Update on ROMANO SPENCERS and prices:
Perhaps due to the high asking price and minimim bid, there were no bidders and only three "followers" on this Romano Spencer carbine.
After the listing was taken down I contacted the seller for photo's to verify condition and other information for my ROMANO historical file. We talked and quickly agreed on terms and price, IF AS DESCRIBED. Sadly, over the past ten years I have seen a few that were disappointing and NOT as described. While restorable by Romano to as-new, the cost to do so ALWAYS put the total ABOVE his current listed price.
During mid-May, I visited the seller(s) in WV to inspect it.
FINE people! One is retired SpecOp's then a LEO and the other a retired school teacher, both with old fashioned values. They are avid Civil War reenactors with an ARTILLERY battery. The Romano Spencer was taken in partial payment for a debt.
Anyway, the Romano Spencer, frame #10445, was entirely as represented, 100% mint, unfired/unblemished. As near as we can determine It has been through at least five owners that had taken remarkable care of it during the roughly 15 years since it was delivered. I was amazed at its as-new/originally delivered condition and bought it.
How do 15-year old ones appear as-new?
I have encountered MINT Romano Spencers that were simply bought, oiled and hung on a wall next to used originals in collections. Another one, Garvey's, just sat NEW and well preserved in a case for years
As for REAL prices:
Over the past eight years, the net cash PAID to sellers, whether direct or through middle-men (such as G'Broker w/fees), for about a dozen either mint or 99% condition Romano Spencers, has ranged between $3,200 and $3,900 with $3,500 being more likely. I paid $3,900 for #10445 and $4,200 for my first one (Chuck Garvey's RIFLE) several years ago with Two Flints' help. All my others were $3,000 - $3,800. It seems that both reenactors and skirmishers have a price range in mind. Yes, the past four or five new ones left Larry's shop for the $5,XXX price, but now no more will be built. Demand is DOWN for a lot of reasons and I think the $3,500 average amount will prevail for the next few years.
Interestingly, there is a loose network of Romano Spencer owners that will call one another if they want to sell/trade or buy one they know of. Some describe these as "one phone call guns". They sell off the grid, over the phone, over the camp fire, etc. Reports of prices PAID fit into the above range for mint ones. If used and not abused, the cash price is about $200 - $400 less. Other sales situations I have experienced involve sellers seemingly in a rush rejecting reasonable cash offers and then listing and selling at INTERNET 'sites (with fees) for LESS net to them than the cash offer.
From about 1998 to present, from sketchy, but always accurate and congenial conversations with Larry and other first and second hand shared information, it appears that Larry delivered approximately 76 of his Spencers. Rifles were maybe 20% of that total that involved approximately 40 of the three-digit first grouing and approximately 36 of the final, two-digit group. Larry indicated to me that within the total run of his Spencers, there are a couple GEMMER style ones and one elaborate rifle with OLIN engraving similar to the "Cheny one in Marcot with curly maple stock".
All the best,
El Supremo/Kevin Tinny