When selling a rifle do you sell the scope seperate or keep it together?

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walnutred

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A friend has asked my to try and sell his old Remington 721. He called yesterday and I'll likely pick it up from him today. The rifle is in 270 and while a practical rifle it's boring to me. However he says the scope is marked R. A. Litschert, Winchester, Indiana. I'd never heard of this scope maker but an internet search makes me think this is an interesting scope, depending on what configuration it actually is.

I'm going to a gunshow December 1st and trying to decide if he'd get more money if I sold the scope and rifle separate. The rifle does have an interesting story. He was in the first Peace Corps class and this rifle went to and from Africa in a diplomatic case. The rifle also nearly contributed to my friends early demise when he shot an elephant with it.
 
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it depends, if you can get more by selling separate, then do it. if you can get more from keeping them together, do that.
 
Very often buyers intend to put a new scope of their choice on a new rifle, and don't consider the price of the package to include the scope. AIf the scope has any value at all you will get more selling it separate.
 
When i buy a used bolt action rifle it better come with a scope otherwise im not interested. I dont want to go pay a lot of money for a new scope, and rings. Also i dont want to spend a ton of money on ammo trying to sight it in (assuming expansive caliber). Used scopes are mire or less sighted in already and all i have to do is just tweak it a little.

The only time i wouldn't be interested is if the seller has a $1000 scope or a BSA, TESCO, any Walmart brand.

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If I were buying and the rifle had a "cheap" scope [read terrible optics] I would pay less for the rifle than if had only open sights, because in most cases it the optics are cheap so the mounts and rings.

Now if the rifle had great optics Schmidt-Bender, Hensoldt, USO, Nightforce, Zeiss, Swarovski, Steiner, etc I'll be willing to pay more because of the glass
 
I usually will offer whatever gun I have for sale as all "extras" included. (and priced as such)
When the prospective buyer starts to haggle over price, I start removing the "extras". The more he haggles, the more I remove......:p:p
 
It depends on the situation. At least a couple of gun shops in my area will only trade for or buy the gun. They assume that something is wrong with the scope and will advise you to remove it.

I sold a 300 Ultra Mag to a guy a few years ago and removed the scope at his request. I wanted an additional $300 since it had a Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x40 with good rings.
 
In this case - sell with scope. As noted above, this is a "period" piece and the scope will probably be a slow mover (even though it is a good brand). May even be a special mounting setup.
 
I believe that a suitably matched decent scope mounted on a decent rifle is always more appealing.
 
Simple economics suggests that you will realize more by selling separately.

More people want to buy a particular scope than want to buy a rifle with that scope.


Recently I bought a $700 rifle with a $250 scope for $800.
 
I will always try to sell them separate at a gun show and list two prices. one together and rifle only if I run an ad from the house.
 
bushmaster1313 said:
Simple economics suggests that you will realize more by selling separately.

More people want to buy a particular scope than want to buy a rifle with that scope.


Recently I bought a $700 rifle with a $250 scope for $800.
Click to expand...

If the scope is high quality I'd sell them separately. I sold a Remington 700 bull barrel .243 and a 6.5x20 Leupold together and got hammered. I'd have maximized my money separating and selling separately. A collector bought the rifle just for the rifle.
 
Separate from now on... unless FTF. I recently sold a very nice 98% condition Ruger 77/22. I had an inexpensive Simmons 3x9x40 scope on it so I listed it as a package. I probably could have gotten $35 for the scope itself.
Well I sold it on GB and it has been the biggest pain in my rear to satisfy a certain customer. He didn't like the 1 scope mount screw was slotted and the other 7 torq, then 3 weeks later he said that took it out to shoot and the multiplier didn't work..I am not going to justify what is or isn't right about the scope. All I know is that a $450 gun was sold to a very happy customer and the $35 scope that I sold with it has been a nightmare.
So unless it is a FTF transaction I am not selling any long gun with a scope.
I have had to go above and beyond to keep a good GB rating. Never again.
Just one man's selling experience... Buying might be a different one but based on this I dont think I would buy a used scope sight unseen unless iti was NIB.
 
It depends on where you sell it. A dealer will look up the wholesale price of the gun and offer you less than that scope or no scope.

Selling to an individual will get closer to the value of both.

I agree with the idea of having 2 prices. One with and one without. If the buyer does not like the scope you have a value for each and resolving the issue is easier.
 
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