Let me see if I can sum this one up. I've been going to gun show nearly forever, or at least it seems so. I enjoy them a lot. I also spend more time doing different things at shows than many if not most people. I take particular pleasure watching the negotiations and final prices paid. Not just guns, but also accessories and ammo. The motives of the players seem to vary from a game to dead serious.
I've seen some tremendous bargains left on the table for $20 or so. There really are people who approach life with a blood thirsty attitude. Every transaction they're party to has to be a win for them. Its as much about beating the other poor guy to a pulp as it is about the item itself. Its even important to recognize that when you get caught up in a deal. I'd prefer not to do business with someone else who has that view of life. Maybe its because I do it for fun.
I once even pointed that out to my old gun show partner. That I do it for fun, he does it for money. That makes me an amateur and him a prostitute.
He kind of enjoyed the comparison.
The reality seems to be that there are very few guns floating around that are so unique you can't find another, probably at a better price. The exceptions are the ones you've got to figure out. About once a year I find a gun I really want badly. When I do, I have no qualms about paying what I consider a fair price. I don't get great pleasure out of the banter and trying to work the guy down a little. But I also understand its pretty profitable if you can pull it off.
There are people who won't pay a fair price for a worthy piece. I often think I see them here. They know darn good and well what that gun sold for new, back in the last century. If they look long and hard enough, they can find a speck of fly excrement someplace on any gun. To them, its reason to beat the other guy nearly to death on the price.
Sometimes it becomes so wearisome that I harden my stance and just wish the buyer would move along. They annoy me badly enough that I just wish they would "begone". And when I get a little upset, I've been known to do some pretty awful things. Like when they make a foolish offer of $100 less than I've got marked, I raise the price $100 over it. Try it sometime, it usually causes real confusion on their face. But within a few seconds it tells the other guy the game is over.
Once a while back I was selling down some of my Magnums. I just had too many and they were owning me. But I wasn't willing to sell at fire sale prices. At the time I thought I knew the values about as well as anyone. So along comes a prospective buyer. And his method of bargaining was to run down my stuff. That really annoyed me because I knew darn good and well what the defects in a 70 year old gun were. After all, I'd owned it for maybe 10 years myself. So after the guy had pawed all over my treasure, he came in with a lowball offer. And I predictably just said "no". He was polite and handed me back the gun he'd been playing with for maybe 10 minutes. Good, he was gone. But then an hour later he reappeared with a support group. The routine started all over again, and I'd had enough. The gun couldn't be bought for what he wanted to spend and they seemed to be wearing my gun out just looking at it. He gave me an opening and I pointed out he'd been looking for a good long time, but I'd never even seen the color of his money. Sure was one sided. So I suggested he allow me to handle, turn inside out and flip over his billfold for a while since he'd done the same to my gem. It stunned all of them! Priceless was how you'd describe the looks on their faces. I guess no one had ever said anything like that to them before. But I did get some laughs (mostly from behind our tables.) Then the guy did something totally unexpected, he paid my price! My guess at the time was he realized we were done talking and anything else would have just killed any deal.
Maybe we should all understand people negotiate from different perspectives. I look at guns and even make offers on them for one reason only. Its because I'd like to own the gun. For me, and I don't know how long. Others sometimes want to buy a gun to resell and make a few dollars. I'm not opposed to that, except if its my gun they want and they want to beat me to death on the price. Sometimes I don't have the patience or time for it.
I met my old gun show partner on one of those deals. He had a factory engraved M57. Not only was it beautiful, but it had one of the nicest sets of elephant ivory I'd ever seen. That was back in the mid 1990s. Back then there were 5 big gun shows a year around these parts. I'd noticed the gun at an earlier show, so I started paying attention to it. And he wanted $2400 for it. It was more than factory engraved M29s were selling for. So for a running stretch of maybe 4 or 5 shows, I'd inquire about the gun. Didn't spend a lot of time on it, but he knew he had one on the hook. Then one day near closing time I made my last pass to visit my gun. He saw me coming and called the bet. From maybe 3 or 4 tables away, he kind of yelled "are you serious or just window shopping?"
Too much for me, and I could see everyone in the island of tables was watching the drama (gun shows can have boring moments). So I just responded I'm always serious, and if he'd get reasonable on the price maybe we could do business. Guess it was apparent he'd thrown down the gauntlet and I returned it. Of course he asked what I thought was reasonable. So I reached into my vest and pulled out a nice little packet of $100s, 20 of them in the banks own wrapper. And I tossed it on the glass case. I think that was the only time I ever saw John blush. But I had some help, all the other vendors were almost folding over laughing. So he picked up my money and handed me the case. But before I could walk away, he told me to come in and sit for a spell.
Turns out he really needed the money. Another vendor had a 44-40 M92 he wanted in the worst way. Guess there is pressure from both sides. And a few years later he confided that was the first time he'd ever seen a gun show customer carry that kind of money around. It surprised me because he had a bunch of SAAs and those went for big money, too.
And I still have the M57. Because I wanted it.
