Collector Interest
Because of their quality and craftsmanship, as well as their gangster-era and WWII connections, Thompsons are sought as collector's items. There were fewer than forty pre-production prototypes. The Colt Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut was contracted by the Auto-Ordnance Corporation to manufacture the initial mass production of 15,000 Thompson Submachine Guns in 1920. An original Colt Model 1921 A or AC, Model 1927 A or AC, Model 1928 Navy A or AC, properly registered in working condition with original components can easily fetch from US$25,000 to $45,000+ depending on condition and accessories. For WWII, approximately 1,700,000 Thompson Submachine Guns were produced by Auto-Ordnance and Savage Arms, with 1,387,134 being the simplified WWII M1 and M1A1 variants (without the Blish lock and oiling system). Post WWII, Numrich Arms acquired the Auto-Ordnance crated assets, but never resumed small-scale production of replica full automatic and semi-automatic only versions until 1974 at West Hurley. Semi-automatic only versions configured as civilian-legal rifles are currently produced by Auto-Ordnance Company (no relationship to the original 1916 AOC) a division of Kahr Arms, for the collector market at prices ($1100.00 to $1400.00) considerably lower than the prices for originals. A Model 1921A believed to have been owned by Bonnie and Clyde, but with zero historical documentation to substantiate this provenance, sold at auction on January 21, 2012 in Kansas City for $130,000.00.
Read more about this topic: M1A1 Thompson
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