wmartin@STL-06SIMA.ARMY.MIL (Will Martin) (06/08/91)
Sent to both rec.guns and the firearms mailing list. Just took a brief look in the St. Louis Public Library at a new "firearms price guide" book and thought I'd post a mini-review. The book is THE STANDARD CATALOG OF FIREARMS by Dan E. Bradick, published by Krause Publishing (700 E. State, Iola, WI 54990 (715) 445-2214) copyright 1991 ISBN 0-87341-156-0 I failed to note the price; it's a big paperback (like a Gun Digest type book) and it is put out by the people who print the "Gun List" paper. On the whole, the initial impression is that it is better than most other price guides. There are a lot of clear illustrations and the paper is higher quality than Digest Books uses. But when I began to look up specific guns, I came up blank on some. So it is not as complete as it implies. For example, I never could find a SIG-AMT rifle listed, and I did check the index for that term. As to other assault rifles, they weasel out of the whole issue by declining to quote values for any of them. They put in some nice-sounding paragraphs about the anti-AR hysteria and how the resulting legislation has made the values impossible to specify, and recommend anyone selling one get the weapon appraised. I'm not all that impressed with that appraoch; they could use Shotgun News ads which list prices people are offering for ARs and specify that the values are as of a specific date. That would be far better than just leaving out the values, which is what they do. And I have no idea who would appraise an AR around here. You can always take one to a show or a dealer and ask "Whadya gimme fer this?", but that's no way to get a real value... They list values by grades (NIB, Exc, Good, Fair, Poor) and not by percentage of finish remaining. I found it annoying that they cite NIB as meaning with all papers, packing, original accessories, etc., but then ignore what the effect on value is when you have a used gun but still have the box, manual, etc. Surely that should add some percentage but they don't mention it. (A new category -- "UIB", maybe? And "IPIB" -- "In Pieces In Box": the way a lot of people bring their guns in to the gunsmith... :-) On the whole, it looks like a good reference. If it can be obtained at a reasonable discount, the way Digest Books are usually available, I'd buy a copy. The people out there who don't like any of the currently- available price guides won't like this one, either, though. Regards, Will wmartin@stl-06sima.army.mil OR wmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil