What's a Limited edition JBL sawed-off magnum worth?

[purple haze]

I know only a few were handed out.
What would one in original box never been used bands still intact go for?

["Yard-Sale Josh"]

less than msrp

[frankt]

$100

[purple haze]

Originally Posted by frankt

$100

Did you leave off a "0" or are you a JBL hater?

[kwtony]

Honestly, $100 is being very generous for that kind of gun. Just because the says "limited edition" doesn't mean it's worth a whole bunch of money, it might even make it worth less... Might wanna throw in a free Jr Bacon Cheeseburger to sweeten up the deal tho. If you spent half the time it took you to make a SB account and this thread on actual research online, you might see for yourself what kind of market these guns have(if any). However, since you ARE here. How about plugging the name of your gun into the search engine here on spearboard and see what comes up. You might get lucky and find a collector somewhere in the world that could be interested in it, but dont expect to get rich off it by any stretch of the imagination. Shipping/insuring that box would probably cost more then its even worth. 99.999% of people buy spearguns to use them. Considering that you havnt posted a photo, or even a legitimate description of this item what did you really expect?
Have you ever used a JBL sawed off magnum? have you ever tried to kill a fish with one? have you ever been spearfishing before? If you didnt own it already how much would you pay for the gun? My last question is...how much did you actually spend on it??

[frankt]

Originally Posted by purple haze

Did you leave off a "0" or are you a JBL hater?

no i own a jbl woody that i still like and i owned a sawed off magnum which i sold to a buddy because i didnt want to see him shoot a crappy seac bolt 65 anylonger jbl isnt bad there just not worth a lot of money

[baja haha]

PM sent

[purple haze]

I guess when I said "limited" I thought it being one of the 80 or so gold-plated guns handed out in the 80's by Joe L would be enough. Sorry.

When I searched many ways to find out who would want such a collector gun and what worth it would have I found nothing other than one sold for around $1000.00 on eBay. But the bacon cheese burger if it wasn't Jr. might be a start.

This is gun 028 that was given to me buy the original owner of the Newport Aquatic Center who received it from Joe back in the day.

Probably best to display it for the public to view rather than sell anyway.

Thanks.

[purple haze]

Kwtony ,

I don't want to leave your questions unanswered.

Have never used a JBL sawed-off Magnum and so never killed a fish with one.

Yes, I do a fair amount of fishing both hook and spear. Lucky for me Riffe's shop is walking distance from my office.

The if I didn't own it how much question is why I posted the question.

I spent nothing on it. It was given to me by the original owner because he knew I enjoyed diving. Which is probably what I was doing while you were posting 2478 times.

Baja Haha ,

Thank you for your sincere PM.

[Ron S]

Since it might have more value as a collector's item than a working gun, maybe contact Guy Skinner at JBL. He might be interested in it for display?

[HEX]

Cool, Is that real gold?

[popgun pete]

Originally Posted by HEX

Cool, Is that real gold?

Maybe a bit late for a reply, but I only just chanced on this thread. Here are photos of the gold plated JBL which was produced as a promotional item to encourage dealers to place orders for so many JBL guns. The early batch were 24 carat gold plated, but the plating was changed to a more durable coating later as 24 carat is just too soft when items may be exposed to rubbing, knocks, etc. The guns are fully functional but were never intended for spearfishing use, they are designed to be wall hangers on their backing boards. Some of the gold JBL guns have experienced micro bubbling of the plating in spots which detracts from the gleaming gold appearance somewhat. A few have appeared on eBay over the years, so looking at auction results will give an indication of worth, but the condition of the plating is really everything in terms of the value.

The guns shown in the third photo are, from left to right, a Jack Prodanovich hand-made speargun, a Swimaster Spearfisherman "Magnum" created after Jack gave the company one of his own guns to copy, and a JBL "Magnum" with the "true glide" plastic track which made a big difference to the guns as the spears no longer clonked on the barrel during the shot. This photo demonstrates the link that the Voit/Swimaster/JBL "Magnum" guns have with the pioneering efforts of spearfishing legend Jack (Drago) Prodanovich and underscores their importance in US Skindiving History.

[popgun pete]

Dr Sam Miller (Baja Haha) wrote a definitive article on the gold-plated JBL spearguns. It was printed in Discover Diving Magazine, June 1994, under the title "The man with the golden gun." Later reprinted in International Freediving and Spearfishing News.

Dr. Miller writes: "He (Joe) made his first spear gun in 1948 as a school project. He developed the JBL gun for Voit in 1967, which was acquired by Mares who in turn re sold the gun back to Joe. Sadly Joe passed away a few years ago. JBL is now owned by Mr. Guy Skinner who is manufacturing a much improved JBL near San Diego.

Joe was the first to make a gold plated spear gun in 1981 to commemorate his 25 years in the diving business. Only 81 guns were produced and ceremoniously presented to spear fishing notables."

The guns were also available to anyone who placed an order for JBL spearguns to add to their dive shops product range and the guns are individually serial numbered from one to eighty one, assuming all were numbered. As to their value, well that was only established when the guns began to be offered for sale by their original owners.

Most of the effort in gold plating the guns was the buffing and polishing of the cast alloy parts to bring them to a high gloss, mirror-like surface finish which would be suitable for plating. An interesting project would be to triple chrome plate (nickel, copper, chrome) a stock JBL speargun to produce a “silver“ version and team it with a burgundy or red barrel tube and cocking stock, however the best place to start would be with a fresh set of cast JBL parts without the anodizing or epoxy painting.

Maybe something for a future “special” edition.

[popgun pete]

Another limited edition, this time a JBL "38 Special" speargun with gold anodized barrel and cocking stock with gold finish screws, safety lever and trigger.

[popgun pete]

Despite a number of inquiries just which anniversary the JBL "38 Special" gold anodized speargun commemorated is unknown? I have never seen another one and JBL Spearguns don't know what it is either, but logically it is 50 years of some other milestone, but which one? No date for the gun's creation, but someone must have done the gold colored anodizing job and plated the screws and trigger parts and on more than one gun.