What A Thompson Should Be Worth

[Dee P Six]

Whey I see a parts kit for a 1928A1, which is currently selling for just over 600 bucks, it drives me nutty knowing a registered 1928A1 Thompson costing $20-30,000 shouldn't be worth much more than a new Mark III Ruger pistol. We have our overseers in Washington to thank for that.

[Sgt]

Dee P--

I remember when I first began collecting parts, I also felt that frustration. You'd pick up a trigger frame here and get a bargain on a lyman sight, and maybe find some wood on Ebay, but still the great missing piece can never be had. If it makes you feel any better, try to think of it this way. You aren't paying for the pieces of metal, but rather for that piece of paper that says your receiver is registered, nice and legal. They do have pretty stamps though.

[Norm]

The price is all in the stamp.

 

The only hope of the prices going down is if they overturn the '86 ban.

 

Does anyone know what ever happened to the possible (slim chance) of the amnesty for war vets?

 

Did it "die on the floor" or is it still alive?

 

Norm

 

[colt21a]

my first was $900.00..my last was $10,000.00

 

kinda big price increase in 27 year's.

 

now today......who know's..

 

however when i bought the first...the low/ball was $500.00...about two week's pay..so let's see today $30,000.00 for one...two week's pay?so everybody making a mill a year??i don't think so!at least nobody on this board...

 

so sad all this $$$ and no history today.

 

it's all about the law..supply and demand b.s.the buying public for the largest percentage still think..they are for gangster's..we will lose them before they give us more..

 

that you can bank on...CHAOS IS THE KEY! jeff goldbloomer's.

 

take care,ron

[Arthur Fliegenheimer]

Since the 1934 "Stamp Act," prices for NFA items were bargain basement for 40 years. The 1968 law didn't effect their value in any significant way either. After the 1986 act, TSMG"s were still selling below $5K for the best examples. It is the internet, the purveyor of readily accessible information, that is the culprit for escalating NFA prices.

 

Many of these smg's qualify as historical antiques, if not in the classical definition of 100 years old, and, therefore, their intrinsic, visceral, and historical value should not exclusively be attributed to the stamp.

[reconbob]

And think about how much money $200 (for the transfer) was in 1934. If they ever pro-rate that

to current dollars...

 

Bob

[OldFalGuy]

Gotta agree with you Arthurs-

 

Bob - Hush!!!!!!!!!

[Dee P Six]

wikipedia.com states that the retail cost of a 1921 Thompson of $225 would equal $2100 / 2005 dollars. That would make the original transfer tax also equal to about $2000/2006 dollars. The government is giving us a bargain.

[Norm]

I agree with Arthur. I think the internet is a prime player in the price game.

 

I am amazed that the $200 transfer has remained the since it's creation.

[TD.]

But if they jack up the price of the tax stamp too high, everyone will become a dealer...and they do not want that to happen again.

[sevengunner]

There is no question that the $200 transfer tax on NFA items is an excellent "rate" compared to what that amount would have meant to the wallet back in the 1930's. How you should take advantage of "low rates" is most obvious: _________ frequently, _________ often (insert your own verb here pertaining to the legal transfer of NFA items).

 

I doubt that there will be any GCA repeals or transfer tax increases soon. The National Firearms Act and its various amendments have succeeded in severely limiting the supply of new, transferrable machineguns. Also, in the U.S., while there are plenty of black market "type 1" firearms, the number of illicit machineguns that are used in crimes (and therefore available for use in crimes) is actually quite limited. Interestingly, with the dramatic increases in pricing for transferable machineguns, there is no question that owning them is becoming a more mainstream concept than it was only a decade ago. While there will always be those who irrationally fear guns of any kind, I do encounter more and more among the "uninitiated" who are more intrigued by than "wary" of the opportunity to personally own and shoot machineguns. Registered machineguns have no doubt become "collectible." This is not a bad thing at all. The ATFE's albeit "wishy washy" position to "almost" approve (i.e. first yes, then no) all West Hurley thompsons as C&R is evidence of this general change in sentiment -- that transferable machineguns are indeed collector's items, and that their registration may provide records and provenance of historical interest.

 

I will not live long enough to see the most wide-scale transformation. But, it will be interesting to see what happens for the "next generation" of gun enthusiasts, where a greater proportion of this pool of "registered" NFA crosses the 50-year mark into C&R status. In ten years, all the stuff made in the 1960's will attain their "golden" anniversary. In twenty to thirty years, the mass of machineguns registered in the NFRTR should cross the "golden" threshhold.

 

As the public becomes more aware of and acclimated to transferable machineguns, and even as their prices and collectibility increase, there is always the risk, however, that somebody with the financial means to acquire a vast quantity of them will do so with some screws loose in their heads. An heir to the DuPont fortune had already progressed down that dark path before, fortunately, getting put down by law enforcement intervention. My concern is that some wealthy, ivy-league trained, but generally idle and achievement- and socially-frustrated scion (e.g. joins the B-school for his 5th doctorate but finds his dissertation snubbed by a panel of economists) of a well-healed family (situated largely outside of but doing business with the U.S.), living here all his life as a citizen and perpetually going to school here (but never having to work to pay tuition and bills) and stuffing his head with all sorts of reformist philosophies in his 700 level Ph.D. courses at these institutes dedicated to the development of higher of "liberalized" knowledge and "social change" while accidentally stumbling on the unique phenomena of NFA ownership, will acquire one (e.g. 'the gun of Rambo') or many of our transferrable machineguns and strafe a church, or rally on the mall, or student union in some moment of "higher calling" and "idealized realization of a new calling associated with finding and freeing his people from the perceived oppression of our society and nation." That is just the kind of loose screw that could result in an all-out ban on ALL machineguns, transferable or not. It just takes one to ruin it for all.

 

Sven