What's the stupidist thing you've done with a collectable.
 

I feel that I ought to share this tale of misfortune brought on by sheer stupidity with others who may learn something from it.
I have in my care a very nice condition Mauser 98 sporter with full Mannlicher type stock. When I got it I was proud to own it. It was all there right down to the claw mounted Kahles scope. As some may know claw mounts are quite unique to the rifle. Chances of lucking onto a scope and mounts that fit your gun are about like matching up a missing mag for you prized Luger. Mine was just such a thing.
I was going through things that I did not need anymore and found a few German scopes with claw mounts that I did not need anymore. Well to make a long story short I goofed up and sold the matching scope to my rifle!:mad: It only took me 6 months to discover this. How in the heck could I be so dumb! I sold them on Ebay, so I set about searching my feedbacks. I knew what state and city they went to, so that helped. I was able to get ahold of the buyer and arrange to buy the scope back. I paid him a bit more than he had paid, but it was worth it. Last week it came back home to me, unfortunately sometime in the past 6 months he had done some filing to the rear claw legs. It still fits, but is a little loose. I am presently having the legs welded to add on the damaged end.
Moral of the story, make sure you really really don't need things before you sell them!:cheers:

I had a nazi Red Cross dagger, did two stupid things, one sold it, the other before that, it was mint, straight from a depot, and it had a spot of rust on the outside scabbered, I took some 000 steel wool and instead of cleaning it, it scratched the &^%& of the paint!


lesson learned....

ed

Traded mint cederwood Gardner pattern Confederate canteen with turned mouthpiece and the nicely done initials" J.E.B." for an 1860 Colt army (matching with full cylynder scene, no blue, cool end of barell holster wear from horseback riding, and it shoots great) plus an 1816 Remington Maynard conversion rifled musket ( about in as issued cond.). Thinking I did good. A couple months later I spotted a picture of the guy in a trade mag. holding the canteen. After six or seven years of inflation I am almost back to even. The plus side is I have shot the heck out of that Colt ( tack driver ) with original nipples and springs and it is no worse for the wear.
I paid what I had in my wallet for the canteen at an antique consignment shop ( $98 ). I think about this every so often (research!). Through experience I have found I should not keep wood or textiles so it is for the best.:cheers:

I bought a small spur trigger Remington at an auction for $50. A few months later a buddy and I had a gunshow table and I sold it to him for $100. About 2 hrs later he sold it for $200. Found out later it was worth around $400! AH, the bliss of ignorance! :banghead:

Hugh, I'm with you. Since I'm in the business of selling guns, the only ones that I regret selling are the ones that I've sold too quickly and too cheaply (for 1/3 of the book value) without researching them sufficiently. TH

Well,

Substituting the non-vented firing pin on my Dutch 1906 for a vented VoPo one for shooting purposes. I have two spares and mixed them up somehow. The one that didn't work properly (too short, sear didn't catch it) ended up in the 1906. Shot a full mag full auto on the range that day and almost wrecked the pistol.

Petting a 6' rattlesnake, cost me $30,000 and the use of a finger. Beat that one! My finger was the collectable... Jerry Burney

Not so loud, the rest of the guys might not know my secret to gun trading.
Buy high-Sell low.

That how I've made mine!!!;)

How about selling a Party Leader PPK for $125.00. Then several years later while walking around a gun show, you happen upon a Walther collector who has a table full of Walther pistols and only a picture of a PPK like the one you sold a few years back. So you ask, "why do you have a picture of that PPK?" and of course he gives you the wonderful news that you sold a PPK for that is near priceless (at the time), because there were only a few known to exist then. The serial number is 185091K if anyone out there has it or knows where it is. BTW, this happened many years ago.

Mike

This thread reminds me of the signature of one of the members of another forum.

He signs off with:

"If I still had all of the money I spent on guns and cars I would probably spend it on guns and cars."

I understand this completely, too bad the wife doesn't.

Tac, I know there aint no such thang as I am now an expert on deadly snakes...As for gun deals gone wrong It would take too long to list em all. Although Mike B and his Party Leader has to be right up there...Jerry Burney

Why not, not as if I don't have a history of stupidity anyway. Last year I fell in love with the idea of the mountain man persona plus there is a wildlife preserve with lots of deer so I dropped about $325 on a flintlock and ALL the accessories. Two weeks later I sold the whole mess for $65 and was very happy to get rid of it. Just takes time to learn, everybody said. Takes practice. Just have to work out the problems. Every gun is different. Bull. The thing was a sewer pipe with a poorly applied theory of ignition. I will never shoot another gun that requires a decontamination procedure to scrub it and yourself after trying to get it to shoot. They are accurate, everybody said. How in the hell can you tell with all the smoke and grease burning and the crap in your eyes? Don't use as much primer powder, they said. Sharpen your flint. The only thing that was worse than it not igniting was when it did. Being the stoic idiotic type of person that I am, I didn't give up easily. Finally got it to explode on cue about half the time, at 25 yds I did well to hit a 10" target anywhere. Slug the bore, they said. ??? How do you push it out the other end? Try different bullets. Develop your own load. Cast you own bullets. Mix your own grease. Use a different patch. Nope. Done with that. I'd rather jump out of my climbing stand bare handed on the back of a deer than try to use that thing. Sorry this wasn't about a collectable, but I really had to get this off my chest. Never again. (By the way, I ordered a crossbow and ALL the accessories couple of days ago)

rk:bigbye:

Of course TAC, the crossbow was state of the art protection in 1130 Ad Deum... It is only natural that your royalty would take it away from you...

Tac, Nah, I'm kiddin ya..I don't know a durn thing about snakes except they cost ya a lot of money if they bite you! Seems they want to keep idiots alive for some reason.
A fur bearing adder huh? Sounds like a tall tale....
RK, I quit myself for the same reasons! Jerry Burney

What's the stupidest thing I've ever done with a collectable?

I married her. Okay, she wasn't collectable, but she was an antique...

:roflmao:

Oh boy, sure am glad we got divorced or she'd be kickin' my behinder for that one....

:cheers:

One of the stupidest things that I've done with a collectable was to trade a 1914 DWM complete rig with two matching magazines for a 41/42 Mauser complete rig with two matching magazines. Kicked myself for doing that, although I really needed the 41/42 rig. Never could find another 1914 DWM complete rig and just luckily after about 8 years the guy decided to sell some of his stuff and I was able to buy it back. Those 8 years I did some verbal abuse to myself each time I looked at the empty space where a DWM 1914 was suppose to be. --- Bill

I, too have made many, many blunders in my over 60 years of collecting. My only consolation is that I have also dealt with countless other collectors who have equally blundered in my favor, so I guess the books are pretty even.

I played with a german dagger my father had when I was a kid and left it out in the rain. My father was mad as hell because it not only rusted the blade, but the sheath was made out of cardboard or something and the rain totally ruined it. I got a butt bust'n for that.

On another note, I sold my 1961 Corvette to finance my first marriage/wedding. I should have keep the car.

And the bonds would still be worth a fortune today..... :( Damn.....

I just found out yesterday that the beautiful bluing around the Eacle/F on a 1944 AC PP is NOT, I say again, NOT impervious to a razor blade. Alas, Lacquer Stik doesn't protect that bluing either.

Ted, when you're done with my double-date....

I hear it already, stupid newdie, "imagine,taking a razor blade to a collectable....."