How Many “One-of-a-Kind” Anniversary Edition 1911 pistols will Colt make?
Colt donated a gorgeously engraved Colt 1911 pistol to the NRA Foundation, the NRA's charitable organization, who are auctioning it off at GunBroker.com. The current bid is over $33,000.
I think the gun is beautiful and I applaud Colt's generosity to the NRA Foundation, but I do think it is unfair to be producing a second '100th Anniversary Edition' after auctioning off another 1911 that was said to be "One-of-a-Kind" earlier this year and selling it for over $83,000! The 'Factory Engraved 100th Anniversary Colt 1911' sold for $83,025 in January. It had the serial '1911COLT2011'. The gun being auctioned off by the NRA has the serial '1911COLT001'. At first glance the casual observer would not even seen the different between the serials.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments.
[Hat Tip: NRA Blog ]
Do want!of course there’s aways the option of having it customized with some fancy scrolling,chrome finish, and polished black grips.Maybe a dragon engraved on the slide?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/58145174/The-Colt-1911-Pistol
Lets take a deeper look at the seriel numbers the first one was ’1911COLT2011′ this sounds like a one of a kind serial number as it incorporates the year 2011 without any other number or letter to indicate a sequence.
Now the gun being auctioned off by the NRA has the serial ’1911COLT001′, notice the last three figures 001, this looks like the begining of a sequence, I am guessing that there will be a 1911COLT002, 1911COLT003 and so on.
I just find myself completely confused why they chose to place a huge portrait of Samuel Colt on the grips and only a tiny portrait of John Browning on the slide. Isn’t the entire concept of the 100th Anniversary to celebrate John Browning’s design?
Colt is making two Limited Anniversary 1911s. One for $2495 which will have only 750 made. The second will depend on how many orders they have. It goes for $1150. Both are the 1918 Black Army which is a 70 Series inside.
The only company making a real 1911 made to 1911 specs is Cylinder & Slide.
I had the opportunity to talk to who I believe is the president of Colt at SHOT Show. I actually have some video footage where he discusses the amount of labor involved in the engraving. He told us that his master engravers spend a total of 300 hours working on the Colt that the NRA auctioned (the one that went for $70K+)…..
That alone justifies a big price tag.
Steve, in that case they are both One-of-a-kind firearms. Considering that these are being auctioned for good causes I hope that they make some more.
Yeah, that’s pretty weak.
They should just make a new model and add it to the lineup. I can just see it now on Gunbroker:
Colt 1911, One of a Kind 2011 edition, SN: 752,789 of 1,000,000
Tuulos, they are different
Maybe it’s just me but the guns are almost completely different. Trigger, hammer and sights looks the same but the grips and engravings are noticeably different. I’d only be pissed because this looks nicer than the first one.
For the record I can only see one picture at the GunBroker so I had to do some guesswork.
Marketing is the filthy practice of implementing schemes of presenting manufactured information to the consumer to create in them an artificially inflated understanding of the value of the associated product. This fake appearance of value needs only to hold up long enough for people to buy said product and for the company to profit. After some time passes people realize that they exchanged real money for thin air. Next personal, national, and global economics appears to collapse, but what is happening is that we are just experiencing the discovery of how we overvalued things based on marketing.
In this example false scarcity was used to fetch a high price for the first limited release of anniversary 1911s. People are convinced that value is higher because there are few, but there is no physical or practical limitation on the number, so this has no real value. The scarcity is a function of the arbitrary decision by the company of how many to put on the market. When the first wave of people willing to pay a lot trickles out, another batch of anniversary 1911s are released at a lower but still inflated price, again the rationale for the inflated value is scarcity, and a new batch of consumers in a slightly broader and lower $$ market fall for the same trick… and then it’ll happen again and again until you converge on the price of a basic 1911.
I am utilitarian. Fit and finish equate to value. Functionality equates to value. A rollermark and some trim and engraving work used as an excuse for false scarcity… no value outside what it would cost me to get that done on any gun.
-D
It is a bummer that they made a similar pistol, but it is expected given the 100th anniversary. The original winner of the auction was also given a trip to Colt manufacturing plant with a tour and behind the scenes access. It wasn’t just the pistol, so he or she received more out of it. Plus it was for charity, so paying more for something is expected as it is hopefully going to a good cause.
This is simply shameless marketing. If I were the winning bidder on the 83K pistol (what could he have been thinking?) I’d feel distinctly ripped off about now. Soon there will be a “regular” limited edition in the stores for less than 2K, I’m guessing.
Haha, you can’t help but feel bad for the first buyer..