I have a 4" "Combat Magnum" in Nickle and an acquaintance was looking for model 19's. I said I might be willing to sell mine and offered it at well under $600, he said, "So, what's your best price?"

Egads, the price I offered I considered a gift, and I decided it's not for sale and I'll let my son deal with "buyers" after I'm gone :-)

There's an old saying, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth" and it applies to just about everything.

Or sell it to someone more appreciative. ...like me
Then when he comes back you can honestly say already sold.

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Paul
S&WCA #2726

Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast. A lot of people have no idea what current market prices are, or are compelled to want to “chisel down” the price regardless of what you ask.
My guess is that whatever price you quoted, he would not have bought it.

A friend of mine wanted a nice Wincheter Super Grade combination gun that I had. I'd purchased it several years ago for $2,000 which was a great price even then. When I told him he could have it for what I paid, he told me he'd be willing to go $1,500 on it. I sold it later online for $3,000. I made sure to mention it to my friend.

I gave my grandfathers pristine 16ga. double to a friend who, I guarantee you, would NEVER ask for my best price. I've spent a lot of time over the many decades 'filtering-out' my acquaintances.
With certain acquaintances, you could just offer at double the market price and give them a 'break' when asked.....

J.

I think it just boils down to some folks just have no manners, are dumb or far too often, both.

Not really a fan of the "what's your lowest price?" initial inquiry, sight unseen either.

No far, this is my lowest price.
There may or may not be a lower price available.
To find out, you need to start making Hard Cash Offers.
I respond to Offers.
Cause we all know what Talks, and we all know what Walks.
Quite often the ‘ Buyer’ will walk.
Adios! It’s been good a knowing you!

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

Haggling used to be a way of life, since Gunbroker came to be the gun world has become too myopic with pricing.

Just because something is “ worth” X during a time of cheap credit inflation doesn’t mean it’s really worth it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Most people think of buying a gun is like buying a car. You find what you want and dicker until both sides agree. Just like a gun show or flea market. Then you have the seller that believes his item is worth much more then reality because he knows somebody that has a cousin with a friend that sold one “just like this” for big bucks…

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S&W factory revolver armorer

Should have told him a grand when he asked!

There are some people who are just hardwired to negotiate a price (and some of it is cultural too).

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On the Oak Savannah

Seen a few Combat Magnums going for 2 Grand on GB. Auction prices for not so old S&W's are quite high. By the ounce maybe the same as silver bullion.

I have offered the pick of my guns to close family and friends. Not even interested for free. Selling just about everything I own over the past few years just to save my children and my girlfriend any hassles at the end of my trail.

I don’t mind folks who have Nerve.
I got a fair amount myself.
It’s folks who ain’t got brains who bother me.

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I have a close friend, hunting and shooting buddy, that routinely buys, and then - get this - sells guns. I fully understand the accumulation part but cannot say inventory reduction has yet made sense to me.

He always offers me first right of refusal on firearms he's trying to move along. Some of his offers are simply too good to pass up and he never gouges me generally wanting only the amount he has in the gun. He knows he's practicing "safe-selling" as we virtually never purge anything.

Problem with this arrangement is he considers me a pawn shop where he finances his next purchase while holding an option to buy-back. He experiences seller's remorse from time to time and we've traded several firearms back-and-forth on several occasions. There's one or two of "his" firearms that we consider to be in "our" permanent inventory much to his dismay.

We actually laugh about it, never make any money, joking about our "insider" pricing.

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Ordnung muss sein
SWHF #789

I've sold a few vehicles and RV's by advertising online. I use a dealer for firearms because of the laws here. There are a lot of people out there who wouldn't know a good deal, or a bad deal for that matter, so no point being offended by low ballers. I usually find the low ballers aren't generally going to be buying anyway. It's just a game they play for their entertainment. I just see it as part of the selling process and I generally have more time than they do.

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That's just somebody talkin.

As the title says..........Last few years I opted to sell what guns I wanted to via this Forum. No hassles on price as long as you list within reason and fairly and accurately describe condition. Just the membership will let you know almost instantly if you are "too high" (no offers or PM's) and if you're close usually a "I'll take it" the same or next day.

I too am getting up there and concerned about wife/sons/daughters having to deal with firearms transactions so am thinning out the collection of safe queens, guns I don't shoot anymore, etc.

I don't need price gouging internet listing prices, or the hassles that might come with fees and non-paying buyers, etc. so don't consider that a venue anymore and local gun shows seem to be a joke these days.

Aside from friends that really want a gun from my collection, and I know will appreciate them and use them for what they are
the rest will find themselves listed in the For Sale sub-forum.

None of us I suspect really "needs" a tire kicking, must "negotiate" style "buyer" so brush em off when you encounter them......like said.....you can't fix stupid.

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Charlie B
SWCA#3083, SWHF#570

Got a Chev Pickup for sale.
Dude shows up with a checklist on a clipboard.
He ain’t buying, he’s inspecting.
When he gets to ‘your tires are half wore out’ that’s when he wore out his welcome.
It’s a used truck Dumb ***! You expected new tires?

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NRA LIFE MEMBER

I've seen this sort of thing play out a lot of times. As noted above, some people can't resist haggling. But, I refuse to haggle with myself! If I've set a price on something, that's the opening position. It's then the other person's turn to make an offer.

I understand the hard-wired haggling genetic disorder. I also recognize a deal when I see it and keep my haggling to myself. As an example, A buddy has offered to sell me a pair of Swarovski binoculars at a very good price. Used for sure, but they look like new. Still available new and I know what they go for. My first gut level reaction was to offer him less. But then my manners and logic kicked in. If I decide to buy them, I'll just pay his asking price. What gives me pause, though, is that even the good price is 4 digits.

Try selling things that aren't guns on FB marketplace or craigslist. Haggling is a way of life on guns or anything else, no use getting offended by it, there will always be lowballs. If someone is close on price, I reply back no, price is firm, or if they're real close, I'll say sure. If someone is crazy low and I doubt we'll find a place we're both happy with, I just don't reply. If your price is truly good as you claim, it will sell to someone at asking, and $600 to ignore some lowballs is a pretty good gig.

Something is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it. I've seen several firearms that are coveted by many in this group, that I have no interest in. If I really don't care to own something offered to me, I may throw a low ball offer out without expectation of acceptance. If it is something rare or I really want it, I will often pay full asking price without much negotiation.

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Free advice is worth the price

As a person that over the years has bought & sold a bunch of guns and vehicles, I have seen a lot.

I sold a couple 4X4 trucks off my lawn and will not even attempt it now, just not worth the aggravation.

When I was working I normally buy top of the line (AKA loaded) trucks. Take good care of them and get a new one about every 3 years. The people that look at them, most times do not have a clue, they offer work truck prices or in some cases even more insulting offers. Most think you need the money so bad you will take their totally stupid low ball offer!

I will pay for convenience and to me that means doing DD and trading in my vehicle rather that trying to sell it out right!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

And some folks are just excellent. Recently sold a 450-400 here to a gentleman who enquired once, got photos, then a week later emailed he would take it. I've had something similar happen with an M29.

It took years to get exactly the guns I've always wanted...now I'm too old to use them all as I chose. Sigh...to be born rich must be okay.

An uncle of mine (a successful small businessman) used to preach “Don’t do business with a friend unless you’d be happy to do without the money and the friend involved in the future.”

That’s a bit harsh, but there is an important point to it.

Like in the scenarios here, if you offer something for sale to a friend or acquaintance, there is often the unspoken assumption that of course he will realize that you are offering an excellent price for his benefit, and he should be appreciative of your generosity.

If the friend does not seem to share that view of your offer, it’s easy to feel offended, and in contrast to dealing with a potential customer who is a stranger, any reaction may be trickier.

When I was doing gun shows and someone would look at a gun and ask Me " what's the best You can do?" My answer was, You start plunking down $100 bills, and when You get to My lowest price, I'll say stop. Only one person in 45 years did it. And She got a bargain.

I would expand on this to include "family"........I had my own business before I retired and was always very cautious in dealing with family or friends......and preferred not to in most cases.

In my experience family and friends expect more than you can reasonably provide many times, and to avoid hard feelings (even anger from them) it's best not to enter into any business relationship if you value your relationship with them. JMO

Don

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Laus Deo! <><

Whenever I sell something, I usually ask more than what I think it's worth in anticipation of the haggler. i'm not offended when somebody makes a lower offer or asks what my best price is, i often do the same in my horse-trading. I draw the line at running something down to try to get a better deal, I don't like my stuff degraded and won't do it to another man's property.

Are you sure we don't share the same brother in law? Mine's so cheap that he could stand on a dime while wearing a pair of work boots and tell if it's
heads or tails.

When I was a kid, my parents took me to lots of flea markets, garage sales and antique stores and they had amassed a lot of really nice stuff.

One day my mom told me her secret(s) about getting good deals...

1. If the price is fair, pay it don't even think about chewing off a few bucks. Some sellers get set off and it does no good to make a seller angry.

2. If the price is actually too low, tell them it's a VERY good price and are they sure it's correct. They could do two things:

A. Raise the price to a silly level and you can put it down
B. Say the price is correct and you buy it.

3. See #1

This approach has served me well, I went into a pawn shop once and picked up two VERY expensive Penn reels with rods, and when I asked the price (no tags) the owner shouted out a ridiculously low price. I took the poles to him and told him that new they were both worth over #2k each.

He told me a story about a pawn shop owner who had no medical insurance and his wife was REALLY sick and in order to get the operation she needed he had to come up with a lot of cash to get his wife well. Then he said the price was correct, and over the past few days I was the only honest person who didn't say... "Would you take? #xx"

Well I bought the reels (I still have them) and from then on he sold me anything I wanted AT his cost, proving it by showing me how to read the cost code on the tags.

Oh, BTW, his wife came out of the issue really well.

I have never regretted my approach to buying "stuff"

We had a member here, IBSandy-Sandy Jacobs-who passed in 2012, that I became very good friends with. We had an agreement that we didn’t make money off each other on any deals between us. He had his ffl and hired my younger son to help him at a few gun shows. Good friend, still miss him.

Most of what I’ve sold in the past were high end cars. I priced them very fairly. I listed a Porsche for $20,000. A buyer inspected the car, was pleased with the condition and said can we negotiate? I said sure. He then offered me $18,000. I countered with $22,000. Startled, he said you’re going up! I said you were going the wrong way. Long story short, he bought the car for $20,000.

I have found that selling to a relative too often they think they also bought a lifetime warranty too

I also detest a person making all kinds of disparaging remarks about something they are trying to buy from me. Either you want it or you don't. Case in point, sadly my older brother passed away a year ago. He was a Harley man and had 6 of them that I was in charge of liquidating. There were 3 Shovel Heads, a '58 Pan Head, a Street Glide and a Trike. I ran an ad on Craigslist along with spreading the word around the local area here. About 3 months ago I had an offer to buy 2 of the Shovels and the Pan. But the fella hacked me off, he continuously kept telling me what wasn't original and how important originality was (I didn't have an "original" type price on it either). He kept harping on the fact that it had been repainted etc etc. But the clincher was when he was sending pics of the bikes he had masterfully restored...and lo an behold he had a panhead that had a picture of some folklore figure painted on the tank. It was very nicely airbrushed (like you could have done at any self respecting T shirt shop. Well, as we al know on this forum...it had ZERO original paint! Once he blowed me up I decided to NOT do business with him. I sold all of those 3 two months ago and actually for the same price the first fella had offered...but to a much nicer person.
P.S. I kept the Trike, like I really need to be riding a Harley (on the Memphis streets)!!

Roger

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Eph 2:8-9

I had to go back and read this one. I did notice that you said "acquaintance" and not "friend".

Keep it that way.

So you’ve established that you’re okay with a seller making no profit, and prefer it. Was the price you quoted for the 19 “your cost,” or was that number lower?

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Without knowing how gun savvy your acquaintance is, it's hard to say if he was being a jerk or not. Nonetheless, I don't see anything wrong with asking, "what's your best price?," I do it all the time.

In fact, I was at a LGS a couple weeks ago where I found a LNIB Ruger BH convertible "Buckeye Special" 10mm/38-40. They were asking $695. Knowing they go for $1000 to $1300, I still offered $650; he accepted without hesitation. A closed mouth doesn't get fed. Conversely, I have folks at gun shows/stores offer way less than what I am asking. I either accept, decline or make a counter offer. It's all part of the negotiating.

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213th FBINA

And it REALLY pisses me off when the brain eating zombies ignore them and head straight for me!

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

I have done that a couple times when someone tells me to make a offer. Just started stacking Benjamin's. Both times I reached my limit before they said yes. I really enjoyed picking up that stack of money, tamping it back into perfect form, then folding it up and putting it back in my pocket before walking away.

That plays a big part I'm sure, but also the people locked into what prices should be because they paid 250 dollars for something 25 years ago.

Not to mention the overblown covid pricing.

Yes, but those and Leicas are worth every penny.

Jeff
SWCA #1457

I understand buying guns. But the concept of selling alludes me. But as a good American I belive in capitalism. I like to get the lowest price I can. But how much ever the highest bidder pays is what something is worth. No matter how much other items of the same thing have been going for.

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balin
NRA Life Member

I know that "price negotiations" are some sort of tradition but I find it insulting. When a person prices his item, I like to believe that he thinks it is worth that amount. I might disagree but in those cases I usually just thank him for his time and move along as I find it insulting when someone starts "negotiating" with me. Basically, I subscribe to the theory that if the price sounds fair and especially if there might be service after the sale involved, I just pay up and we both walk away happy.

You see, I spent most of my working life in the automobile industry as a director of parts and service for a dealership. On occasion, a customer would bring his pre-owned car in for a repair not long after our warranty expired and ask for help with the expense. Since the used vehicle department would be who would absorb the cost of any goodwill we might offer, I would run the request by the used vehicle manager. If the customer was a real "negotiator," the answer usually was something like, "We didn't make much on the sale and the guy wants more? Sorry about his luck." On the other hand, customers who paid something resembling our asking price quite often received help, often very generous amounts of it.

You do get what you paid for.

Ed

My wife and I had been looking for a specific teardrop travel trailer with a wetbath ( toilet and shower in the same space).
After a year and a half looking one, six months old, came up for sale on one of the RV websites.
The asking price was more than fair, but I had to ask if that was the rock bottom price. The lady said they’d take $1500 less.
I told her “sold”.
We traveled 1000 miles to pick it up in Ohio and found it was only 6 months old, had only been used twice and some of the accessories hadn’t even been unwrapped.
When we inquired as to why they were selling, they told us the husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and he was trying to get things in order so his wife didn’t have to deal with things.
We had a bank check for the agreed price but I offered to write an additional check to bring it up to their original asking price but they declined.
To this day I feel guilty for being cheap and capitalizing on those folks misfortune.

When someone asks me "What's your best price?" I will always tell them a number about 50% higher than what I told them initially - because my "best price" is what's best for ME!

Other than that, I am not insulted if someone asks that question. It's his/her job to do the best for him just as it's my job to do the best for me. But if I say "This is my best price" and they want to keep haggling then I stand firm and give them one last chance to accept - but only one.

However, if someone starts to pick apart the item by pointing out the flaws in order to drive the price down, I will usually come back with "Really? I thought it was a lot worse than that. Perhaps I should bump my asking price up a few hundred..."

If something is used, and for sale, the price is negotiable.

I'm not sure why that is such a difficult concept for some folks to understand.

Now, how one goes about negotiating is another matter...........

A couple of observations to add.

I have known an individual that haggled over the smallest items, bought some used screwdrivers at a local pawnshop, and would not pay the $0.50 each. It was as though he had to “win” and pay a cheaper price. I can understand how some enjoy the art of haggling, but this was almost painful to observe.

The other thing I notice, on two programs I enjoy (American Pickers and Pawn Stars) for the history of the items, I regularly hear “It’s a fair price.”. Fair for whom would be my response.

I am not a haggler, I don’t have to “beat” the seller, and I’m not out to make the maximum profit when I am selling anything.

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I am a sheep dog!
1601 (ret)

Pap was a trader so I've seen a lot of "haggling" over the price so I don't understand why people get so upset when when people try to pay less for something or sell for a high price.
Pap always looked at it as I won't get mad at them for not selling or buying and I hope they will do the same for me. Larry

I always ask "Will you take any less?" and it has saved me lots of moolah. They can just say yes or no.

It was a fairly clean muscle car from the sixties that I wanted to unload for a couple of reasons. Not least of all that it needed a lot of expensive work that I did not want to pay for.

Anyway I took it to a car show with my asking price which was a bit high. I expected to haggle some. Anyway a guy was interested, looked at my posted price and asked me what the best I could do was. I thought about it for a bit and came down to what I would actually take for it. But I also told him that the offer was good for one hour.

He came back about ten minutes later and it was a done deal. And I think both of us went home happy, I know that I was.

The proper reply to that question is “Gimme an offer . . . “

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Wisdom comes thru fear . . .

Do you have a Carmax in your area?


Around here they pay very well for what you are describing.


Especially in this current shortage.


Saves the hassle of negotiating a price and a trade at the dealer.

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Chris S.
Fort Lauderdale, FL

I have had a friend for about 35 years. He was always looking to buying an older 'Vette. Always telling me he was looking at one, might make the deal. I moved away about 27 years ago, and a month ago was back in his area, and we had lunch together. He told me he was thinking about buying an older 'Vette. But it was about 500 miles away, and he was griping about someone else trying to buy it out from under him. I told him to just get out there, and look it over, or have some local expert check it out for him. He replied he wouldn't buy it without looking at the car himself.

After my wife and I left on our trip, I had to laugh. My friend had been "looking" at buying a 'Vette for now 30+ years. He will never actually buy one. He just likes to entertain himself by pretending to be searching for his 'Vette.

People like him no doubt aggravate any seller he talks with, because he has no intention of actually buying the car.

Actually he is a jerk in a number of other ways.

NAM VET