On GB I bought a good rifle with a good scope (a Leupold 10X M8) that I took off and sold for $200. I was left with a $750 rifle at a net price of $650.

It got me thinking that it is probably bad business to sell a good rifle with a good scope. A good scope is easily sold online on eBay,etc., but the people looking at your rifle probably don't care about the scope.

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Are you separating the rifle and scope and selling both separate?

I prefer my brand and model of scopes on all my rifles.

No

I wanted the rifle and the scope was a tag along.
But it got me thinking that if I ever go to sell a rifle I will offer the scope separately.

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I believe most people do care what scope is on the rifle they intend to buy, they just believe an 800$ scope should be thrown in with a 300$ rifle. That's why many (me included) use a rifle sale as an opportunity to unload unwanted scopes. When your scope costs more than the rifle, it would be foolish to sell them together, UNLESS you can get what they are worth separetly.

For me, it would be in this order: caliber, stock material, rifle. If the rifle had open sights, I would think a scope would be a bonus. If rifle was meant to be scoped (no sights), I would pay attention to brand, power, etc. and if it had no scope, I would question why.

I've bought an outfit cheap enough to keep the decent scope and sell the rifle for what I had in the whole thing. Free Scope!
Yes, scopes don't get the resale value in private deals, much less a trade in to dealer.
I keep good glass now.

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War Eagle! '10 BCS & '13 SEC

IMHO, it is bad practice to sell good scopes with good rifles. I always separate them and sell separately. I too have found that scopes sell very well over fleabay. I sell my rifles via gunshows or GBer.

I'd give some thought to the desirability of any Leupold scope. Their warranty is unsurpassed (emphasis added):

In my opinion a Leupold scope would certainly add to the value of any sale package but if I liked it and it suited my needs, I'd keep the scope & sell the rifle.

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Bob

I would call that a fair assessment. A similar, but less expensive, analogy is selling a nice handgun with an expensive holster. Your holster doesn't add much, if anything, to the value of the deal to me.

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Package deals will be harder to sell.
You will get the most breaking it up.

I prefer a peep sight on some of my rifles, like my Marlin .357. So buying a gun like that with a scope on it would not make sense to me, and if I did bid on one I would certainly not offer the full or near full value of the scope in addition to the value of the rifle. I would not pay much at all for an unwanted used scope, even a quality one.

Plus I have several scopes in my stock and like what I have.

I would think people who buy a rifle are looking for the rifle first and foremost, and if it has a scope that is fine, but they are not looking for a scope with a rifle attached.

So I would separate the two to sell them. In fact when I sold my Ruger Super Red Hawk in .44 Magnum I removed the Leopold pistol scope and sold them separately. I would do the same with any expensive scope, but not with a really inexpensive scope.

^^^
I have a 1949 Model Winchester Model 70.
But with one caveat
For about $75 I found a period correct Weaver. When I eventually liquidate my collection, this scope will go with the gun.

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Can't see any point in basically throwing a good

optic away on a rifle sale. Seems like there's always

a junker scope laying around.

No question in my mind that a good rifle and a good scope will bring more if sold separately rather than together. I have always done that. But I'd sell a cheap rifle and scope together.

When I bought my .270 online I looked for the package deal with a cheap scope. To me the mount and rings were more important than that scope because I had a scope I already wanted to use.

When it arrived the cheap scope was bent anyway, not removed before shipping/bad packaging. I straightened it out and gave it to a friends grand kids to play with.

Selling a set up would all depends upon if i liked the scope and or wanted the hasle of selling two items and not one complete.

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Isaiah 41:10

What BillBond said. Usually selling a rifle with scope basically amounts to giving away the scope, in my experience. I've bought more than one rifle that seemed to come with a "free" scope.

I'm unfamiliar with the M8, unless that is the Mark 8 rifle scope from Leupold? The Mark 8 sells for thousands of dollars; the 8x Mark 8 is $3700. What is the M8?

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No good deed goes unpunished.

The M8 was Leupold's fixed magnification scope before the FX.
Strong solid scope but with the relatively older coating on the lens.

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When people bring a rifle into the store to sell or trade we don't allow any additional just because it has a scope on it. The guy wanting to sell us the rifle may be unhappy with the way it shoots (maybe the scope or mount is at fault?). Even if it's a high end scope like a Leupold we just aren't going to allow anything over the cost of the rifle. So often the first question out of a potential buyers mouth is "how much without the scope?" Even if you're selling privately you are likely to get the same reaction. Sell the scope separately if you're selling, you will do better in most cases.

Really, the only exception might be collectible older rifles when fitted with a scope of the same era or original military sniper rifles still fitted with the correct scope. Collectible guns are a whole other ball game. Modern guns, don't expect to get the value of the scope to add anything to the value of the gun.

Scopes are like holsters or slings. Kinda personal taste.

You're selling a wonderful pistol, and it comes with a cross-draw holster. I don't carry cross-draw. Why would I pay extra for the holster.

Beautiful rifle, and it's got one of them biiiig "cobra" slings on it, and I only use the military double-hook, why would I pay extra for the sling.

Might be a great scope, but it's a four-power and I prefer a 1.5 to 5 variable. Or it's a duplex crosshair, and I like the German post. I'm not gonna want to pay extra for that.

And if you won't come down from that "gotta get something for the holster/sling/scope", then the sale won't happen.

So yeah, sell 'em separately.

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I always take precautions

My follow up would be: Can I buy the scope for what you told me the difference was?

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Front sight and squeeze

Most I see being sold have some kinda cheap scope thrown on it.

I like to hold onto my nicer scopes.

I just ran into this thread and have a question. I have a Rem 742 in 30-06 that I bought in high school in 1968. It has a Leopold vari-x II from about 1970. Is there any value in this scope? I am getting ready to sell the gun and buy a 7-08 bolt gun. I think todays cheap scopes are better optics than this old Leopold.

Scope for $xxx or

Rifle for $yyy

Both for $zzz

That way if somebody is thinking, I want the rifle but that scope has got to go and I've got to sell it and get the rifle setup for my own scope.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

My practice is, if you get a high end rifle with a good scope, take
it off. Guys that buy this type of rifle have their own ideas about
scope. If you get a off the rack 700 or 70 ect with a good scope
peel it and replace with mid range price scope. If you get one of
the entry level rifles with a good scope ( which is rare) replace
with a cheap 3x9 and send that piggy to market. There are
exceptions to this, a specialized rifle with matching purpose
scope may be better sold as a unit. This practice works good if
you do a lot of dealing and have a few scopes on hand to swap
out. Not so good if you have to buy scopes. I have always been
leery of buying used scopes unless hi end backed by guarantee.

Most of my high power rifles are geared towards F class rifle matches, so they have scopes of my choice. My short range F class rifle wears an old Weaver T10. My midrange F class AR also wears an old Weaver T10. My mid-long range (600-no more than 1000 yard) match rifles share an old Weaver T16. My LONG-RANGE F class rifle (shot beyond 999 yards) wears a Viper Vortex scope.

If I were to replace either of these rifles, the scopes would stay with me. Really good condition El Paso Weaver T scopes are hard to find, and getting more expensive. I do not like the new Japanese Weaver T scopes, and wouldn't consider their purchase. The Vortex scope is the most expensive scope that I have ever purchased, and I don't expect to pay that kind of money again.

My Model 70 hunting rifle wears a Pentax Gameseeker II scope, and I am content with that. I do have a pair of El Paso Weaver K10s and a K4 for backup in the event of an unexpected scope failure.

Honestly, I see myself selling a rifle before I see myself selling a scope, because I purchase my scopes for specific missions.

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Your Vari X-II is still 100% covered by warranty from Leupold. They will repair/replace if needed at no cost to You. Unsure what power, but KEEP IT.
It is far from worthless.

Scopes HAVE come a long ways but your Leupold was top tier back then. Still very useable today.

Looking at scopes with that description on Ebay, I see 23 scopes listed with current bid prices running from $141.38 to $499.99

Thanks for the reply's. Not bad prices since I paid $110 for the scope new 45 years ago. I've never used e-bay.

I attend a lot of gun auctions, and the rifles bring prices for the rifle only in most cases, the scope is disregarded. But good scopes sold separately bring pretty good prices.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Been going to gun shows for 40 years. Took awhile to realize I was selling 300 to 500 dollar scopes for a 100 or so. Don't do that any more. Sell the scopes separate.

If it's Leupold, Sightron, or maybe a couple others, keep it. Lifetime warranty (transferable) on the scope.

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Bob

For me a good scope comes off. I had one Leupold 2x7 that probably sat on 8 or 10 rifles. One guy had to have it, I added the price of a replacement Leupold to it. It was ok with him, he did not have to buy, mount and zero it.

I used to buy fair scopes on ebay 5 or 6 at a time from the same seller and got combined shipping. Some went on a gun that was sold, some were used and kept for 22's or truck guns.

Unless it's a collector gun most folks want a scope for hunting/shooting.

I bought a sportered and scoped VZ-24 on whim and paid about $150 for the whole thing. Seller told me his FIL put the rig together for hunting. I cannot remember the scope maker, but it has 8x magnification and some incredibly fine crosshairs that you cannot see in a cluttered environment. It would be a nightmare to use in a location with a busy background. I think in today's market I bought a $120 scope with a $30 rifle attached.

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Release the Kraken

This is my experience on the online auctions.
I got a $900 rifle for about $900 and I was able to get back $175 for the Leupold M8 10X that came with it.

A few years back I put a nice Kimber rifle up for auction with a Leupold 2-7 Vari-X II. The scope had cost me $125 and I said that the winning buyer could have the scope for an extra $100.

The rifle sold for what I wanted and the buyer took the scope for the extra $100.

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I have several quality scopes still in new the boxes that I bought on sale years ago. Most scopes that come on a rifle that I buy will be removed and tossed in a box of old scopes. So I don't pay extra, unless it was a very good quality scope and then I would not pay the full value of the scope extra.

From what I've seen your lucky to get any extra for the average scope when selling a rifle. Even good scopes only net another 25-30 cents on the dollar form what the scope costed to put one the rifle.

Most of the time the package will get you more separated than not.

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Bill Bates

I recently bought an Encore barrel with a fair scope but a Talley mount and rings worth $75 or so for just the mount. I was glad to buy them together and that was the clincher.

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Front sight and squeeze

[QUOTE=Big Cholla;138816418]IMHO, it is bad practice to sell good scopes with good rifles. I always separate them and sell separately. I too have found that scopes sell very well over fleabay. I sell my rifles via gunshows or GBer.[/QUOTE

I agree, in most cases the seller will do better if he sells the gun and scope sepatately.