Bear find

[cacciatore]

today I made a nice drive coming home with a not really rare but NEW 1982 TD custom kodiak LH still wrapped in the box never been touched by hands since it left Gainesville and 3 set of new and wrapped #1 65# limbs 1982-83 and a pair 60#-60" never been shut limbs with their box but used as desplay.I want an advice since 3 all the same are too much for me,I plan to open and use a pair sell the other.And about the handle I already have another one;do I leave this one in the box for a future collector or what? Felix

[hormoan]

Us leftys need to stick together, Just ship it to me Felix.    

PS I am happy you have finally finished your quest!

                      Brent

[PAPALAPIN]

Great find.

If you want to maintain, or even increase the value.  Leave it as it is...especially if it is still sealed in a plastic wrapper.

If this is not the case, then shoot the crap out of it.

When it comes to lefties, they usually are worth less than right handed bows...less demand.    However, keep in mind that the limba on these bows are interchangeable left and right, so this should not effect the value of the limbs.

Just taking a stab at the value of brand new '83 limbs, I would say about $300 per set, but some individual may pay more.

I bought a brand new Custom Takedown atoud 2000 and paid $800 + shipping.  I don't know what a new 2009 would go for.

I will tell you this, In my opinion, an '83 is a lot better bow than what is being sold today.

Now, before Wade jumps in and asks just what I base that on it is purley on what I think about the quality of the Bear bows back then as compared to the crap that Escalade is putting out today.  Can't say I am wrong as long as I preface it with "in my opinion".

[JavelinaHink]

Felix, I myself would leave it like it is wraped, since you have one already.

I have one from Three Rivers when they came out with them ser#111 out of 125. I was going to use it but with the cervical surgery I had I could not pull 67# anymore so I left it wraped and now I'll just leave it that way,wraped in the box. If you look to trade it off someday maybe I would have something you can use.....Bill

[Forest Archer]

I would leave it as is too. Great find, Congrats.

[Wade Phillips]

Jack - Just so you understand, in my collection, I have exactly one Gainsville Bear bow, a Signature T/D, which should tell you exactly what my thoughts are about Gainesville bows. I have no interest in them as many other older items are of real interest to me.

Any other Gainesville bows that I have ever acquired are usually part of a deal and are sold at the earliest convenient time.

I have way too many items and way too little time to be expanding into newer items than the 1871-1971 period.

I'll leave that stuff to younger guys to document.

[Falk]

Felix, how did you date them limbs? Is there some paperwork to fix the years? I assume they are green tip 2B's serials? I still try to figure out exactly which year my own pair was made, it has a 2B-30xx serial. Would you mind telling us the serial #'s of yours?

The green stripe risers were not the prettiest IMO, but some certainly look okay. In the later case I would shoot that riser.

BTW: congrats on your find  

[cacciatore]

Falk,as I stated they are still sealed and there is a date on their boxes then there is the shipper stamp from Gainsville. I have: 2B #4659 of theSep 25-1982  65#.  2B #4894 Feb 7-1983 65#.  2B #4687 65# no date on the box.  2B #4469 in a box marked 3261 these were for display 60#. Probably some were been mixed in their box when customer looked at them or trying to mach the handle serial num. with the limbs. What is interesting are the tips that are not squared but saclopped making them a nicer tips.Felix

[Falk]

Thanks for all the infos Felix. Maybe I can "revers engineer" from your data to get to the date of production of my set?!?
2B-4659, Sep. 25-1982
2B-4894, Feb. 07-1983 - then
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
2B-3054 would have been built at 11:37 a.m., on ABC. XY-19ZZ    

[PAPALAPIN]

Well Falk

You can at least assume yours were made prior to Sep 25, '82.

Wade.  

If a Bear Bow does not have a flat coin, I'm usually not interested.  I bought a green striper years before I got into collecting, and then got another because it was signed by Papa Bear.  Aside from one '80's Kodiak, that's all the Gainesville bows I have.  I only got the '80's kodiak because I got it cheap and wanted to see what they were like.  70# so I can't even shoot it.  Should have saved my money and kept the quality a mystery.