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Bow Value

What is my bow worth? This question is asked to me more than any other question. Many factors determine the value of a bow; *Condition, *Rarity, *Willingness of buyer, *Condition, did I mention condition? See my section on Grading the condition of a bow. Unfurtunately there is no price guide for old bows like there is for so many other things. I've always said something is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If that is true then the best place to find the value is at http://pages.ebay.com/search/items/search.html , this is Ebay, the worlds largest online auction. Hundreds of bows are sold there every week. Below is a small sampling of a completed search. Always use the completed search, this shows what the final bid price was. This does not mean the transaction was completed but I believe most are. I use keywords like; archery, recurve, arrows, bear bow, ect. You can use bow too but you'll get alot of other crap besides bows. Prices can be high, I believe people buy these bows to shoot mostly and when compared to new recurve prices, most are bargains. Through the years I have made several observations on prices, though certainly not written in stone, they are;

*most recurves sell in the $50-$150 range
*Bears will bring  more
*Hunting models bring  more than target bows
*Shootable bows always bring more than non-shooters
*on Ebay, bows with pictures bring more

There are always exceptions to the above rules. For example, some Bear bows, like the 1949-1951 aluminum lamination bows are very rare and should NEVER be shot due to the possibility of of lamination seperation yet they bring top dollar in top condition (theres that word again) because of their high collectibility. Also some top of the line 60's wood target bows bring nice dollars, I believe this is because guys are using these as traditional shooting bows. I buy few bows on ebay, as a collector I would soon go broke. I buy most of my bows at fleamarkets, pawn shops and individuals. I usually pay $30-$100, nearly always a bargain. It is getting harder to find them though.

Heres the bottom line, if you want to know value of your bow so you can sell it, put it on ebay and sell it. Chances are it will bring more money there than anywhere, be very descriptive, dont claim anything you arent sure of AND HAVE LOTS OF GOOD PICTURES! If you dont plan on selling it then dont worry about the value, shoot it or hang it on the wall and admire it. Enjoy them, I enjoy all of mine.

 

NEW! I added a price guide based on Ebay, try it!

 

141394473 archery recurve Fred Bear signed bear photo [PIC!] $127.50 11 08/10 10:02
141396567 archery recurve bow sanders champion RH [PIC!] $77.00 23 08/10 10:07
139847090 Martin Hunter Recurve Bow [PIC!] $180.00 21 08/10 10:37
141465247 archery recurve Fred Bear Super Kodiak RH [PIC!] $301.01 9 08/10 12:49
141468603 archery recurve Browning Cobra bow LH [PIC!] $76.01 12 08/10 12:57
141495988 Custom Made (by Preskey), FG, Recurve Bow [PIC!] $61.00 2 08/10 13:57
141567113 FRED BEAR ARCHERY RECURVE BOW-VICTOR PATRIOT $127.50 16 08/10 16:39
141613948 Jeffery Archery one piece Recurve -NEW [PIC!] $167.51 17 08/10 17:47
141628623 archery recurve Fred Bear signed Moose pictur [PIC!] $122.50 17 08/10 18:06
141632860 archery recurve bow Bear Tigercat RH 40# [PIC!] $61.00 9 08/10 18:10
141639963 archery recurve bow Damon Howatt RH 55# [PIC!] $102.50 21 08/10 18:18
141648684 archery recurve bow early FOLBERTH R.H. [PIC!] $150.00 22 08/10 18:29
141657299 archery recurve bow old leather quiver [PIC!] $66.00 16 08/10 18:38
141671647 archery recurve Fred Bear OLD back quiver [PIC!] $51.00 11 08/10 18:54
141676198 archery recurve Bear 8 arrow bow quiver [PIC!] $21.00 6 08/10 18:59

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Web site and contents created by Tim W, AVX Inc.
Copyright © 1998 Tim W, AVX Inc., All rights reserved.
Revised:June 05, 2008.