This pistol belongs to a friend who wants a value . On the top of barrel it has, Colt's P.T F.A MG Co. Hartford CT USA on the side it has, Official Colt Police .38 serial number 596405
I will try to help some. Colt revolver prices in my area have sky rocketed! There is one similar to yours on ********* right now for $1,495. That price seems a little steep to me, but I can be wrong. Yours has aftermarket grips as well as the one on GB. You will have to find a collector of Colts to put that kind of money out. I still think it is steep and would probably put it in the $900 to $1000 range based on similar guns in my area. If you trade it in and your local gun shops are like the ones in my area they will offer you about 50 cents on the dollar. I would say if you can get up with MikeBiker on here, he can give you a better value as he is really up on things like this.
It all depends on whether the finish is original or not. Personally, I can't tell from the photos. Unfortunately, it is common for blued guns in poor shape to be nickel or chrome plated, because that is cheaper to do well than bluing and the plating with sometimes cover up minor rust-pitting. On the other hand, bright nickel was a more common finish at the time this gun was made than it is now.
It appears to be a pre-World War II Colt "Official Police" model. These were very sturdy guns and are good shooters, but they are one of the most common Colt revolvers and do not seem to be as heavily collected as a number of other Colt models.
As far as the gun TyeDye1971 mentions goes, it has been up for at that price for at least 18 previous 3-day auctions with no takers. To me, it seem greatly overpriced. With most of the online gun auction sites, if you sign up (which is free and obligates you to nothing) you can search the completed auctions, which is where you can find out the prices for guns that have actually sold.
TyeDye is completely right about local gun stores. Although they are often the most convenient place to sell a gun, used guns are where they make most of their profit, so their offers are very low.
But like I said, it all depends on whether the finish is genuine or not. A refinished gun, unless it is a rare type, is just a shooter, and used 38 Special shooters are not all that valuable. The people who will pay extra for a Colt prefer them in the original finish.
PS - sorry to nitpick, but the barrel marking should be Colt's P.T.F.A. MFG. CO. This stands for for "Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company".
Thank you for your help guys, he hopes to sell this gun or trade for an AR, so if the finish is original he should be able to get a low budget black gun.
The plating looks original when looking at the pictures of the lettering, it shows no dishing from being polished. The nickle plated Colts are bringing good money when in very high original condition. The Official Police is more or less the equivalent of the S&W Model 10. Mostly a working gun. If the gun is 99 percent plus I can see it bringing 700 to 800 at auction with no box. This would be to a dedicated collector zeroing in on the rarity of the Nickle gun. In reality a price of 500 to 600 would be a lot easier to get especially if the gun has any amount of wear showing.. The OPs are not rare and I expect there are a fair number of nickle plated guns out there. Condition on the other hand is the real game changer. Guns often have crazy asking prices on ********* and if you look back you see they never sell. Look at the completed auctions to get a real value.
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