Price and value

by: classichuntingcollectibles.com

          The prices came as a shock. After one auction I obtained a copy of the

auction prices. I obtained a copy of the auction prices. My mail bids, guessed

at in haste and with little knowledge, were low by one-fifth! Since then,

however, I've purchased similar material for as little as fifty cents. At

the other extreme, I' ve seen covers with price tags up to $11.50 and

heard of some that were sold for $20 and $25. Like many other artistic

and historic objects, there appear to be no accepted price standards .

Through experience and inquiries,however, certain general statements

about prices and pricing can be made.

          Prices realized for such covers at auctions are usually somewhat

higherthan open-market costs. To some extent, this is caused by the

excitement of auction proceedings--auction fever! More influential,

however, is the generally better-quality material offered at auctions.

         Average over-the-counter prices are about $4.00. Unused envelopes,

thatis, covers that do not indicate positive routing through a Post Office at

the time of issue, usually cost about $1.00.

          Pricses for firearms covers in the past have been generally

established by the stamp trade. The philatelist, for example,if interested in

 advertisingcovers might very well pay $5 for an illustrated cover, irrespective

of the merchandise advertised, That the cover illustrates firearms is immaterial.

              Dealers' prices are based primarily upon three factors: 1) scarcity,
2)condition, and 3) demand. Unfortunately, all covers displaying firearms
are scarce. Auction prices also indicate that some collectors of firearms
covers haves have rather high incomes. Covers dated in the 1880s or '90s
 bringhigher prices than those of the early 20th century. In all instances,
covers that have been through the mails and postmarked have much higher
 price tag than unused covers. To the philatelist, the reason is apparent. To
the firearms enthusiast, however, postal usage is of little concern so
long as a guarantee is obtained that the cover is a genuine original. Given
two covers with identical designs, one in multicolor and the other
 monochrome, the colored cover would  reap the highest bid.

             condition relates to the over-all neatness of the cover, the stamp,
andthe postmark. Clean, unripped advertising covers convey higher prices
 than soiled and  damaged covers Strangely enough, the postage stamp
affixed to the cover, wxcept in rare instances, does not affect cover value
It seems That stamps used for most mail at the turn of the century
have little more philatelic value than the common postage stamps used today.
Condition of the stamp and postmark however, if it distracts from
the cover's over-all neatness, adversely affects price.

              Demand for such covers from the rifle fraternity has been pretty
 light,probably because of a lack of acquaintance with them. Doubtlessly
this will change. There is, however, a steady demand from our philatelic
brethren, but it does not seem to increased as fast as coins or antique firearms.

           United States stamps and covers in good or excellent condition,
particularly those of the 19th and early 20th century, in spite of war, famine
anddepression, have always increased in dollar value at a rate comparable
 to or exceeding that of other investments. There is no reason to believe
that firearms advertising cover will not react similarly.
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Gun Digest
1971 Silver anniversary Deluxe Edition

THE GUN DIGEST: Initial Acquaintance

by http://www.classichunting/ collectibles.com

     My discovery of such mementos of the past and the collecting of them

began about two years ago, the result of a short-lived interest in philately

or stamp collecting. I joined a philatelic society or to and soon my mailbox

was filled with auction catalogs and lists of postal material. In one

of these I saw my first firearms asvertising cover, an envelope displaying

the Winchester 94 and extolling its manifold virtues. Other covers pictured

other firearms,hunting scenes, game animals and related material,

 the advertisers arms and ammunition manufacturers and gun powder companies.

I discovered also that these gun cover illustrations were in full color!

      In all my previous reading of gunbooks histories of firearms makers

and arms magazines I was surprised that no attention had ever been given

to advertising envelopes. I had never seen this illustrated maerial.

     Like the proverbial bloodhound, I was off on a new trail. Dozens of

questions came to mind. When were advertising envelopes first used and

who used them? Who printed them? Who collected them and who had

them for sale? How many different kinds were there? What their current prices?

Firearms Advertising Envelopes

by Robert F.Denny

by http://www.classichunting/ collectibles.com

 A NOT SO surprising result of the increasing population and decreasing

hunting and shooting opportunities is the large number of one-time hunters

and riflemen slowly being metamorphized into collectors.

         The fields and forests that used to offer an evening woodchuck hunt, or

the gravel pit that witnessed many a black circle being punched out of an

NRA target, are distant memories they're now too far away or have

become housing developments.

        Our shooting has become sporadic, relegated to the one or two times a

year we visit the country. To preserve our memories of shooting we seek

other fields of interest  to occupy our free hours, but, given the opportunity,

our leisure-time interests still center around firearms.

        The collecting and study of shooting and firearms materials has mushroomed

in the past 15 years. Witness the number of gunbooks  available,

many of  them monographs on subjects thought to be of little previous interest.

         Any collector of firearms or cartridges can atest to the increasing

scarcity, and cost, of items that, a few years ago, could be bought at

junk prices.

        Demand has also resulted in reproductions of firearms catalogs, advertising

broadsides, leaflets and calendars. The neophyte collector  soon realizes

that there aren't many things related. Too often, if he does think

of something different or unusual, cost or space  quickly deter him. Who has

room for a collection of muzzle-loading cannon, or the price of three or

four Pope rifles?

        There is one field however, that has been largely overlooked. This is

the collecting of firearms advertising envelopes. Compact and still relatively

inexpensive, these envelopes (or covers as the philatelists call them),

are most attractive and informative to the firearms historian.

Last Season Hunting

                                         

gundigest:
picture: http://www.bukmanager.com/

                    
                      I got my first taste of this late season hunting a few years ago in Idaho
when I drew for one of the late hunts. I'd know  that the bucks started shedding
sometime in November, but I didn't think they'd be so far along by
the time the season opened on the 8th. Andy Hagel, one of the country's leading
taxidermists, and, incidentally, no relation to the writer, and I wanted to
make the hunt together. We couldn't get loose at t he same time for an earlier
seaon area, so the late hunt was it.
                Anyway, soon after we arrived, two things were immediately obvious: the
antelope were all out on the flats where there wascgn't even a wrinkle  in
the ground for miles on end, and most of the big bucks had already lost their
headgear. Many of the hunters were  not aware of this because the antelope
(which has true horns, not antlers), sheds only he outer shell, not
the central core. These are often mistaken for horns. I'm sure we saw at
least 500 antelope on that trip, but we'll never know how many were
bucks. Some of the smaller bucks still had horns, but they were safe as far
as we were concerned.
                The first evening we located a fairish buck with horns of about 14"-
14 1/2 " but it took us three days of following him around to finally get within
range when he made the mistake of going down a draw th avoid us.
We were there when he came out and I clobbered him as he ran flat-out
across the plain. His horns were hanging on only because the hide at the
the base was still stuck to them;you could turn them in almost any direction.
Andy wound up killing an even larger buck that had only the cores
with their new growth starting up, just so we could see what we had. To
top it off, neither of these bucks were fit to eat. They were snake-poor, the
meat was blue, and you could smell them a country mile away.
                       In the fall of 1968 I got in on the same kind of a deal in Montana, but
this time I was lucky. I drew for both antelope and deer in one of the areas
where both special non-residenet deer and antelope permits are issued. I
missed on the antelope permit, but got a deer permit, thereby saving myself
$35. My son, who lives in the Big Sky country, did have an antelope
permit for the same area, but could not get away until after the first of
 November. We hunted antelope from the brakes of the Missouri along Fort
Peck Reservoir to Highway#200, and from Jordan on the east to the Mussleshell
river on the west. There were antelope ther, although  I've been in
places where there were a hell of a lot more, but there were few bucks
that still had their horns. He never fired a shot because the only two we
saw that were big enough to be interesting, and that still had something
beside the cores sticking up, were on a posted ranch.
                    For a state that specializes in special non-resident antelope permits,
knowing full well that 95% of the antelope hunters will be looking for
heads, Montana is hitting the nonresident a low blow in allowing their
season to run after the bucks have lost their horns. Idaho does no better,
but does not specialize in non-resident antelope permits; Idaho gives the
homefloks the backhand punch.
                 Anyway, plan to hunt antelope as early as the season allows, and if you
want some of the finest stalking offered on the American continent, try
hunting them in the rough country.

Mountain Pronghorns

Gun Digest :
     In many places antelopes stay in the high, mountain country surrounding
their winter range all summer. really good bucks, too, and often  alone.
Some are found at unbelievable elevation if there is such suitable habitat
as high mesa country. high  sage slopes and basins and long, open ridges--
country that has plenty of room with-out too much timber. I've seen plenty
of antelope in this kind of country at elevations bordering 9,000 feet. In
some cases antelope are seldom if ever hunted, Only if the season is
still on after the first snows his the hight country, driving them down into
the lower foothills and flats, do they feel the hunting pressure their flat
land relatives are subjected to every year.
     However, most sntelope stalked in the foothills and rough brakes are
forced there by early-season hunting pressure. Hunting in this kind of
country is usually better on the second day, of thereafter, than it is on the
first day. If the weather stays warm and sunny many if these antelope
will stay back in the hills untuk a big storm pushes them down onto the valley
floor again. Sometimes you can go into this rough, hill country after
the first week or two of the season, after they have settled down, and get
some of the finest hunting of all.
     this , of course, depends on when the season opens. Where seasons open
any time in September there will still be antelope back in the hight country
unless an unusually early snowstorm pushes them down, but they don't
like snow in the rough country for some reason. When snow comes they
head for the flats for the winter. Late in the season you'll find few antelope
at hight elevations or even in the foothills. The fact is, antelope hunting is to
be avoided any time after the last week in Octiber.
     At least two antelope states have certain areas with either late seasons
or where closing dates are well up in to November Nearly all of Montana's
antelope seasons run untill  November 10, which, as we'll see later, is too
damn late to hunt antelope if you are looking for horns. Idaho has for several
years had two antelope areas that haven't opened until early November;
in 1969 it's November 8 to 23. All of these areas, in both states,
permit drawing for permits by nonresident hunter who have bought a
general big game license: Montana has several areas open to non-residents
via a special $35 non-resident antelope permit.
     What's wrong with this setup? Two things: At least 95% of the non-resident
antelope hunters anywhere are trophy hunters to some extent, and a
large part of the resident hunters also look for horns to shoot at. But what a
lot of antelope hunters don't know is that any time after November 1 many
of the nucks are starting to shed their horns: more importantly, in an average
 year in most areas, nearly all horns have been dropped by November 10!