Auction guns on EE

Flippers are part of life and while not approved you have to accept that they exist. What you don't know is if they've put time and money into the gun to make it saleable. Auctions are the highest risk to get a gun that has been abused or not functioning as it should and you don't find out until you have it. I learned that lesson the hard way.
 
Arietta said:
Flippers are part of life and while not approved you have to accept that they exist. What you don't know is if they've put time and money into the gun to make it saleable. Auctions are the highest risk to get a gun that has been abused or not functioning as it should and you don't find out until you have it. I learned that lesson the hard way.
Click to expand...
An auction is a good way to dump a gun you wouldn't sell to a friend. Or a member here...
If seriously interested, it is worth making the effort to view the thing. If too far away, get someone to inspect it.
At least ask questions and get additional photos. Photographing guns with a white background isn't best. The white background tends to result in the gun being underexposed. Harder to see detail.
 
I haven't bought a lot of auction guns but, I've been quite pleased with the ones that I have won
Just today I received one from the last batch of summer auctions - a Mauser 71/84 marked to the Quebec Home Guard, I had reservations about it but still bid the max I was comfortable with and then ignored the auction, and it turned out to be a decent buy
Same with the others I have won, just lucky I guess, but I won't make much flipping them!
 
browninggold said:
Flippers are everywhere, some are obvious about it others aren’t. What drives me nuts are the guys asking 3000 for a 30 year old Citori 20g beacause well the new ones cost that much. Some guys still living in the Covid boom years
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, sometimes a guy asks $3000 for a 30 year old gun because they see the exact same 30 year old make and model at gun shows for $3500.
 
I think the whole topic is hogwash. Each and any person buying an item is free to make his own decisions. If I, for example, purchase an object, I obviously agree to the price. From the outside it may look like a bargain or grossly over-paying. I don't care. Being (for the most part I think) sane, I decide on what an object's value is, to ME. Third party observations and judgements really have no bearing on the actual situation.
 
I was at local gun shop not long ago. And out of the corner of my eye saw a tapcod out sks. Paid no mind to it. Then saw the price tag 450 bucks. So I asked about it. Was on consignment and it came with 400 rounds of ammo. For 450 bucks. I would have been a fool to leave it there.
I didn’t want or need the sks. But I bought it.
I sold the sks for 850 bucks and kept the ammo. Am i an asșhole ? I don’t think so. Just someone in the right place at the right time. Like mentioned previously. Anyone one of us can do it.
 
I have faith/trust in no one , if some thing positive comes my way it is of my doing , conversely
''when'' any thing negative befalls me it is because I am the author of my own demise .
... skwerl
 
tiriaq said:
Worst flipping experience I've had was with a friend. He would admire something I had, just had to have it, and I would sell it to him at "best buddy" price, then he would turn around an sell it at a high price. And then tell me how much he'd made. I quit dealing with him.
Click to expand...
no kidding - thats no friend.
 
Serial flippers have made the milsurp world a lot more exclusive than it was a decade ago. It's sad and likely unsustsinable in the long run, but such are the times.

The ignore function on CHN is a blessing. You can block the scalpers and it leaves only the reasonable people. I stopped using Gpost because there is no simple way to filter the resellers.
 
milsurpo said:
One company (whose name I won't mention) buys stuff for stupidly high prices at auctions and then adds them to their inventory priced at two to three times market value. An interesting "business model." It's hard enough for Canadian collectors to find interesting stuff up here without these commercial buyers skewing the market. On another note, another annoying trend is for American buyers to show up aggressively at Canadian auctions. Recently I've seen big-time US collectors grabbing interesting Lee-Enfields at Canadian auctions- not driving up the prices on the mundane types of course- just cherry-picking the special stuff. With the exchange rate they must laugh their guts out about the prices. I hope the export brokers are hitting them as hard as the ones we have to deal with if we're stupid enough to try buying at a US auction.

milsurpo+
Click to expand...

I'm right there with you with the Americans cherry picking pieces of Canadian history. Couple years ago I saw a US individual was about to win a DC marked Martini Henry. I sniped it from him because screw that. It showed up and it had a A Battery unit marked, among the very first Canadian regular units. It would've been in the racks at the Quebec Citadel in the 1880-90s and it was 20 seconds away from going down south...
 
How do you suppose we get new inventory? Auctions and gun shows! A few consignments and private purchases, but even then it has to be below retail to allow for a slim mark-up. That's the business. I can complain from the other side, too: collectors (mostly Canadian) drive up auction prices because they can pay retail. I can't. I have to consider my resale margin and usually can't compete with private buyers. I don't use auction houses and GB sellers who ship to Canada or list their stuff as "Canada OK". Usually means it will sell for too much. I haven't bid on Canadian auctions in years...
 
Flippers have entered and flourished in many hobby spaces over the last few years. It's a function of a demographic and cultural shift within those hobbies, a sign of the economy, and the prevalence of e-commerce in what used to be a relatively stable in-person marketplace.
 
blacklittledog said:
Navigating this market means having experienced the full spectrum of value, from great bargains to steep overpayments. However, discovering and subsequently following the online auction scene for the last six months reveals a distinct pattern: guns frequently cross the auction block only to surface a few weeks later on the Equipment Exchange or ####### for double the hammer price.
Click to expand...
Double?? rare I would guess - however - look at it this way. "you know what it went for at auction, you can math the premium and shipping, you know what the guy paid = you have a good idea the lowest amount they will take - make an offer"

Guns show up on EE for all kinds of reasons, need more safe room, need fast cash, no longer interested, want to make a few $$, wife said no, feds said no, need rent more than guns, etc-etc-etc You can always toss an offer out.

Curate your collection carefully and this won't seem like much of a problem

There are those who treat guns as a commodity - buy low, sell high - and that's fair,
 
bisonviril said:
Serial flippers have made the milsurp world a lot more exclusive than it was a decade ago. It's sad and likely unsustsinable in the long run, but such are the times.

The ignore function on CHN is a blessing. You can block the scalpers and it leaves only the reasonable people. I stopped using Gpost because there is no simple way to filter the resellers.
Click to expand...
The same could be said about the housing market... but eh, who am I to decide how people spend their $$
 
The only issue I have with “flippers” is they should be paying business member membership fees to sites like this. They are effectively a business. A business membership in a forum website is more than 1000$ a year.
We all know who they are and the rate of sales is far more than any regular person in a personal manner.
It is what kills sites like this, an average joe will never find a deal here unless he is on 24/7 in a race against a guy making it a job
 
The whole issue comes down to "something is worth what someone else will pay for it" If the person who will pay more than the purchased price, for an item, is not at the auction or sale, it will sell for less. In my case, I sometimes will pay more for something local because I don't have to worry about monitoring auctions and other sales, and don't have to worry about shipping and tax etc. Also I get to look closely at the item, to check for shortcomings.
There is another situation ; relatively few people will attempt to do a quality repair on a damaged gun, which means someone else who is capable, can pick the gun up for a relatively low price

cheers mooncoon
 
This thread is a bit ridiculous. We (at least for now given federal leadership trends) live in a free market economy.

If someone buys a gun and can resell at a profit, good for them. Long live capitalism.
 
Last edited:
The only problem I ever had with flippers was when we had the 22rimfire shortage where some were buying up every round they could find not to shoot or to replenish their stock but to immediately list for sale at a considerably higher price.We had a guy locally who was doing this and you had to be lucky to find a brick or 2 before he got there.I


Nothing wrong with a guy stocking up when there is a shortage (like we all do)but guys like that are parasites looking to make a buck off the rest of us.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom