Value of guns for sale... insane!

[Bullet Bob]

I think the economy will stay in the tank for then next few years and down the road there will be some good deals out there on guns. I think this current buying frenzy will settle down in the next 6 months and many of these newly acquired guns will be back on the market when people need the money to eat, buy gas and pay rent.

Six months? You'll be allowed to buy them. Six years? Not so sure.

Thought about it, decided to expound a little. First, this disclaimer - I'm a lousy prognosticator! I do think you'll be able to buy a gun in six years, but I think it's likely that it will have to one of the "approved" ones, and you'll have to jump through a lot more hoops and expense to get it, and then only from restricted sources. I want to be wrong. I just hope they don't come up with a yearly per gun license fee, it might break me! The only good part is that it would take them so long to catalogue rburg's collection that it will keep them off my back for a while. Oh, I forgot; the "boat accident".

 

[fyimo]

Originally posted by Bullet Bob:

I think the economy will stay in the tank for then next few years and down the road there will be some good deals out there on guns. I think this current buying frenzy will settle down in the next 6 months and many of these newly acquired guns will be back on the market when people need the money to eat, buy gas and pay rent.

Six months? You'll be allowed to buy them. Six years? Not so sure.

Thought about it, decided to expound a little. First, this disclaimer - I'm a lousy prognosticator! I do think you'll be able to buy a gun in six years, but I think it's likely that it will have to one of the "approved" ones, and you'll have to jump through a lot more hoops and expense to get it, and then only from restricted sources. I want to be wrong. I just hope they don't come up with a yearly per gun license fee, it might break me! The only good part is that it would take them so long to catalogue rburg's collection that it will keep them off my back for a while. Oh, I forgot; the "boat accident".

I'm 65 and probably have more guns then I will ever need but I'm putting together a S&W collection this year and last year it was Sig's. I don't know what will happen in the next 6 years but I do know I will finish my S&W collection in the next year.

My Dad passed away 4 years ago and I got his Model 10-5 with 6 inch barrel and only 50 rounds through it. I have since bought a 29-2 Nickel 6 inch unfired, Model 28-2 4 inch 97%, three model 27-2's all like new in the box, Model 67 4 inch- mint, and a Model 64 snub nose.

In fact I think I just have two more to go a model 17 and a model 29-2 shooter. I just bought a 29-2 Nickel that is unfired and I don't want to shoot it.

I've also stocked my reloading bench so that I can shoot what I have for a very long time.

 

[northslope]

Originally posted by bountyhunter:
BTW, out here in California the price of nice used 27's is well over $1000.

Yes, but...I've score two minty 27-2's, *with boxes and tools* for less than that in the last 3 months.

Both were consignments - one is a 5" that I paid $699 for, the other a 6" for which I paid $720.

I actually think we're going to see a slight depression in used revolver prices in the coming year. I don't know if it's the "worry" factor causing some of these safe queens to emerge onto consignment shelves, or what...

--Neill

 

[Wyatt Earp]

I guess I am lucky. In the last year or so I have bought three used N frames and not one has been more than $600 before taxes.

Lest you think they are beaters, here's one:

The other two are a Lew Horton 3" M29 and a pre lock 629 Mountain Gun. Both in similar condition to the above. The 629 was barely out of the box.

The same place where I bought two of those three also has the new Classics for less than $800. Cabelas just preys on the uneducated.

 

[fyimo]

Those are some great gun buys and as they say in Real Estate it's location Location Location. I live in Arkansas in a small town and the clostest major town is 70 miles in either diection. Where I live the gun stores don't take in trades or sell consignment guns. The pawn shops get a few but they are mostly bottom feeder guns. So I'm stuck with mostly Gunbroker, auction arms, and some gun shops that sell on the internet. I'm new up here but I have already bought one gun off of a forum member.

 

[JoeS]

Never worry much about gun prices myself. I hear people moan about how they bought this or that for so much less back "in the old days."
When I started buying guns, back in the early 70s I made about $1.90 an hour and you could buy a good 03/A3 in cosmoline for about $50. I don't recall what you could get a Model 29 for because they were out of my financial grasp.
I make over $80k a year now and somehow, gun prices just don't seem like such a big deal, especially with a pretty average car going for $30k.
In fact, I find it interesting that some will freak out if they lose $100 on a gun transaction but they buy a new car that will depreciate somewhere around 50% in three years and thats just how it is. Strange.

 

[Old Navy]

Originally posted by JoeS:
Never worry much about gun prices myself. I hear people moan about how they bought this or that for so much less back "in the old days."
When I started buying guns, back in the early 70s I made about $1.90 an hour and you could buy a good 03/A3 in cosmoline for about $50. I don't recall what you could get a Model 29 for because they were out of my financial grasp.
I make over $80k a year now and somehow, gun prices just don't seem like such a big deal, especially with a pretty average car going for $30k.
In fact, I find it interesting that some will freak out if they lose $100 on a gun transaction but they buy a new car that will depreciate somewhere around 50% in three years and thats just how it is. Strange.

You make too much sense for some people. Same applies to TV's, I have a friend who thinks I am crazy for spending $900 on a 46" LCD Sharp TV, but when we bought our first color TV in the summer '76 at Sears and paid $5xx and then there was the interest for 3 years, but the wife and I both didn't take home more then about $800 at that time if even that much. When I explained that to him he was suddenly like a fish out of water.

Now that said I still see an artificial spike in prices brought on by panic buying. I finilly got my long awaited 357/38 caliber Marlin 1894C today and had to give $510 OTD, I not sure how much the gun has gone up in last 10 years, but this time a year and a half ago it was about $100 cheaper.

I like the idea of my hand guns having a matching rifle in same caliber, it might just come in handy some time in the future.

 

[JoeS]

Originally posted by Old Navy:
You make too much sense for some people. Same applies to TV's, I have a friend who thinks I am crazy for spending $900 on a 46" LCD Sharp TV, but when we bought our first color TV in the summer '76 at Sears and paid $5xx and then there was the interest for 3 years, but the wife and I both didn't take home more then about $800 at that time if even that much. When I explained that to him he was suddenly like a fish out of water.

Now that said I still see an artificial spike in prices brought on by panic buying. I finilly got my long awaited 357/38 caliber Marlin 1894C today and had to give $510 OTD, I not sure how much the gun has gone up in last 10 years, but this time a year and a half ago it was about $100 cheaper.

I like the idea of my hand guns having a matching rifle in same caliber, it might just come in handy some time in the future.

Well I'll try to avoid making sense in the future, its something I'm rarely accused of anyway.
I would say with inflation factored in, most guns are cheaper now than they were in, say, 1970. Many are actually of better quality thanks to cnc machining and such. Hand fitting can be a sign of high quality or poor manufacturing tolerances, depending on circumstance.
I do agree that there is some panic buying, notably in the 'black rifle' market. That kind of stuff happens.
Over time I've found sometimes I buy something and it unexpectedly gains some value, an example being my Browning 1886 rifle and my Smith 696. Its nice when it happens and I wish I could claim it was planned on my part.
Your story on the tv makes me smile, I was going through some of my moms estate in about 1991 and found an old receipt for a Zenith tv she bought in about 1980 for $1000. Wages as you note were somewhere around $100 a day if you had a good job.
Congrats on the Marlin, I love lever actions in pistol calibers. I have a Cimarron 1873 in .45 Colt and a Winchester 1892 in 45 colt, great fun to shoot.

 

[mike454]

I think Cabelas is in the unique position of having thousands of people a day comming through their store. They can wait for the person that doesn't know they're overpaying or doesn't care. I purchased a pre '64 model 70 in 375 H&H from them and payed probably $200 more than the gun was worth at the time. I payed it because I really wanted one, and had never seen one in person in years of gun show hunting.