[olderdude]

I am trying to help a friend who is selling his firearms which he no longer wants (he stopped shooting years ago). Local gun shops were offering $300 for this nickel-plated S&W 38 special with a 4 in barrel. Can anyone tell me if they think this is a fair offer? It appears to be a 5-screw revolver (screw on front of trigger guard) and the serial numbers on the butt of the gun and the cylinder match (S 8549xx). Is this something collectors would be interested in? I see mention of 4 line addresses. This gun has two lines on the top of the barrel and on the side near the trigger guard simply says "MADE IN USA". I'll try to figure out how to upload pictures if that would help.
Thanks.

 

[Wiregrassguy]

Welcome to the forums from the Wiregrass! Yes pictures are going to help because we can't give you an estimate of value without seeing the condition. But but even if we give you an estimate of value gun shops are only going to give you about half of what the gun is worth anyway. So if you take the $300 that the gun shop thought the gun was worth and double it, then you'll have the approximate value.

Guy

 

[jonesy814]

S prefix on the serial number would make it an N frame I believe. If it is nice enough then collectors might very well be interested

 

[Wiregrassguy]

The numerical part of the serial number is too high for it to be an N frame. It's an M&P. After the war, the M&Ps continued the serial number sequence at the end of the Victory production to early 1948.

Guy

 

[Abby'sDad]

If the gun shop offers $300, they'll try to sell it for $500 to cover OH and profit

 

[mrerick]

If it's in good cosmetic and mechanical condition, the offer is typical of retail stores acquiring used firearms. Revolvers don't sell today for reasonable money because new shooters generally want polymer frame semi-automatic pistols.

You can look up values on the GunBroker auction side. See current and (if you login to an account) completed auction sales.

Depending on many variables, the dealer offer is likely well less than half it's current value.