Am I out of touch?

I think some of the gun show guys have finally started selling online too. There is one guy in my neck of the woods that brings the same crap guns to the same shows year after year. I know any of his half decent stuff is priced ridiculously. Like 1000 for a good to condition model 12, $5000 for a pre 64 30-06 model 70 without the original stock, etc.

Yes some of the prices have gone up due to inflation but like the add I saw today for $1600 for a 1950’s model 94? I can’t see anybody buying that and it will likely have several btt replies.
 
As mentioned above, if you see something that interests you simply make a offer. Seller can either counter your offer or say no. Either way nothing loss on either side. When I sell a rifle I price it as to what I feel it is worth however I have had a buyer make me a offer and have accepted it. Its alot easier gor a buyer to go down in price than it is for them to go up.
 
I really have a hard time with gun prices today.
when I got into guns....a Jungle carbine was $50 bucks,...a Enfield taker revolver was $35 bucks.
A 30 30 lever could be had for $250 for a Nice one.

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I seen today at the Ancaster gun show a Win94 in 32spl he was asking $1450 the one I have built around 1910'ish looked a heck a lot better his was probably built before 1930. I will probably see it again if he goes to the Woodstock gun show. Is the one I have worth that much? who knows - what I do know about the one I have that it was passed down three generations before I got it.
 
Yep - "wanted them" and then "able to pay for them", and the prices only have one way to go. I am in the very same boat.

Is a bit confusing though - as if people pay $1,200 to buy an older rifle, and then feel they have a "right" to recover that price, and also put something extra in their pocket - hence, for sale at $1,400 plus shipping - and they occasionally find a buyer who agrees, I think? I have seen several specifically like that - I no longer "want one", because I did buy one, at the horribly crazy price of $600 two or three years ago. Others likely got their's 10 years ago for $350. But that was then, and this is now ...
 
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I once made a 200% profit on a purchase and sale which turned out to be a very bad deal. In the late 50s I purchased for $15.00 a 1916 Luger in gorgeous condition complete with holster & spare magazine - all matching. A couple years later I sold it for a whopping $45.00 - 3 times what I paid. I often think if I'd have kept it what its value would be today.
 
RobP said:
I’ve bought and sold more firearms over the past 20 years than I’d like to admit! Some of the prices I’m seeing for rifles in the EE these days seem very very high to me... Ordinary rifles that people are asking over 2-3 times what I would consider a reasonable price. These aren’t collector pieces (despite what the ad may say) - run if the mill calibres such as 308 Win. I would point some of the ads out but don’t want to over step etiquette.
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I, too, consider a significant porportion of 'WTS' ads to have prices that are completely "out to lunch".

There are people asking $40. for used Glock magazines even when Glock is selling brand-new magazines for $45. Why would I pay 90% of brand-new for something that comes with all of the risk associated with 'used'? More often than not, I find, a person is better off buying new (assuming that 'new' is still available) because of the ridiculous 'used' pricing. To the point that taking the time to read every ad is a complete waste of time; in fact, the only ads worth reading are the brand-new ones, just posted, because if a price is a good price, the product will sell right away. A serious seller will figure that out pretty quickly. An opportunist, on the other hand, seeking to snare a unsophisticated sucker, will lay a trap that'll hunt forever.

If something has been 'BTT'd again and again (and again and again and again), well... as Ron White might say: "There's your sign."
 
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sharp shooter said:
I think some of the gun show guys have finally started selling online too.
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That is not new, the "gun show guys" are just running an under the table cash business anywhere they can.

Lots of people online buying just to re sell. Many of them are the worst complainers when it comes to pricing. It actually offends them that you are not pricing low enough so they can make a quick buck.
 
Brian46 said:
That is not new, the "gun show guys" are just running an under the table cash business anywhere they can.

Lots of people online buying just to re sell. Many of them are the worst complainers when it comes to pricing. It actually offends them that you are not pricing low enough so they can make a quick buck.
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Been there and done that. Especially when we could sell on Facebook.
Could easily double your money buying cheap cgn guns and selling them on there.
 
Wendell said:
...If something has been 'BTT'd again and again (and again and again and again), well... as Ron White might say: "There's your sign."
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Mostly true, but some items have a very, very small market and you wouldn't expect them to sell quickly even if priced fairly.
 
Wendell said:
I, too, consider a significant porportion of 'WTS' ads to have prices that are completely "out to lunch". ...
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Completely agree, but what are you going to do? It's a free market. If somebody wants to sit on inventory for months or years waiting for that "special someone" who is willing to pay the premium they're asking, that's their business. Some buyers will pay inflated prices (sometimes with "good" reason), and that is also their business. I dislike the clutter of BTT ads on the EE, but I'm sure if there was a better solution then CGN would have done it.

Just like real estate, except at least in that market most of us use an agent and that helps sort through the chaff.
 
I personally seldom ever look at an ad in EE Hunting & Sporting Rifles if it's bumped. If it shows "0" replies I check it out. If it shows "1" or more replies I don't bother because if it didn't interest me the first time nothing would have changed on the second or more times around.
 
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I was forced to a desk job for a couple of weeks and refreshed the page every 5minutes. The EE market is so true to the supply/demand curve, its scary. Low price stuff sells before there are 10 views. High priced stuff sits forever. Fair priced stuff is gone within 24 hours.

I felt like I was daytrading.
 
Doesn’t help that scalpers and people looking to make a buck push the price floor up. A rifle may have changed hands 5-6 times before it gets to you and no one wants to lose money
 
The hardest lessons learned for me were buying from EE, but, after honing the "art" of discernment, I purchased a few gems--at fair, but not cheap prices. I might sound like a grumpy old man, but it's almost always better to buy new. I noticed that all the crooks I bought from are either now banned or have disappeared.
 
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