1995 Italian FS92 INOX question [s] ...

jsergovic

I New Jersey friend recently showed me his arsenal.
Included was an Italian copy of the FS92, stamped "Made in Italy".

It felt light. Would that have had an alloy frame, or were all of them alloy, or were they usually steel, or stainless steel [inox], and he had a lightweight copy?

The hang tag was on it.
$700, paid in 1995, in New Jersey. I saw the receipt.

That sounds steep to me, seeing how a current NIB blue copy gets as low as $450, to $550, and the Inox are about $550.

Were they pricier then, or did he have a higher-cost "lightweight" model [any such thing?]

Are/were the Italian copies priced higher at the time, or does NJ have a history of overpricing firearms?

I've seen italian copies priced more, but in 1995 ???

Thanks.

lrarmsx

The initial Inox 92FS pistols were exclusively made in Italy. They said they weren't going to make them here in the US (at that time, they later changed their minds). In that time frame the Inox pistols were costing wholesale and retail well over $100 more than their blued counterpart. Not only were the Italian guns more desirable, but notably harder to find. When you did find them, especially in stainless or as they refered to them, Inox, they were quite a bit more. $750 was not uncommon. Rarely did you see them below $650.
It wasn't until after the ban in 1994 that the Inox models started to be produced here in the US. It would have been about 1995-1996 they switched over to US production and the price of the Inox models dropped to about $40-50 more than the blued model. At that point, you lost 2 things however. They were no longer made in Italy, and they no longer came with the high capacity magazine. They had reduced the number of high caps from 2 to 1 immediately after the ban in 1994. While they were still coming from Italy in 1995, they still had one 15rd mag. Even those original stainless factory 15rd mags were bringing $100 each at one time all by themselves.

Anyway, the Italian stainless "Inox" 92FS pistols were running in that price range of $700-$750 back in the day. Two years ago I had a dealer in Florida need specifically an Italian made 92FS Inox model for a customer. It had to be Italian, it had to have the high cap mags (2), and it had to be "New In The Box". I still had one locked in the safe with the factory tags still attached to the trigger guard, new unfired. Even then in 2003 it was worth over $700. He bought it for that and was going to sell it to his buyer for even more. Why was it worth so much? Because it was "Made In Italy", it was Inox/Stainless, and it was pre-ban. He could have gotten a US made Inox model from dozens of his distributors for $200 less, but that wasn't what his buyer wanted. He wanted an Italian one. To get that you had to go back to ones that had not been available since 1995-1996. To get one with 2 high cap factory mags, you had to go back to September 1994 or earlier. I just so happen to have such an item at the time. He asked for it, I supplied it, his customer was happy.

So yes the Italian made 92FS INOX is/was worth more than the blue and even more than the US made INOX model. Many won't care whether it is US or Italian, others will only buy the specific one they are looking for and pay the going rate. US will be cheaper. Italian will be more. When it comes to the same guns in a used condition, all bets are off. Some will consider them to be equal, others will still give a premium for the one made in Italy.