This report covers:
- FWB 124
- However
- Know when to hold ‘em
- And when to walk away
- Once in a lifetime
- Consignment stores
- Talk to dealers
- Flea markets
- TWO Daisy Sentinels!
- Edith triumphs
- Over to you
Today I want to talk about airguns and other neat things you can find in pawn shops. You can shop at all kinds of places for airguns — eBay, Craigslist (lots of scammers there, so be careful!) gun stores, and even at online airgun stores. Pyramyd AIR has refurbished airguns for sale and they are good for money off, but sometimes you should ask them if they have anything laying around that’s unique. I have bought some extremely rare and great airguns from other airgun stores. I purposely don’t do this with Pyramyd AIR because of my relationship with them.
FWB 124
I once bought a complete FWB 124 without a barrel. It was complete in the factory wood stock and was a fantastic buy for just $50. A gun store had taken it in with a gun collection that a widow sold them and they just didn’t know what to do with it. They wanted to give it to me but I told them what it was worth and then paid them $50. If I could find a barrel it was worth probably $400. I sold it or traded it to another airgunner and I think I broke even — just so he had a chance to do well with it. I might have doubled my money, I can’t remember. I hope he is a reader who can tell us the rest of the story.
FWB 124.
However
At a pawn shop I used to frequent I found a Sheridan Blue Streak for $75. It pumped, held air and shot at a pretty good velocity. If I had known about automatic transmission stop leak back then I could have gotten it back to like new. The stock wasn’t too bad, either, but I only made a little more off it (working Blue Streaks were bringing $125 at the time). But a Daisy 1894 in the box was the big deal of the day. I paid $85 for the gun in the box and sold it for $500. Why? Because I owned a Blue Book of Airguns I knew this was the rarest and most sought-after 1894 Daisy ever made — the Texas Ranger. Let me tell you about it.
Daisy Texas Ranger.
“But then I spot a dusty taped-up box in the corner and I can see that it’s a Daisy 1894 BB gun. The box says this is a Texas Ranger commemorative and this one appears to never have been cocked. The box is bad but the gun and the papers inside look brand new. They have it priced at $100.
I know that most 1894 Daisys are worth something, and a couple are worth quite a lot. I excuse myself from the store and drive home to consult the Blue Book. Turned out the Texas Ranger Daisy is the all-time Holy Grail of 1894s. It topped out at $600 new in the box. So I went back and bought it for $85, and the Blue Streak for $75. At that next show I sold it for $500 cash and tried to laugh all the way home, but since where I was in Maryland is 17 hours from Texas, I had to stop from time to time.”
From the 2010 Blue Book.
Know when to hold ‘em
Back when I was in the Army at Fort Knox I was in a pawn shop in Radcliff, Kentucky, and found a Hy Score model 807, which we all know is really a Diana model 27. It was in .22 caliber and was rusty but complete and functioning. I bought it for $18 with no attempt at negotiation. I took it home and just oiled the leather piston seal and shot that gun for many years. Then, I gave it to a friend who admired it and would never buy one for himself.
And when to walk away
And that’s another secret to this process. The secular world calls it karma, but everyone understands the principle. You sometimes just give things away when it feels right to do so. And the other side of giving things away is that they come back to you in numbers greater than you can imagine! You give and you get, but only when getting is not your intent. I think it takes wisdom to understand this principle, so pray for wisdom and forget about working the system.
Once in a lifetime
“Once in a lifetime” opportunities happen with increasing frequency when you start looking in earnest as I am describing. I’ve heard that they come along about every 18 months, but in my experience, it’s more often than that. Of course, there’s also the old salesman’s adage, “If you want to make the sales, you have to make the calls.” So, don’t expect to find anything if you’re just sitting on your TV muscle.
I daily peruse certain websites looking for deals. I stop at pawn shops, yard sales and consignment stores. I once found a copy of my R1 book for $10 at a local Half-Price Books store. I resold it at the Roanoke airgun show for $80 to a shocked buyer who had no idea it was normally going for over $100 on eBay, and that I was giving him a heck of a deal at $80. That was a bookstore find, folks! A bookstore. So, don’t tell me there are no gun stores in your neighborhood. You don’t need gun stores. You need to keep your eyes and ears open and be receptive to what comes along.
Consignment stores
Or, you walk into a consignment store, like a friend of mine did a few years ago, and there sits a Quackenbush Lightning with a $500 price tag on it. The store owner researched Quackenbush airguns on Gun Broker and he found that Model 1 and 2 guns bring $400-500 in good condition, so he figured this one should do the same — whatever it is. Actually, this Quackenbush is one of the rarest of all airguns, at least as rare as a Plymouth Iron Windmill BB gun that predated the First Model Daisy wire stock gun. Wes Powers said he only knows of half a dozen Lightnings that still have their rubber-band-propelled sliding rear chamber that builds the compression. So, here sits a gun worth, conservatively, $5,000 to $10,000, and however much more the next ardent buyer is willing to spend to get it. Do you know enough to spend the $500 to buy the gun, or will you wait and ask somebody days later, only to find out you alerted the neighborhood and the gun is gone?
Talk to dealers
Or you just talk to the dealers at gun shows. Not the ones with 125 new pistols all linked together by a locked cable on 8 tables, but the guy with one table who has an eclectic assortment of firearms. You tell him you’re interested in airguns. Maybe, if you do that, he will level with you that he has a Sheridan under his table that looks different than the modern ones. It has a big aluminum receiver! Trouble is, it won’t hold air when he pumps it, and he doesn’t want anyone to get a bad deal from buying a gun that doesn’t work.
Sheridan Supergrade.
I’ll buy it because I happen to know that the Sheridan Supergrade this guy has under the table has to be cocked before it will hold air. That’s what I mean when I say knowledge is power.
Let’s look at some other things to be on the lookout for. Rarity is one. If a person tried to sell you a 1953 Corvette in nice shape are you smart enough to know what you’re looking at, or are you a person who thinks that somewhere along the way somebody stuck a six-banger engine in this Vett to save on gas? Because the first several years of Corvettes all have Blue Flame six-cylinder engines; but if you don’t know that, you’re oblivious to their value.
What do you do when someone hands you a Brown Pneumatic in the box with the instructions that look like blueprints? What’s one of those worth? Or a guy has two Winsel jet-powered pistols in boxes he wants to sell for $25 apiece because he can’t get them filled anymore. What are they worth?
Collector Larry Hannusch owns this beautiful Brown Pneumatic air pistol in the box with the original instructions.
Do you know what a Winsel is worth?
Flea markets
I lived for many years in Ellicott City, Maryland, next to the planned community of Columbia. Now, Columbia, Maryland, isn’t a center for the shooting sports, any more than Nancy Pelosi is a candidate to be the next president of the NRA. But, Maryland wasn’t always the center of anti-gun sentiment. Baltimore was the city where Samuel Colt had the first prototypes of his revolvers made and the State of Maryland has a very rich history of gun lore. There is a shot tower in Baltimore, if they haven’t torn it down yet.
Amid the gaggle of social planners and counterculturists living there now, there exists a wealth of valuable airguns. And, every Sunday there was a chance that one of them could surface at the Columbia Flea Market, held in the parking lot of the Columbia Mall. On Super Sundays, the place expanded 10 times its usual size, and the odds of finding something increased exponentially. So, walking in that hallowed hunting ground, here is what I missed.
TWO Daisy Sentinels!
My stupidity knows no bounds! On this particular Super Sunday, I passed on not one but TWO Daisy Sentinel BB guns. One was priced at $110 and the other was $100. I could have bought them both for $200. Instead, I demonstrated restraint and walked away $200 richer and $2,000 less intelligent.
Edith triumphs
On another Super Sunday my wife, Edith, bargained for and bought a Haviland and Gunn BB pistol for $5. The dealer, who was asking $10, thought it was a water pistol from a carnival game, but Edith thought it was an airgun.
Haviland and Gunn BB pistol.
She later sold it for $400, and we knew it was worth twice that. But we really needed the money as we had just stopped The Airgun Letter and had to refund a lot of subscriptions that hadn’t been fulfilled.
I haven’t always been stupid, either. Once I got back into airguns, I quickly became aware of the various Holy Grails. One of them is a Crosman 1923 front-pumper, but an even rarer gun is an original 1924 underlever. Rarer than that is the third model I found and bought for $150. Later that same year I resold it for considerably more. Didn’t find it at the Columbia Flea Market, either. I found it at an airgun dealership!
1924 Crosman pump — third model. If you know your Crosman multi-pumps the receiver of this one doesn’t look like anything you have seen.
Over to you
Okay, those are a few of my stories, some good, others not so good. How did we get here today? Well, I wrote about buying used tools in pawn shops yesterday and it reminded me of all that is out there if you will just look.
It looks like Peter may have solved his problem with his GunPower Stealth, too. Let’s hope so. See what we can accomplish on this blog?
B.B.
Don’t forget Estate Sales!
I bet your’s, hopefully a long way off, will be a doozy…
-Y
BB,
I also second Yogi’s comment on estate sales. The market here is very thin on the ground though with boutique scale manufacture and strict rules on trading with knowledge of what’s available in the market spreading only by word of mouth. That’s the only reason I still maintain a Facebook account since that is usual means of communication.
Siraniko
BB,
Do not forget auctions. I bought this one for around 700 dollar.
Regards,
August
I too occasionally browse auctions.
What an interesting pistol August! I have so many questions that can be summed up to: would you tell me/us more about it please, thanks.
I second hihihi! I do not want it but would really like to know more about it.
Gentlemen,
It is a Massachusetts Arms Model 1850 Dragoon (Wesson & Leavitt) with the serial number 306. There are about 800 made. The production was stopped as the company lost a court case which was started by Samuel Colt. This was the first patent infringement case tried in the USA as far as I know.
This consignment was bought by the Northern troups and used in the civil war.
Regards,
August
Tha Wah of Nawthen Agression!
Not a bad snatch you made. Awesome!
I don’t think sitting at fort sumter being shot at is very aggressive.
Thanks for that information August. Much appreciated.
It looks like the top strap is the frame but nothing else. Is that right?
The brass trigger guard could do with a little careful adjusting, to close the gap by the grip.
I assume that the cylinder is rotated by hand (?) but how does it index?
What a fabulous find! Are you tempted to test it (with a very light load)?
Sadly, the nearby pawn shops seem to price everything at or above the retail price. Its very bizarre to see a current model Craftsman 3/8″ ratchet with a $30 price tag on it.
Derrick,
I find that many pawn shop owners like to haggle. If you can stand to walk away from the deal if it does not go as you wish, you can get some pretty good prices on stuff that way.
Oh, I understand the dance. I just don’t want to start at the cost of a new one
You don’t. You start well below what you are willing to pay. I offered a dude $40 for a Benjamin Prowler the other day. He said he had $50 in it, so he had to get $60. He still has it.
Derrick,
In all likelihood the shop makes more money off their interest on in-pawn items than they do on retail sales of out-of-pawn or outright purchased items.
If you ever visit a pawn shop on or close to the day installments are due, lines form in front of a window (usually middle of the back wall). Those folks are in line to make a minimum installment payment on an item they have in-pawn in the back, or they are paying off the loan in full. Sadly, it is usually the former rather than the latter. If someone is extremely talkative and happy, he or she is about to pay off the loan and get their possession returned. The others are instead dour, as they are going once again through a painful routine that reminds them of their hard times.
One can learn a lot observing folks in a pawn shop.
Michael
As BB and others know, I am an “eclectic collector”. I have had to walk away from some real deals as they did not fit in with the rest of the gals at RidgeRunner’s Home For Wayward Airguns or more often than not, the wallet was too thin, even for the real deal.
But being “eclectic” as I, you often find what you are looking for, know exactly what it is worth, usually find a good deal and am able to walk away from the plethora of other airguns that have come along over the years. BB understands what I am saying. He goes absolutely gaga over those early Dianas and he has quite a collection of 10-meter air rifles.
By the way, “Junior” moved into RRHFWA earlier this week. It seems I have an affinity for Webleys. I really do not understand. They are not exceptionally accurate, quite the opposite. They are extremely well built and quite simple in design. A Webley has to be in pretty bad shape to be beyond repair. Good thing. “Junior” is a bit anemic, even for a Webley. This one needs a bit of TLC.
That is another thing. If you know what to do and are not afraid of going inside one of these gals, you can get a super, duper deal.
B.B.,
The very first air gun I ever purchased was in a pawnshop: a Webley Hurricane with Webley scope mount and pistol scope. It looked so strange I noticed it in the pistol case without even looking at the pistols. It just caught my eye as I was walking past. I asked what it was, and the pawnbroker said something like, “It’s some kind of British pellet gun. It’s marked $50, but if you’ll get it out of here you can have it for $30.” That was a long while ago, but I think I’m remembering the amounts correctly. That Webley Hurricane began my interest in air guns.
As for air gun finds at flea markets, antique stores, garage and estate sales, I’ve had zero luck. Every now and then I’ll find a broken down rusty Daisy BB long gun from the plastic stock era, missing parts and marked $150.
I’ve never been to an air gun show because there aren’t any in the upper midwest except for Kalamazoo, but there is a huge annual gun show tomorrow four miles from me. Admission is only $7, but I’ve never been to a gun show, either. I would have zero interest in the firearms, but I’m wondering if there might be some nice vintage air guns for bargain prices. Apparently there are some dealers from all over the country who come to this show, but most would of course be from NW Indiana, Illinois, and southern Wisconsin. Air guns have absolutely no appreciable following in these areas. (I might be one of only two or three air gun enthusiasts in a 150 mile radius.) That makes me think it would be a total bust for me, but what are the thoughts of those here? (Remember, this area is an air gun desert.)
Michael
You should keep giving gun shows, flea markets and such a shot (pun intended) Michael. You might get really lucky and the hunt for potential treasure gets you out of the house and energizes you. It’s just fun.
Case in point for the “you never know what you may find;” late friend of FM was a militaria collector. At a flea market, forget where, might have been Connecticut, in the ‘70s he saw an unusual-looking canvas smock, no markings. Asking price was $4 but he talked the seller down to $2. Took it home, did his research and found he had bought a German WWII motorcycle trooper’s smock designed to protect from dust and dirt. Going price for one at the time in good condition, as was his, $400.
Seek and you might find.
Michael,
Airgun desert??!! Sheridan was in Racine!! There have to be some goodies up there.
BB
B.B.,
My Great Uncle worked as a janitor at Sheridan. I have a lot of affection for Sheridans as a result. But they closed up long ago, and I doubt much is left of their product in the area, although there is a gun show in neighboring Kenosha, so if I am wrong about that . . . . Where the original factory stood in south Racine is a vacant lot, although a small tavern that I’ll bet many of the workers went to after they clocked out is still there. BTW, for some time I had trouble finding the location as apparently the address moved at some point. There is a small machine shop at the address today, but that can’t be it. My guess is that it’s only about 2500-3000 sq. feet.
Michael
Michael,
Go. You might be surprised what you turn up.
By the way, there has never been a Hurricane at RRHFWA. Hint, hint. 😉
That pesky sand is always blowing around here. Just remember, even in a desert there is usually water..
RidgeRunner,
What makes you think I still have the Hurricane? (LOL, I still have it, of course.)
You are right that people find water even in the desert. But they often have to dig for it. :^)
Michael
Michael,
The digging is half the fun. I bought a Webley UK Tempest at a yard sale for $60. At another yard sale I bought a Ruger AirHawk and a Crosman 717 for under $80. All three have since found new homes but helped me bring my 1906 BSA to RRHFWA.
That once in a lifetime opportunity does come along all the time as BB says. You just have to look for it and be ready to take it when it does show up.
Yard sales are usually interesting places to find things.
One of the big things to watch for in my area was barn sales which don’t happen like they use to. Basically that was when a farm was getting sold. Well some of the time anyway. Other times it was a farmer needed new equipment. What I liked is there was always trading going on. So getting there early for the day was important. But being there throughout the whole day was just as important.
The barn sales was fun when I was a kid. More fun as a teenager needing parts to hot rod his car and so on as I got older. Heck it was just fun to hang out and watch how the day went.
I remember one time when I was almost a teenager I went to a barn sale. I traded a old wood sling shot with rubber bands for a 5 horse power horizontal shaft engine. Guess where that engine ended up. On a old go kart frame I traded one of my buddies a bicycle for. But that old farmer was as happy as could be with that sling shot. He pested with it. And what was even more cool is I still got to shoot that sling shot if I went over to his place. And for some reason he was always shooting it when I was riding my dirt bike down the road to his place. It took me awhile. But I finally figured out he saw and heard me coming and made sure I seen that he had that sling shot always being used. Well you know I rode that go kart to his place when I got his old engine mounted on that old go kart frame I had. I think he was happier than I was when he seen that engine on it. And what was even more fun is when he sqidtou know thise ginehasalot more power than what it has now. Then he showed me the governor on the engine.
That made me think. I would go to those yard sales and barn sales looking for something for a project I was into at the time and go home with a whole new project that I needed stuff for. What can say. It kept my days exciting. 🙂
Wait minute! BB, that R1 book you sold me at Roanoke so many years ago was one you found at a garage sale? Well, I assume you added a charge for your autograph and I did “talk” you down from $120. It’s still one of my most prized book possessions! I miss that show.
Fred formerly of the Demokratik Peeples Republik of NJ now happily in GA
Fred,
I don’t remember that one.
BB
I sorely miss it also.
The best finds are probably at flea mkts or yard sales, but why would Nancy Pelosi want to chair a corrupt special interest group like the NRA? I remember the slave quarters on the property on the eastern shore of Maryland where my family would gather for Thanksgiving, not exactly the center of rights and freedom for all, but we could shoot .22’s into the bay if we wanted after dinner. That’s a nice Supergrade. I hope to find one all beat up and forgotten, or a 50’s goldtop Les Paul with P90’s. That would be awesome! Another R10 would be the cats meow too. The 1/4″ headphone jack is the perfect pellet seater. Hang in there, Rob
A pawnshop near me for about a 9 month period was an airgun goldmine. I found an Air Arms S510 FAC Superlite in .22 for less than $100. I also got a Beeman Kodiak for under $100, a 342 Benjamin for $40. I still hit the pawnshops for deals like that, but they have been leaning toward museum prices for some sad looking, big box store, pellet wasters. Not knowing what I was looking at, I decided to do a little research on what turned out to be a 10 meter pistol, I forget the brand, but it was offered cheap, and it was gone when I returned to buy it. I like flea markets, gun shows and pawnshops, you never know when you’ll find a gem.
There’s an old thrift store near me thats always good for finding quality hand tools. They tend to get the remnants of estate sales. I’m always hunting for another pair of Kraeuter pliers with the art deco handles.
MMCM13,
It sounds like you need to buy a copy of The Airgun Blue Book.
/product/blue-book-of-airguns-13th-edition?a=8834
Look through it on a regular basis and carry it with you when you are looking for something. It is a great tool.
I have a bluebook. I was out of state and called my wife to look it up when she was home from work, the rest is history…
LOL! Sometimes it is just not meant to be!
It sounds like you stumbled on to some fantastic deals. Look at it this way, someone else found a bit of treasure also.
StevenG,
What were they doing there in the first place?
B.B. and Readership,
This whole blog just makes me think of the movie The Pawnbroker: Based on the novel by Edward Lewis Wallant, this drama focuses on former professor Sol Nazerman (Rod Steiger), the survivor of a German concentration camp and now a Harlem pawnbroker. He harshly condemns his clientele as the dregs of society and ridicules them for their feeble attempts at getting a life.
So as bummed out as that made me I redoubled my efforts to find some .177 pellets with enough weight (Mass) to shoot out of my SIG ASP20 without the Sonic BOOM that disturbs one of my new neighbors. Well I have plenty of .177 pellets suitable for pistols or 10M rifles but only one tin of .177 pellets over 10gr! They are vintage Beeman Silver Arrows at 10.65gr that must be 30 years old if a day. By the time I found them it was already Dusk but I was adamant to shot at least a few! I grabbed a NRA #A17 target (50 foot Small Bore Rifle Target) and my .22Cal metal trap and headed to the backyard to set it up. Back in the house to grab the ASP20 and out to the yard. By this time it was almost Nautical Twilight so this was a good test of the Whiskey3’s low light capability. I shot Off Hand (Standing) and even with the 10.65gr pellets it was way louder than my .22! So by the time i launched my 4th pellet my new neighbor had stepped on to his deck and I decided to call it an evening. He called me over and asked me if I didn’t think that shooting in the backyard wasn’t a dangerous thing for the neighborhood. I said not dangerous in the least since I have three levels of backstop and can contain them to the first level trap 99.9999% of the time. He uttered an expression of disbelief (NOT suitable for a family blog) so I showed him the target included below. After he saw that he asked me how that was possible. I told him almost anyone could learn to shoot an airgun that well and probably better. I asked him if he had ever shot and he said never. He didn’t believe people should own high powered firearms. I said great but what about bb guns or airguns? He said you could never shoot that well with a toy gun…I said, “but I just did.”. He had a strange look on his face; so I said, Do you want to shoot an air rifle? He thought for a moment and then said, Sure.
We have a time set for tomorrow during daylight since I told him it would be safer to have him try in full daylight. I’m going to let him try my scoped Discovery not the ASP20.
shootski
shootski,
Way to go dude! You could likely end up with a shooting partner!
RidgeRunner,
Time will tell!
Especially since today’s opportunity got rained out and tomorrow is out for other reasons.
We will try again next weekend; I hope he doesn’t chicken out.
As far as a shooting partner we will see since I have a few I find are a pleasure to shoot with and trust with more than water pistols already.
shootski
shootski,
His curiosity is up. He really wants to see what it is all about. Likely, all his life he has had it beat into his head that guns are evil. Also very likely, he has zero experience with airguns. If guided along carefully, if he does not become rabidly evangelical, he will likely become at least more tolerant.
” If guided along carefully, if he does not become rabidly evangelical, he will likely become at least more tolerant.”
Yes, that would be really cool. 🙂
Shootski,
I hope you can bring him around and help him realize how much satisfaction and fun the shooting sports actually brings to the shooter. Maybe let him shoot the DQ Outlaw for his graduation from smallbores?
Siraniko
Siraniko,
Not in the backyard with any of the Quackenbush Big Bores! They don’t have a safety and my backstops haven’t been upgraded with rubber mulch. I’m working on a concept to vertically contain mulch that isn’t visible and going to have problems with the wet and freezing weather. I don’t believe i will ever shoot a Big Bore in my backyard for fun that would draw more attention than I want from too many quarters.
shootski
shootski
Shootski,
I was thinking more in the lines of the graduation ceremony at a gun range where he can see others following gun safety rules and regulations. This should help dispell his idea that gun owners wave their guns around.
Siraniko
That’s the way to do it – bring the skeptics and the downright hostile over to the 2nd Amendment Side, one at a time. The Sproinger and Good Dark Side too. Have a cardio doc friend who years ago questioned why and other buddies in our circle wanted to own and shoot guns. A couple of us decided to take him on a target shooting session, a free-range one when there was still enough empty land in S Florida to do that. We got him hooked on Ruger 10/22s, recall later maybe an ’03 Springfield and a Universal M1 carbine playing their part in his conversion, with a couple handgun shooting sessions included to get his heart racing a little more.
Well, he bit hard; he became a pretty good shot and eventually had to have an AR-15 and other pieces. FM is working on hooking him on air guns. In time, in time.
FawltyManuel,
Totally agree on converting one at a time being the best way.
The rest of my immediate neighbors are all shooters or at least have no issues with safely shooting airguns in backyards. I will work to get this family to at least be tolerant; i get this idea that the spouse may need some education too.
I leave the Ukrainian issue under Foreign Politics for the Press to report on; my current concern is neighborhood politics ;^)
There have been so many instances of potentially different outcomes in history that could have been brought about by armed citizens; but they don’t seem to have stopped one country after another going the route of disarming their populace. Sadly it leaves only the rich and politically connected armed and/or protected. If you look at the recent visits by politicians to Ukraine that fact is so blatantly obvious!
shootski
Fortunately most of my neighbors are shooters; so far no complaints about FM’s backyard shoots. One time was roaming the yard, heard what sounded like air rifle “pops” and then a thud signaled an iguana had likely been “dropped.” A neighbor then peered over the fence and started explaining, “look, I love animals but the iguanas I can’t stand and I hope…” Stopped him right there and told him “not to worry neighbor, we’re on the same page.”
Hope your session goes well, Shootski. You might want to point out to your neighbor some of the horrible things seen on the news lately happening to innocent civilians in Ukraine might have been prevented if the victims had been able to keep and bear powerful firearms at hand.
I am in love with these reries,
My second FWB 124 was purchased on line. Somehow, the seller misspelled the heck out of it. Got it for $299. No other bids .Was a FWB 124 Classic with a Bushnell 6×18 scope , original sights and leather sling. The interals seem to have been replaced. Ohhh goodie.
Found a Bliue Streak Rocker safety for $99.00 a few years back. Last time I shot her was three months ago. Holding air. People are asking way over $200 now. My best buy was the purchase of “an architect’s junk drawer.” For $25..00 shipped, I received, some staplers, a wonderful hole puncher, maple and walnut rulers and a box of Blackwing pencils that I sold to someone in Germany for $725.00.
Yes, the pencil is mightier than the sword. MY husband fixes ink pens as a hobby and I collect and use vintage pencils. Back in 2009 during the recession while my husband was unemployed, I made $35000.00 selling vintage American made pencils all over the world. Find it interesting that people in all continents know of the wonderful smooth dark leads incased in easy to sharpen fragant cedar wood barrels that USA pencil companies used to make. Black Warrior, Mongol, Black Feet Indian Pencil Co. Calculator, Blackwing and even Dixon Ticonderoga. If you ever see them, get them. You might be able to finance the purchase of your next airgun with a box of twelve unassuming and under appreciated USA made wooden pencils.
An RZM Walter PKK for $250.00 at a pawn shop in California, Yeap, look around.
Alex2no,
I had a hard time sleeping last night because I cracked the back end of the barrel of an old vacumatic Parker 51 while replacing the diaphragm. I bought it at a flea market a few days ago for $5.00. Ugh! Has a gold nib and is such a nice writer! Somehow, I have to fix that.
I saw a three rusty BB guns and two overpriced Red Riders that I left for someone else.
Regards,
Will
It appears that to some, the idea of one-sided profit is very desirable. When young, I used to think that way too (ie I understand), but now, I would feel guilt, not glee, if I received more value than gave, in a transaction.
Just wanted to say, we’re not all the same. 🙂
thedavemyster May 16, 2022 at 8:11 am
” If guided along carefully, if he does not become rabidly evangelical, he will likely become at least more tolerant.”
Yes, that would be really cool.
I am so blessed to live where I do. It is a very rare day that I do not hear gunfire. No one pays any attention either. I am surrounded with forest and if I see you, you are trespassing. We are most intolerant of those Yankee city slickers who cannot stand the way things are where they lived and then come here and try to make it just like the mess they left.
We like the way things are here. If you don’t, goodbye.