# I Need Help Pricing Daisy Buck Rogers 1930's Disintegrator Guns, Please **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 20, 2021, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698 "2021-06-20T19:28:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/21 "2021-06-22T01:38:22Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > As my father often told me, something is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it, no more, no less. It doesn’t matter what someone thinks they are worth unless that someone is willing to buy them from you today at that price. I’m sorry if it seems I crapping all over you and your dad but I absolutely hate this old chestnut (though not as much as I hate ‘you get what you pay for’). Has this saying ever helped anyone value an item? Most things have established value ranges. It may change a bit for a different area (big city vs small town) or sale venue (gallery vs auction vs yard sale) or different characteristics (the red ones are worth more than the brown ones) but there’s almost always an established history of comparables for collectables. Just because you or I don’t know the going rate for a given ray gun doesn’t mean there isn’t one. [smug]It’s worth as much as someone is will to pay for it.[/smug] [curious] Ok, how much is that?[/c] [smg]Oh, I don’t know, I only recite sayings.[/smg] ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/22 "2021-06-22T01:47:12Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > As my father often told me, something is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it, no more, no less. It doesn’t matter what someone thinks they are worth unless that someone is willing to buy them from you today at that price. To expand on what @jnglmassiv said the other problem in the context of this thread is your inclusion of the word “today”. @DocCathode does not - I assume - need to sell “today”. So yes it’s worth what someone will pay for it, but you need to check the market to see what _over a period of time_ people have been willing to pay, and make sure you are reaching those people. Something that people usually pay $100 for is not - in any useful sense - worth $1 because that’s all the one guy who saw your ad today will pay for it. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/23 "2021-06-22T01:55:20Z")
I also suggested checking auction prices to see what something similar has sold for recently. That should give him a good idea of what it’s “worth” because that’s what someone actually paid for it. It doesn’t mean that’s what he can sell if for until he goes out and tries to sell it. He may find it’s worth MORE than it has sold for in the past, or it may be worth LESS depending on the buyers at that time. In other words, it’s “worth” what someone is willing to pay for it when he finally tries to sell it. Everything else is speculation based primarily on what it sold for in the past. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2021, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/24 "2021-06-22T16:26:09Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Something that people usually pay $100 for is not - in any useful sense - worth $1 because that’s all the one guy who saw your ad today will pay for it. Yes, if only _one guy_ sees it. On a site like eBay, over the week or two the listing occurs, assuming you have listed it properly, it will be _thousands_ if not more. And I did suggest checking eBay completed listing _where sales have been completed_ to find out some idea of what the toy guns have sold for. And that will be FMV for a toy gun in that condition. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/25 "2021-06-23T00:00:23Z")
Thousands of which may not be interested in that item at that time. You are assuming the numbers are such that you are always safe to assume that over the life of the auction of an item that extremely few people may be interested in bidding on at that time, those people will see it and bid. That is not an unreasonable assumption but nor is it definitely safe. ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/26 "2021-06-23T08:45:20Z")
Just a suggestion, post the photos on [r/whatisthisthing?](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/) They should be able to tell you exactly what you have and often supply a link to a listing of a professional auction house that has/had the item up for sale. It’s amazing what gets identified in just a few hours. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/27 "2021-06-23T09:57:52Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > if they still work. A little off topic, but I’m curious:how did these guns work? What did they do, when 1930’s kids played with them.? I thought that in the comic strip, Buck Rogers’ guns shot futuristic,imaginary death rays, (wasn’t this before lasers had been invented?) What did these toys shoot? If it was plain ol’ lead bullets like a cowboy’s 6-shooter, that seems kinda dull and boring. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/28 "2021-06-23T11:07:32Z")
“There were 3 issues of this ray gun; the first in 1934 is at the bottom {the one ‘in the white’} and is like the one used in the movie serials. The handle cocks the gun and it makes a ‘pop.’ The copper plated one is 1935 and is called the Disintegrator; pull the trigger and it pops and the window flashes like a cigarette lighter. The gold painted one is after the war, 1945 and is called the Atomic Pistol.” > **[Buck Rogers ray guns 1930's | Collectors Weekly](https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/178697-buck-rogers-ray-guns-1930s)** > > Shop for—and learn—about vintage and antiques. Browse the best of eBay, connect with other collectors, and explore the history behind your favorite finds. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/29 "2021-06-23T13:30:53Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > There is no “too little” . If it goes for less than some, that is still FMV. It’s full market value for that particular time, with those who are aware of, able and ready to bid on it. Could be that serious collectors take a month off, or have just purchased other items and are short on cash at the moment. > [@DrDeth](#): > > **Trust in the market.** Do we trust the market on Tuesday or on Friday? As it may well give different answers. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698/30 "2021-06-23T15:39:40Z")
Nothing is safe. Taken to a dealer in such things, they will give you a fraction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-need-help-pricing-daisy-buck-rogers-1930s-disintegrator-guns-please/944698.md?page=1)