Legacy News
On the Legacy News page our goal is to provide feedback on recent shows we attended, along with other updates for collectors and merchandise stories. Follow us on Facebook to find out when we will be attending shows and for live updates from the shows. Legacy Collectibles Facebook .
4/25/2012
I attended the Rock Island Auction this past weekend. Always a great opportunity to examine some rare guns. And for the high end collectibles, the bidding was crazy. Record high prices on rare Colts, Walthers, and Lugers. For example, a very nice Party Leader rig sold for about $62,000; an absurd price in my opinion. We have had several very fine examples on the Legacy site, but never for more than 15k. I have mixed feelings about these prices. It is very good to see strong prices on our high grade collectibles. That means our collections are worth more !! But it is also a little disconcerting. I don't like to see "irrational exuberance" as it is inevitable that some collectors will be burned. Don't get sucked into this trap. For example; folks see this price on a Party leader rig, so they pull out the one they have locked away and expect to get these prices..... Or next month a dozen people send theirs to Rock Island hoping to get anything NEAR that price. When in fact, this will just drive that price down.
Time for a true confession. Over a year ago, I saw a Party leader rig go for 30k and a cased Luftwaffe Drilling go for 27k. I had one of each in the safe, so sent them off to Rock Island. The Party leader sold for 8500 and the Drilling 14,000. After paying the 15% commission, I ended up losing money on both items. And I am in good company as I have heard this same story from numerous fellow collectors. I won't make that mistake again
Here at Legacy Collectibles, we are NOT looking for the next "big score". We would rather establish long term relationships with a customer base that is interested in QUALITY INVESTMENTS.
3/1/2012
We had a great time in Louisville--can't wait to put up some new items. Now we're counting down the days to our new location change! The Legacy team is moving to a new location with more room for our growing work force, inventory, and service.
2/20/2012
We are heading to the Louisville show on 2/22/2012. Stay tuned for updates!
11/30/2011
I hope everyone is enjoying the new "Private Collection" tab. We were hoping to show Legacy customers some rare and fun items. We will be adding more each month so be sure to keep checking.
We just had our Turkey Day Special that drew a lot of attetion so we are going to continue to have sales throughout the holidays. For Christmas we will be offering discounts as well as some rare items so everyone can have a merry Christmas. We will let you know when the specials start so you can be sure to grab the deals.
This weekend is the Allentown show and we are looking forward to it since we have not been to a show in over a month. Check out Facebook and Twitter because we will be giving live updates from the show. Also, be sure to check Legacy News next week for feedback on any new finds at the show.
10/7/2011
Two new items that we brought back from the MAX show: one was a very nice dual tone P.38, svw 45. Proper grips and magazine. $ 2850.
And the second was a K43 Sniper Rifle. Post war mount, but everything else on it is original and correct. It will probably be around 3850.
Also, I have an SS ppk inbound. It is the early muzzle numbered variation and has a matching magazine. This gun will be about 4800.
We havent been able to load them yet, but if you want "first dibs" on these hard to find gems, just let us know.
10/4/2011
Andrew and I were at the MAX show this weekend in Pittsburgh. So here's the good news; everyone I spoke to said that this year was better than last! Could this be a sign that things are turning around a bit.?
The high end items seem to hold their value despite the economy. More standard items probably require a little more haggling to sell, but there are still new (and old) collectors out there looking for quality collectibles. 
We were sporting our new Legacy-Collectibles t-shirts
And had help from a lovely young lady who seemed to attract even more attention than my gold engraved PP.
We will be loading some our nice "finds" from the show in the coming week including some new daggers, lugers, SS guns, holsters, and even a K43 sniper rifle.
8/3/2011
I recently watched an auction for an SS PPK climb well over $8,000. Which brought to mind a question that I get asked frequently. "Have SS guns reached their price pinnacle, or do they have room to grow?".
I believe they still have a long way to go; and here's why. The information on the SS guns is relatively new. The variations were first documented by John Pearson only about 3 years ago, and many collectors are just now educating themselves about their existence. Most collectors (including myself) have sought to collect each of the factory variations over the years, and now suddenly there is a whole NEW group of Walthers that we rush out to find. When I first found out about the SS variations I could still go to shows and pick them up for the price of a commercial PPK - $800. But as folks became educated, these bargains disappeared quickly. The demand far exceeds the supply. While I think the $8,000 price tag was an anomaly, I still think the SS guns are a great investment.
The second reason I think they have room to grow is due to the comparison to SS daggers. Chained SS daggers have been selling for $8,000 to $10,000 for a quite a while. Some of the rarer variations can be double that. So which would you rather bring to a fight? An SS gun or SS dagger :) Nuff said.
7/22/2011
Referring back to our 7/13/2011 post we have been working on the speed of the site. Specifically we have been trying to improve the time it takes to load the photos. I think we are starting to make some progress there, so I hope you see some positive changes over the next week or so.
The Chantilly gun show is next weekend and the summer crowd may be light. Still, it is typically a pretty good show. Over the past 2 years there has been some exodus of collector / dealer tables being replaced by trinket dealers - "camo and ammo". I usually hang out at Scott Benedicts table, and spend most of my time reconnecting with dealer friends as there are always a few good buys there. The economy is much stronger in the DC area so lately there have been fewer "bargains" but increased buying. I will be searching out new inventory for our site, so stay tuned the next couple weeks!
7/18/2011
Sales picked up this weekend as we have had 5 handguns sell over the past 3-4 days. But..... no worries; always lots of new things coming in, and this week is no exception. We will be loading some new walthers this week, along with some P.38's and a boxed MAB from the 1960's
We also have been selling some accessories on ebay under the name "Lifemanagement". Unfortunately, Paypal froze our account as one of our customers used Paypal to buy a gun. It took them less than 24 hours to nail us! Big Brother IS watching!! So we called to say we were sorry and that it would not happen again, but they banned us for life anyway. Seems a little harsh, but we will quickly find a new and convenient way for our customers to make payments. In the meantime, you can always call us at 717-203-5528 to pay by credit card. We do not charge any extra for such purchases.
7/13/2011
Getting lots of positive comments on our new site. However, the second most common comment is that the pictures load too slowly. Thanks for the feedback. We are working on it. We have state of the art software and don't know why it takes so long. It is frustrating for us as well. We have tried lower pixels on the photos, but that seems to have no affect. We will continue to work on the problems and hope you see some improvement soon.
On a more positive note, thanks to my collector friend, Jason Riley, I have 4 US Military pistols headed my way next week. Sounds like some nice stuff so stayed tuned. Thanks Jason.
7/12/1011
This weekend I attended the Allentown Gun Show. It is typically a very good collectors show. This time it was slower than usual. Typically I blame the bad economy, but actually I think it was the nice summer weather. Sunny and 80 degrees feels more like the beach and outdoor BBQ's, so I'm betting the September show will be back to normal.
I picked up a 99% RZM for my personal collection, along with a very nice 1942 Tokarov (already sold) , and presentation French FN 1922 (also already sold). A "walk in" sold me a sub par 1934 Nazi Navy Mauser. Not a gun I would typically buy, but realized it would look good in our "Bargain Buy" section. Not everyone can afford pristine guns, and I know some collectors are looking for honestly worn guns that are affordable. You can see it posted in the Bargain Guns section.
Even though I was at a show, I was also working the internet with the help of some of my "pickers". With their help I have some interesting "incoming items" anticipated for this week, so stay tuned. Incoming items include:
- 4 Nazi era Astras
- An SS PPK with matching magazine
- A Chinese Makarov with no import marks and matching magazine
- An early 96% RZM ppk
7/7/2011
This week we launched our new site. The old site was inexpensive and very simple to navigate, but as we grew we found that it's capabilities were limited. I MUST acknowledge Ed Tinker's work on our previous site. In spite of a busy schedule and eventually moving to Saudi Arabia, he kept up with the site changes and updates. He was remarkable in his ability to respond to questions and new postings. In fact, I would say it was HIS work on this site that let to our initial success, and therefore the necessary update.
In the middle of May this year, I hired Andrew Bartlett full time to take on the task of leading us into the next generation of Legacy. He has done that by upgrading the site, adding new features.... and yes, even putting us on Facebook. You all KNOW how much those young whipper snappers LOVE Facebook.
So here we are - poised to embrace new technologies, to expand our customer base, and to grow our product line. While our base has always been Axis Pistols, in our first month we expended to include a few Colts, and long rifles. We know we have a long way to go.
Whenever you expand into new product lines it is inevitable that we will make mistakes. That is why we have included a panel of experts who we will rely upon before buying anything outside our knowledge base. Thank you for our patience as we work through these changes.