Hickory Ben Person Recurve

[Yooper Bowyer]

I found a 60" hickory Ben Person Recurve on an online auction that is done in 3.5 hours and the max bid is 61$.  It is marked 500R-20.  It was found in someone's attic, apparently never strung.  The owner thinks it is about 20#.  There are a few arrows with it.  How much would it be worth?  I know it's not Bear, but still?

[Hamish]

How much did it eventually sell for?

[Yooper Bowyer]

100 minutes left, it's on ebay.  The price hasn't changed.

[PatM]

Not much.  These are not really rare bows.

[Eric Krewson]

I looked at one on eBay just now, might not have been the same bow but looked new, one limb was cracked from the tip about a foot in, junk wall hanger. No bids on this one, starting bid was $30.

[Yooper Bowyer]

Different bow.  It sold last night for $61.  It still had the original box, it may have been a wall hanger but I think it was still functional.  I was just impressed that it was a wooden commercial bow.

[PatM]

Why would a wooden commercial bow surprise you?  That's all they had to build with for a long time.  Even after glass entered the scene Pearson still made  wooden economy bows.

 They made them right up until the mid to late 60s.

 Quite a few guys own and still shoot these bows from time to time although the risers often need to be re-glued

[Yooper Bowyer]

I just didn't think there would be many unused 60 year old bows lying around, and I figured wooden recurves would be hard to mass produce. 

[PatM]

Maybe not many unused ones but they made these things in mass quantity.  They were made from straight grained lumber of an easily bent species so mass production was pretty easy.  Later models have a kerfed recurve to help it hold better.