Regrets...

[OutAtTheEdge]

Hey everybody. I kinda got caught up in a thread in the last few days about someone who let a special gun get away from them, and someone posted something to the effect, "we've all had it happen, move on, no regrets". Then I said, "does this need it's own thread? So now I'm doing this...

I occasionally lose sleep at night, and since I'm saying that here, in this thread, you know where I'm going with this. Where to start...?

Okay, how about...

About 1984 I was working at a small gunshop in Wisconsin. The guy that owned the shop resisted all my pleas to get a Class 3 license, and finally told me to get one myself and run the business out of his shop.

Okay, long story short, it's 10 years later, I have closed up my moderately successful machinegun dealership because, you know, life happened. So, in accordance with federal law, I have current legal ownership of numerous machineguns, including:

Thompson M1A1
Royal Typewriter Korean War vintage Browning BAR
H&R Reising M50
Interarms-import UZI w/ wooden buttstock
Valmet M76, professionally converted to select-fire

Then we needed money.

So, I sold them. ALL of them. Looked good up front. I just about tripled my money on the whole bunch. Of course, today I couldn't touch any single one of them for 2-3 times what I got for all of them then, but I'm.....fine.

Oh, and to make things worse, a few years back, all the pictures I had taken back in my Polaroid/35mm ownership days have completely disappeared, as in "here they are/ where'd they go?" Fortunately, I still have copies of most of my federal forms, but that only makes the loss more painful. But I'm...fine.

Of course, then there was that....No, no. Your turn now.

 

[ameridaddy]

We all have shoulda coulda woulda (or maybe shouldn'ta) regrets, and I think if we got where we are now without financial or physical ruin, and if we dwell on them, we could become bitter or cynical. Methinks we should smile about our fecklessness, carelessness, immaturity and ignorance of days long past, and occasionally pass on the lessons learned to younger folks when the opportunity arises.
There is some satisfaction in that.

 

[LVSteve]

The closest I can the Savage built No4 Mk1 (no star *) with a six-groove barrel that I inspected at an auction but didn't bid on due to rust in the bore at the muzzle. I'll probably never see another.

 

[OutAtTheEdge]

We all have shoulda coulda woulda (or maybe shouldn'ta) regrets, and I think if we got where we are now without financial or physical ruin, and if we dwell on them, we could become bitter or cynical. Methinks we should smile about our fecklessness, carelessness, immaturity and ignorance of days long past, and occasionally pass on the lessons learned to younger folks when the opportunity arises.
There is some satisfaction in that.

I respect that answer, but you're avoiding the fun part!

 

[wundudnee]

When I was in high school a friends dad had a little.410 engraved double barrel he wanted to sell for $15.00. There was not enough money in my world for that gun. I'm 84 and still think about that gun. I sold a 3 1/2" .357 Magnum for $400.00, some regerts.

And then there was Lujuana.........

 

[pharmer]

Not a gun regret but a big one nevertheless. Summer 1980, 1st of 7 working in the swamp heat, I got a small bonus. Went up to a storefront in Orlando and put the whole $760 on a bar of silver. I reckon it's tripled today. If'n I'd bought 58 shares of Disney (where I was toiling 6-7 days a week building EPCOT), with the 3 splits I'd have 2784 shares @ about $110 or $306,240. Upside, I still have the silver where in my late 20's between strippers and "consumables" any money would be long gone. "Regrets; I've had a few".........Joe

 

[SF VET]

Applies to other things we acquire earlier in our life, and then "let go", only to have serious regrets later in our lives. or things we did not buy or trade for or the like, things we did NOT acquire, and later, regret not acquiring that item. It isn't necessarily a financial regret, lost income, but just that no mater how much we may search for the lost item, or one just like it, even "replacing" it just isn't the same. I could list guns, cars, and other items I will forever regret not keeping, or not buying. I guess one could even regret lost "opportunities', relationships, and so forth.

Nostalgia is part of growing older. SF VET

 

[gwpercle]

My "regrets" involve guns I Didn't Buy !!!

Why I didn't buy that S&W model 19 357 magnum with 2 1/2 " bbl and nickle plating ... I love short bbls and wasn't married !

And I passed up an early Ruger Blackhawk in 41 Magnum ... because I thought I wanted a 44 magnum (reading too much Elmer Keith ) and I didn't know what the 41 Magnum could do with cast bullets and handloads ... I got a model 58 S&W but passing on that Blackhawk still Haunts me to this day !

That's my only two regrets ... not too bad !

Gary

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

Most of my regrets involve people, not guns.

John

 

[shovelhead]

First revolver I bought a Model 15 Combat Masterpiece, 1974. Sold it two years later, pressured by an ex fiancée. After a couple of more “we don’t need this” of things I owned I figured out what I really didn’t need……

Replaced the 15 this year finally.

 

[dave1918a2]

I don't have any regrets. Well,,, there was this once....

 

[Golddollar]

We all have shoulda coulda woulda (or maybe shouldn'ta) regrets, and I think if we got where we are now without financial or physical ruin, and if we dwell on them, we could become bitter or cynical.

Back when I lost my job in 2009, I had to make the decision as to what guns and ammo I needed to sell quickly so that I had more of a cushion for keeping my house. Losing my house would have been real financial ruin. Luckily it kept me afloat until I got a six month temporary job and then the final job that I worked at until retirement. I managed to replace some of the guns I sold and because of changing interests I didn't bother trying to replace the rest.

The guys at the auction house and I still get a good laugh thinking about how I drove in to the auction house with the body of my car almost riding on the axles because of the load of stuff I brought.

 

[ameridaddy]

I respect that answer, but you're avoiding the fun part!

OK, I'll play.
In 1968, I bought a college graduation present from me to me.
A 1967 Corvette coupe, only 6,000 miles, 400 HP, 427 CI tri-power, oxford green with tan interior, white stripe on the hood, with AC, leather seats, and electric windows.
I sold it for $3,200 and bought a 1968 427, 435 HP Corvette convertible with a hard top, which was a trouble-ridden piece of junk that I sold at a loss.
I suspect that '67 is a $100,000 plus car today, if it survived, which I doubt, because the guy I sold it to called me a couple weeks later asking if I knew where he could get another. It was stolen and stripped.

 

[CajunBass]

I once bought a 1955 "pre-27" with a 5" barrel, Magna stocks that numbered to the gun, and the gold/blue box that also numbered to the gun. Very slight blue wear. I was too dumb to know what I had, and sold it a few years later at a loss.

The other one maybe not as dramatic, but I bought a beautiful little AYA side by side 20 gauge from Sears-Roebuck about 1978 or so. A pretty fancy gun in my world. Again, I kept it a few years, used it for dove hunting and such, then traded it off for something else.

Those both bug me late at night.

 

[lihpster]

Regrets? I've had a few. The guns I wish I didn't sell:
1. 581 in nickel with box and Curt Harlow grips
2. Ruger Wiley Clapp gp100
3. 29-10 with Curt Harlow's excellent work unfired with all the extras
4. 586 with Curts grips
5. Star PD
6. Ruger Redhawk in blue .44

 

[Bald1]

My regrets tend to lean towards cars and motorcycles. But when I sold them I had a reason. It was never because I “needed the money”
It was usually to by something else.

 

[Valmet]

New, unfired SIG-AMT. I relocated in summer 2009 back when the economy was in the tank. Sold the rifle in anticipation of not being able to find a job very quickly after the move. As luck would have it, 2 weeks after I sold it, I landed a solid job. AMTs have practically doubled in price.

 

[bigmoose]

I passed on a first gen FACTORY ENGRAVED Colt Single Action Army. $2200. With a very cool period correct (1920s) buscadero style holster. The stocks were not original, but very cool tea stained Catalan stocks like John Wayne’s. This was only ten years ago. What a dummy I was.

 

[murphydog]

I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention.

 

[DWalt]

I have lost count of the guns I sold but wished later that I hadn't. Probably the most prominent was a Colt Walker. It was in fairly junky condition. But how many real Walkers has anyone here ever owned? Then there was the Volcanic pistol I bought for a song in a small town shop. And the time I had a chance to buy Ian Fleming's documented Ruger .22 at a good price but didn't. And the list goes on.