Trapdoor Rifles

A great guy I befriended and shoot with often has an 1868 dated breech block 50/70 rifle. Stock is unsanded but well used. Exposed metal heavily patinated brown. Perfect bore. Has bad extractor spring , no rod and rear sight ladder appears bobbed. Serial is in the 4k range on receiver , but no serial on barrel - and this thing has not been taken apart like in forever !. We shot it last weekend and with what's left of the rear sight it was minute of beer can at 1oo yds. I like it , though rods are tough and the rear leaf is tough too. He said make me an offer. What would be a fair offer to make the old fella ?. Any help appreciated.

PS , I did do a search on the net , but nothing really helped me as they were either selling chopped up junk or really nice pieces...prices all over the place.

Sounds kinda rough, and the block should be 1869 at 4k, and the non-matching number situation is a real no-no, Even turd-level specimens almost always still have the paired numbers. I wouldn't go much over $500 - and, being an old-timer myself - I wince at that. Back in my buying days, I'd have passed. There are plenty of nice 1868s out there. My $.02 YMMV....

I wondered about the no serial on barrel. I could be wrong on the date being 1868....had some dried grunge on breechblock.

Three is not a huge demand for the M1868s, and the condition and missing/damaged parts hurt a lot, but the un-numbered barrel just totally knocks it out of the collector category in my opinion. It can still be a fun shooter, and a "filler" or wall hanger for "old gun over the fireplace" or the like. As a shooter, I would expect to see one like this more like $400, perhaps even less. While bargain items often appeal to our "cheap" side, no one has ever regretted getting a really nice gun, even if it costs a little more (or a LOT more).

If just looking for a shooter, I think a fair offer as is might be $350-400. Be prepared spend double that for a presentable example and 3-4 times that for a VG one. Five times that will get a really nice one. Only you can decide how much you want to spend, and what level of ugliness or beauty is acceptable. Of course, the real price is whatever a willing buyer and seller agree on when both know what the item is and neither is under any pressure to buy or sell.

Lots of guns cross the auction blocks, but remember there you will have all sorts of costs on top of the hammer price, and some auctions are worse than others regarding descriptions and knowledge of trapdoors, so getting one you can examine in person is a plus.
YMMV.

I purchase a really nice 1868/70 at the Baltimore show last March. It’s in excellent condition with an excellent stock. I paid 900.00 for the rifle which was quite low compared to other 1868 rifles at that show and on other sites such as gun broker.
I would have to agree with John S on this rifles value.

Not to mention .50/70 brass is unobtanium now. I believe that holds the value back too. The 1868 is one of my favorites, they all seem to want to shoot well.