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Gun value opinion

SP45SP45 Member Posts: 1,758 ✭✭✭
edited May 2015 in Ask the Experts
What would a firearm that came from Saddam Husains collection be worth above the normal price. I saw a gun, single shot rifle, with the Husain crest in gold leaf on the side of the receiver. I have seen others with the same crest and am confident it is legit. It is engraved with middle eastern style engraving. I value the gun without the crest or engraving at $1,000.00. Just wondering how much this adds to the value. No paperwork with the gun.

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    charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,579 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You can place any value on it you want, finding someone to pay that might be very difficult. Buy the firearm not the story is good advice. Without paperwork it's just a story.
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    rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,650 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    You might consider posting quality close up photos of Saddam's gun. Specially all the markings. Doing this might help provide authentication of the gun, vis a vis being Saddam's personal property.

    Otherwise as Charlie notes. It just a story. Almost every antique store and gun show, will have similar items for sale. Complete with fanciful unattributed stories. Seeking big bucks based on the story. Rather than the intrinsic value, of the gun itself.
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    mark christianmark christian Forums Admins, Member, Moderator Posts: 24,456 ******
    edited November -1
    In my (what I was told today is liberal) opinion, it won't add much to the value. Where did it come from and where are the release papers? It is no secret that our troops were not allowed to send home (legally at least) firearms taken as War Trophies, and it didn't swim over from Iraq. Where are the Gulf War collectors? There are some, but they aren't ponying up anything like the kinds of money collectors will pay for WWII firearms, and if you manage to locate anything from the War of Northern Aggression (especially from the Confederates) which can be directly linked to any known figure, you've got gold.

    Now I've seen it all. The profanity censor won't allow the use of the term C-I-V-I--L War, and it managed to misspell Aggression, which has two G's (even I knew that). Let's see how long it takes for that to be edited and corrected.



    The gun is probably a nice curio, and years down the road it might well be collectible, but I just don't picture there ever being any kind of demand in the country for anything Saddam related...Unless it is a Blu-ray of his hanging.
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    fordsixfordsix Member Posts: 8,722
    edited November -1
    i remember the news then about the 1000's of guns they found in the palaces lots nib's remember the golden AK's
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    nmyersnmyers Member Posts: 16,879 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Uday & Qusay were the real collectors in the family. As Fordsix says, the Royal Bedouin Trash Collection tended towards gold plated guns. Unlike WW2, the Hussein guns were not grabbed by the first GI's in the building; photos taken in the palace at the time showed guns in display cases & mounted on the wall. I'm guessing that there were sufficient officers present to ensure that most guns were photographed & cataloged & shipped back to SECDEF.

    Dubya used to keep a gold plated AK-47 from the collection in the Oval Office, often showing it to visitors. I'm sure that somewhere there's an inventory list of items seized from Hussein's palaces, but you'd probably have to submit a FOIA request. Unless SP45's rifle is on the list, it's just a rifle.

    Neal
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    tsr1965tsr1965 Member Posts: 8,682 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I would imagine, if it is legit from his collection, knowing what Mark has said about importation of war trophies from that area, I would stay far away from it.

    Most likely its worth would be worth possibly a trip to prison, or at the very least, a STERN talking to from the State Department, and BATFE.
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    GrasshopperGrasshopper Member Posts: 16,738 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    As stated.1,000 for the gun,and you could be right about it,,but ,,so imo,go with the current value as a shooter and go from there,
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    Fairlane66Fairlane66 Member Posts: 336 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not to discount anything others have already said, but I don't think current price is the real question, at least in my mind. The real question is, what might it be worth in the future. Take, for example, all the Nazi souvenirs vets brought back from Europe after WWII. Ten to twenty years after the war, most of that stuff was still fairly worthless. My neighbor kids used to wear real German helmets when we'd play war and, except for one neighborhood vet who was offended when little Joey wore an SS helmet, no one cared. We beat the daylights out of those relics and no one gave any thought to how we were degrading their future value. However, as those WWII vets aged, began to look back on their accomplishments, or started to pass on, that changed. WWII relics really began to appreciate in value in the 90s. Heck, I was at a gun show this past weekend and a guy had a dozen German helmets for sale, most not as nice as the ones we played with in the 60s, and the cheapest one was selling for $900. A named SS helmet in fairly rough condition sold for $2000.

    So, are you willing to speculate that a gun owned by that cowardly rat GIs found hiding in a hole will be worth more in the future? Will relics from the Gulf War appreciate in the same manner as those from the "last good war?" Is a gold-plated, garish AK-47 going to appreciate like a German Luger taken from a captured officer? I'm probably letting my bias show by the way I worded the questions, but those are definitely questions I'd ask myself before making the plunge.

    If you have $1K lying around and are willing to speculate, take the leap, tuck the gun in a safe, and wait to see what happens in another 20-30 years. If not, there's plenty out there vying for $1000 that would probably bring a more guaranteed return on investment. For example, now that Ruger has stopped producing their Red Label, prices have already gone up appreciably. And a Red Label would be an investment you could take to the range and occasionally shoot, as opposed to a gold-plated thug gun.

    As an aside, in 1977 I had the opportunity to buy a flyable North American B-25 Mitchell bomber for the grand sum of $7,000! We were still in the throes of a gas crisis and I had just graduated from college, so $7K seemed like a fortune at the time. That is one opportunity I'll always regret passing up. If only we could foresee the future, huh?

    OK, just my two cents....and probably worth about as much!
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    MG1890MG1890 Member Posts: 4,649
    edited November -1
    Ain't worth nuthin' in the US if it is select fire.

    If it legal in the US, and within our borders, legally transferrable, then it has value.

    How much? Did I miss where you told us the make and model?
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    SP45SP45 Member Posts: 1,758 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Fairlane66
    My thoughts exactly. I did not buy the gun it is a single shot rifle falling block. Just interesting.Not to discount anything others have already said, but I don't think current price is the real question, at least in my mind. The real question is, what might it be worth in the future. Take, for example, all the Nazi souvenirs vets brought back from Europe after WWII. Ten to twenty years after the war, most of that stuff was still fairly worthless. My neighbor kids used to wear real German helmets when we'd play war and, except for one neighborhood vet who was offended when little Joey wore an SS helmet, no one cared. We beat the daylights out of those relics and no one gave any thought to how we were degrading their future value. However, as those WWII vets aged, began to look back on their accomplishments, or started to pass on, that changed. WWII relics really began to appreciate in value in the 90s. Heck, I was at a gun show this past weekend and a guy had a dozen German helmets for sale, most not as nice as the ones we played with in the 60s, and the cheapest one was selling for $900. A named SS helmet in fairly rough condition sold for $2000.

    So, are you willing to speculate that a gun owned by that cowardly rat GIs found hiding in a hole will be worth more in the future? Will relics from the Gulf War appreciate in the same manner as those from the "last good war?" Is a gold-plated, garish AK-47 going to appreciate like a German Luger taken from a captured officer? I'm probably letting my bias show by the way I worded the questions, but those are definitely questions I'd ask myself before making the plunge.

    If you have $1K lying around and are willing to speculate, take the leap, tuck the gun in a safe, and wait to see what happens in another 20-30 years. If not, there's plenty out there vying for $1000 that would probably bring a more guaranteed return on investment. For example, now that Ruger has stopped producing their Red Label, prices have already gone up appreciably. And a Red Label would be an investment you could take to the range and occasionally shoot, as opposed to a gold-plated thug gun.

    As an aside, in 1977 I had the opportunity to buy a flyable North American B-25 Mitchell bomber for the grand sum of $7,000! We were still in the throes of a gas crisis and I had just graduated from college, so $7K seemed like a fortune at the time. That is one opportunity I'll always regret passing up. If only we could foresee the future, huh?

    OK, just my two cents....and probably worth about as much!
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