interests them, and then concentrate on it? I’m thinking, for instance, of collecting all variations of the New Police, or Single Action Army or Pre-1911 Colt Semi-Autos.
Ed: I think the urge to collect stems from someone’s background with guns, like in hunting. They find a gun that interests them and they read a little and begin to learn more and, pretty soon, they find another gun that is of similar interest but maybe just a little different and they buy that and read and learn a little more.
It takes a good size library to collect guns. You can’t just run out and buy guns without reading and learning about them, and about the marketplace. Now, some people do, but they are the ones who usually get hurt because they don’t know what they are buying and they pay too much. Let’s face it. You can pay any kind of astronomical price for a gun. If you want it, but the guy who owns it doesn’t want to let go of it, he’ll put a very high price on it – and if you want it bad enough, you’ll have to pay that high price if you want to own it bad enough. I guess, in that way, it’s no different than if you collect automobiles.
I do believe that you’ve got to have an extensive library of books. I’ve probably got between 50 and 100 books about guns and I’ve read and studied most of them, especially the parts about what I want to collect or trade. Eventually your knowledge builds from just hanging around collectors, and buying and selling a few guns.
I don’t think I started off collecting and decided, “Well, I’m going to just collect Pythons.” Of course, I don’t collect Pythons. That’s a new gun, but some guys do collect them because they like them.
I happen to collect anything chambered for the .41 caliber cartridge. For me, it is just a nostalgic caliber that’s not made any more. They don’t even produce the ammunition in the United States now, and if you want to fire one of the old .41s, you have to build the ammo yourself. I know of some guys who load the .41 for cowboy action shooting, but it’s still an obsolete caliber. I just kind of like it and want to try to collect one of every model Colt produced in that caliber. Some of them are quite rare, too, and then you had the .41 rimfire and the .41 Long, but Colt didn’t offer a .41 Long after about 1923. So the history goes back quite a long way for me. And no, they never made a semi-auto in .41 caliber.
RS: You make collecting firearms sound like a pretty fascinating hobby.
Ed: Well, that is what it is for me, because it connects me to a fascination with the cowboy era. Along with that is the Single Action Army revolver and whatever, Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody, but everyone goes their own way for whatever personal reason.
I’ve collected many things over the years just because I was interested in them, and then got rid of them. But the .41s … I just kind of stayed with them.
So I would say that if you are going to collect anything, you first ought to go out and buy some books on the subject and read them. Now there aren’t going to be books on every possible Colt gun that you can collect, but there are some that will kind of help you along. One of them is the book Colt: An American Legend by R.L. Wilson that covers just about every gun Colt made up until the mid 1980s, and it’s a good book. But then again, if you were going to specialize in collecting the ’49 Pocket or the ‘51 Navy, you’d want to try to find a book specifically on them.
You know, just the accoutrements of black powder, they have a book on that and some people just collect that sort of thing. So it just depends on where your interest lies and finding the book on that. Of course they’re always writing new books and one of them may be in an interest you like. And if there isn’t a book in the particular area you want, you need to belong to the Colt Collector’s Association and get to know the people who have been doing this for a really long time and they will kind of help you out and help you get started with some ideas about what you should do and what you should look out for.
I think collecting should always be … you should always buy the best your money can afford. Buy low end if that is all you can afford, but buy authentic. The older guns are only going to increase in value if you take care of them. Eventually you’ll move out of the low end, maybe after buying two or three, and be able to trade up to a more valuable gun.
RS: Is there a certification process for gun appraisers? Even a voluntary system through the CCA, for instance?
Ed: No, there’s no certification. I know there are a lot of good people out there who can give you a rough idea on almost any gun, but there really are a few people in any particular field who are specialists and can give you a evaluation of what a particular gun is worth.
You take John Kopec [phone 532-222-4440; “U.S. Cavalry and Artillery Authentication Service”] who does letters on Single Action Army military guns – well, people like his letters because he wrote the book and he is constantly studying this gun. People like to be able to say, “Kopec said there was nothing wrong with this gun or to watch for such and such ….” Because most of the military guns have gone up in value quite drastically, you want to make sure that what you bought, or are just thinking about buying, is authentic and not something put together. Kopec wrote the book on the Single Action Army military guns2 and there isn’t anyone out there who is a lot more knowledgeable about the subject than him.
Now, there are many other guys out there who are specialists in particular types of guns like the percussion Dragoons. You can find these fellows. You just have to hunt for them on line and through the Colt Collector’s Association. The CCA is a good source if you are even considering buying an old gun, unless you are buying from an auction house and the auction house would supply its own certificate of authenticity and then stand behind it. Most auction houses will and do. I won’t say that all of them do (stand behind or guarantee the authenticity of the product they sell), but generally, if an auction house says that something is genuine or real, they mean it that way. And nowadays, a lot of people are going to auctions to buy.
