It’s been my experience over the years that Colts tend to hold their value (and even increase value in some cases). I remember back in the day as my collection went up and down like a rollercoaster every time I’d sell or trade an AR the only question I’d hear was , “Is it a Colt?”
I’m getting older and I realize I’ll probably never live to wear out my AR’s, so I’d like to keep all but one or two mint condition for future resale value.
As a result, this BCM fanboy is maturing into a “Colt snob”: All horsey all the time.
I mean if you are a buyer not a shooter, and like fondling pristine ARs, I’d go with items that hold resale value too. That is only good economics.
But that is a business decision and comparing dumping another $1k into an AR that will never get shot to $1k into an investment, odds are the investment will far outperform the AR, some onerous and highly unlikely legislation notwithstanding. Even then there are SOOO many ARs out there it would take many decades to get some great return out of them.
Again, this isn’t a shooting topic, it’s an investment topic.
True. Although I gave up being a “collector” many years ago, I’m reaching an age where I keep one or two shooters decked out with gear, and the rest have become more or less safe queens by default just because I don’t get to the range like I used to. It was not my original intent to move back into the “collector” category: It just sorta happened. If I wanted to I could accessorize my safe queens with different optics, rails, lights, etc, and have a variety of shooters, but I just don’t get to put rounds downrange as often as I’d like.
I think in that case name brand recognition is hard to argue with. When it comes to ARs, Colt is pretty much the ‘standard’ to deviate from and a name everyone knows - even people who aren’t gun people.
Personally, I have a large AR collection. Most of them are shooters, but I do have a few older Colts that I do not shoot. Some have been shot once since I bought them and a couple others have never been shot and never will be as long as I own them. I do not buy older Colt ARs for investment purposes. I buy them because I like the older models. Pre-ban Colts will most always have a strong value and some are worth a great deal more than what they did 10 years ago. Newer Colts, in my opinion, do not hold they value any more than other factory ARs from the likes of BCM, DD, LWRC, KAC, and some others. They do not appreciate in value, but they are slow to depreciate in value. I do see plenty of guys buying Colts in hopes of cashing in on them years down the road. They are waiting on something catastrophic to happen to drive the market price up like what happened when there was talk of a ban under Obama. I will add that there are some less expensive brand name ARs that do tend to retain much of their value since they are bargain-priced to begin with and are easily resold a few years down the road for slightly less than they were new.
If a person chooses to buy new Colts because of the brand name, that is on them. If they buy them for banking on a profit later on, they may be disappointed. Pre-ban Colts will always have a place in my collection because they were made when the Colt name really meant something.
Here is my small Colt collection. There are 36 other AR-15s in addition to these.
Yep, in my experience brands like colt definitely hold their value or go up. Unless you’re talking brands like Kac or HK most others do not hold their value as much.
As Renegade04 mentioned, I think Colts have historically held their value better than most brands, but that may also be a function of the company’s history of limited supply, restricted sales channels, discontinued/rare models, etc. The same could be said for KAC and LMT. I would not, however, expect that to be the case for a basic 6920 after they started selling them by the container at Walmart and every other big box store.
Aside from transferrable machine guns and the occasional unicorn or political anomaly, I don’t believe firearms are an “investment” in the traditional sense. Example: a Thompson submachinegun that originally cost $165 in 1928 is $2,435.81 in 2018 dollars. If new machineguns were legal today, you could likely buy one from Auto Ordnance for little more than the cost of the semi-auto, which retails for around $1300.
True, you shouldn’t buy firearms as an “investment” unless you’re talking transferable machine guns.
All I’m talking about is that by the time you’re too old to keep shooting and you’d like to at least get your money out of them, then IMHO Colt is the only brand that will hold its value over time.
Of course we can’t predict what might be true 20 years from now. By then we might have had to register all of them and they will be selling for NFA prices anyway!
Nothing like that rampant colt…all of my AR’s are Colt’s except for my SR-15 & a couple range guns, which are mostly BCM’s or BCM’s with Colt uppers. They make a great rifle & have more time in the game than anyone.
They’re an American institution & I’ll gladly to continue to buy them. They definitely hold their value & you’ll never go wrong buying a legit Colt. I’m super excited they’re starting to branch out with the Trooper, EPR, & CCU…hopefully there is more to come!
To me they hold their value in the sense that I know what I’m getting. I understand why I’m paying $600 for a used 6920 vs $400 for some brand new no name
I think you will see solid value retention from Colt, KAC, LMT, and most authentic civilian variants of military contract guns, i.e. FN SCAR, DD MK18, possibly F-15 and HK MR556/MR762. To your point, I buy two categories of guns: 1) guns I am going to shoot and use as intended; and 2) guns I want to pass on to my family knowing that we may be faced with “transferrable” semi-auto rifles someday.
One reason I ordered an LE trade-in 6520 this morning is that it will already be somewhat worn, i.e., not mint condition. It will be a shooter that may never be worth much more than it is now due to the condition. Same for my everyday use 6920.
I just opened the safe the other day and kind of went, “Damn. I may want to sell these when I’m in my '70’s. Maybe I better not go with plan A and turn every one into a shooter.” Two months ago I was on the verge of deciding to make each one a little different: different rails, different optics, different lights, different forward grips, etc., until it dawned on me that one basic configuration was good enough and I should save the others for a rainy day. YMMV.
I fear the upcoming crop of children are being so brainwashed against firearms that by the time I’m of retirement age we may be selling our semi-autos at huge profits because all of them will have been added to the NFA registry and new ones will not be available to civilians.
I hope I’m wrong, but does anybody honestly believe the mass shootings will stop? Get worse is more likely.
And sooner or later Congress and the presidency will be in the wrong hands again. By the time I’m getting too old to go to the range much anymore, we may be looking at another outright ban, or registration, or at least no more being manufactured for civilians after a certain date.
That is, assuming the SHTF doesn’t happen.
In a nutshell, I guess I’m crawling back into my “prepper stash” mentality: After briefly flirting with not having any safe queens I’m going the opposite way now.
I don’t have kids so I’m not worried about leaving them to someone. I damn sure ain’t registering anything…I guess I’ll just have to sell them all if it ever comes to that because I sure wouldn’t want to run afoul of some future Fuhrer’s edict. I want to be a good little citizen.
I’ve only had one sort of ‘vintage’ AR it was a post ban Sporter II HBAR. Paid ~500 and sold it for 1200 a couple of years ago so did more than hold it’s value.
I too want to add a decent R6520 or AR6520 to my collection some day soon. An AR6520 would be preferable as it would go well with my AR6320. It does not have to be mint, but it does have to be in pretty nice condition. A little wear here and there is fine. Until then, I will be satisfied with the Colts I have as well as all of my other ARs.
There is that SP1 carbine we were just discussing in another thread…looks great! That 6320 will without question only continue to grow in value. Those, SP1 carbines, and the Z-Coat Colts are some of the ones I’d love to own out of the rare Colt AR models. Really nice collection.
To the “uneducated” gun buyer Colt rings a bell and might likely get top dollar somewhere down the road. Anyone on this site would raise an eyebrow if it was a jacked-up price, but some guy at a gun show hears Colt and sees the roll mark and he’s sold. Not bashing Colt at all and I have a couple myself, just that saying certain words or names get someone’s attention.
A decade or so ago I was at a gun show trying to sell an M14-clone (to fund other projects, as is usually the case). It was a Polytech receiver but with all non-Chinese parts. It had been built by Warbird’s Custom (an M14 'smith/guru of sorts). USGI chrome lined barrel and USGI bolt, the whole nine yards. Had two guys come up and ask what it was. “M14 semi” I said. They each took it and looked straight at the receiver…“Oh, it’s not a Springfield. Thanks anyway.” Both guys did/said almost the exact same thing. Forget that it was worth a good deal more than a standard SA M1A, they looked no further than the receiver. So yeah name recognition is good, and that is up to and including Colt.
My LGS has a mid 70’s Colt SP1, asking $1300 and probably not overpriced for that.
I can remember as a kid going to gun shows and when you saw an AR-15 this is what you saw 90% of the time. A cheap AK was $250 and a cheap AR was $750.
I’m curious to see what a 10 to 20 year old Colt 6920 will fetch in the future.
