Depreciation

Glenfield marlin 30as is a shining example of a rifle generally way over priced on the used market.They were marlin's economy version of the 336 with a cheaply front sight and stained hardwood stock.Sold dirt cheap thru to the early 90's and now they routinely show up on the used market for 80-100% more than original cost. They are as plentiful as ants to boot.
In general though,I agree that 70-75% is fair for most rifles.
 
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The way I look at it is, if I buy a used run of the mill Rem 700, Ruger or Win 70 for 75% of the new price, I can clean it up, shoot it, have fun with it and probably sell
it for almost what I paid for it. I look at scopes pretty much the same way.

With that being said, that assumes I'd have to want to sell some of my rifles.
 
Used guns are like the stock market. Seriously. Prices go up and down, even on things that are out of production.

The more gun nutz you get together, the more the price goes up though.

And backroom chatter about guns affects longerm value too - why the heck anyone would pay twice as much for a pre-64 Win 70 as an 80's model push feed in the same caliber and condition is beyond me; many people seem to think God himself made pre-64's out of Angel wings or something, when it comes to pricing...

The comparison made by guido comparing cars to guns though, makes guns a good deal. Cars always go down in value. Not so with guns, if you take good car of them. I've bought a used Bronwing Auto 5 for $400, used it as my primary waterfowl shotgun for 15 years and sold it for $400. Try that with a car....
 
Success is dictated by rigidity... In real life business, like on the EE, you set for yourself a limit low price, if it happen that you cant sell at or above that price, you just whitdrawal the article and wait for a better time... It is all part of the discipline of bussiness and how well you will do is directly proportional at how disciplinated you are... JP.
 
Northman999 said:
Used guns are like the stock market. Seriously. Prices go up and down, even on things that are out of production.

The more gun nutz you get together, the more the price goes up though.

And backroom chatter about guns affects longerm value too - why the heck anyone would pay twice as much for a pre-64 Win 70 as an 80's model push feed in the same caliber and condition is beyond me; many people seem to think God himself made pre-64's out of Angel wings or something, when it comes to pricing...

The comparison made by guido comparing cars to guns though, makes guns a good deal. Cars always go down in value. Not so with guns, if you take good car of them. I've bought a used Bronwing Auto 5 for $400, used it as my primary waterfowl shotgun for 15 years and sold it for $400. Try that with a car....
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Depends on the car
I have a 70ss 454 chevelle I bought used in 1973 for 2500 bucks that is now selling for 75,000 and my 68 ss427 impala I drove in high school and paid 1800 for my brother now owns and his last apprasal was 44,000
All depends on the car
Cheers

Oh yes during those years I also bought 13 different ducks unlimited guns which I never fired and salted away in original boxes until 3 or 4 years ago when I sold them if it wasn't for two of the 13 I would have lost money overall and as it was may have just broke even
Not a very wise investment as I now know
 
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If you bought a new rifle, shot it and tried to sell it the next day you'd be lucky to get 80 cents on the dollar. Even then I'd be suspicious that you were dumping a lemon. On current production common rifles I seldom go much over half, or whatever a donor action is worth to me. On a rifle that would go for 1500 and up there has to be a price of a barrel blank worth of savings or you can keep it. If it shoots as is, I win. If it needs the barrel I don't really lose until I try to sell it. Then I lose.

When you buy well, or buy used, or keep it for a long time you might break even or make a little.
 
And backroom chatter about guns affects longerm value too - why the heck anyone would pay twice as much for a pre-64 Win 70 as an 80's model push feed in the same caliber and condition is beyond me; many people seem to think God himself made pre-64's out of Angel wings or something, when it comes to pricing...
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In a heart-beat, because you won't find many for just double. I've had a lot of M70s and the 70s and 80s had Winchester making a bunch of lameass guns. Now that production has resumed in the FN plant the collectors can have the pre-64s. Better quality and they aren't 50 years old.
 
I did an analysis of how much, on average, I lost when I sold my last 21 rifles and shotguns... it came out to 31%! Considering most of them were unused or lightly used, that is a steep loss. Moral of the story, keep what you have and don't buy things you don't need, no matter how premium they are.
 
Dogleg said:
If you bought a new rifle, shot it and tried to sell it the next day you'd be lucky to get 80 cents on the dollar. Even then I'd be suspicious that you were dumping a lemon. On current production common rifles I seldom go much over half, or whatever a donor action is worth to me. On a rifle that would go for 1500 and up there has to be a price of a barrel blank worth of savings or you can keep it. If it shoots as is, I win. If it needs the barrel I don't really lose until I try to sell it. Then I lose.

When you buy well, or buy used, or keep it for a long time you might break even or make a little.
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Interesting that this topic came up. I was just checking the EE and in the first 10 ads there are at least two current production rifles that are listed for between 25% and 40% higher than new prices (depending on where you look). So that would not fall into the category of "buying well", right?
;)
 
I've had a seller get close to violent when I showed him where I could buy the same gun new for many hundreds less than he was asking. My guess is he'll die with it, then an estate buyer will give his widow two bits on the dollar if she's lucky.
 
There are exceptions to all rules. But generally if a car, gun etc. has not been sold retail it is considered new. Once the gun crosses the counter as sold retail it is used fired or not. Deduct 30% at that point, and that is what it is generally worth on the used market. Take it to a gun shop and he will figure on selling it for 70% of what the gun presently retails for new. Out of that figure the gun shop will deduct another 30% and offer you that figure.

This is how gun shops generally work as they are in business to make money. The EE as you know does not work this way. If a fella buys a gun, uses it for a while and he wants to sell it he generally wants pretty much what he paid for it, including taxes in some cases. Everybody always without exception figures there stuff is worth more than it actually is. It doesn't matter what your selling it is only worth what someone is willing to give you.

So do guns depreciate "Yes" in most cases they do. Over time, and sometimes great periods of it, and dependant upon model they can appreciate. The simple trick is like playing the stocks, buy low and sell high. But it is far more complicated than that and not so simple.
 
I've been lucky so far in picking up used guns and reselling them later on.

A good example of a used gun we kept was the 10/22 basic I bought for my wife. I paid $170 for it and it shoots better than my deluxe/stainless 10/22 that was $380 when i bought it new.

Another would be my haenel jaeger 10, purchased when first introduced to Canada, I paid $1050 new for it, now the same gun is listed at $1375. I get that import rates change, but I feel comfortable that I won't lose money if I choose to sell it later on.

Regarding other brands, it seems tikka and sako hold value pretty good. I'd never buy a used newer remington, actually, I'd buy a 20-30 year old remington before I'd buy a 1-15 year old, mainly because I feel they made better guns 20 years ago as opposed to 10 years ago.
 
mrgoat said:
There are exceptions to all rules. But generally if a car, gun etc. has not been sold retail it is considered new. Once the gun crosses the counter as sold retail it is used fired or not. Deduct 30% at that point, and that is what it is generally worth on the used market. Take it to a gun shop and he will figure on selling it for 70% of what the gun presently retails for new. Out of that figure the gun shop will deduct another 30% and offer you that figure.

This is how gun shops generally work as they are in business to make money. The EE as you know does not work this way. If a fella buys a gun, uses it for a while and he wants to sell it he generally wants pretty much what he paid for it, including taxes in some cases. Everybody always without exception figures there stuff is worth more than it actually is. It doesn't matter what your selling it is only worth what someone is willing to give you.

So do guns depreciate "Yes" in most cases they do. Over time, and sometimes great periods of it, and dependant upon model they can appreciate. The simple trick is like playing the stocks, buy low and sell high. But it is far more complicated than that and not so simple.
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No your description of used it not what any collectors follow
After sold and unfired in original factory condition it is classed as •PERFECT: In New condition in every respect.
Many collectors & dealers use "As New" to describe this condition not USED
Cheers
 
The Kurgan said:
I did an analysis of how much, on average, I lost when I sold my last 21 rifles and shotguns... it came out to 31%! Considering most of them were unused or lightly used, that is a steep loss. Moral of the story, keep what you have and don't buy things you don't need, no matter how premium they are.
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X2 and will add.
Dont pay with a CC (for obvious reasons)
Dont finance your gun purchase either (again for obvious reasons) ;)

Buy what you like and shoot them if you want to.
If you want to start a collection for investment purposes you best start with doing some serious homework.
Just because someone likes the Remington SPS or the Weatherby Vanguard does not mean they will be collectible and valuable
when it comes time to cash in your Firearms based RRSP ;0
Tight Groups,
Rob
 
This thread brings back an interesting memory.
I was maybe just hitting 10 or 11 and dad's buddy had a Brno 21H in 8x57 dad was
interested in buying for me.
On one visit, this item came up and I remember them discussing price over a few drinks.
Dad was set on $110 and his buddy came up with $115.
They split the change, had another drink and shook hands.
That pretty gal is still here with me.
Most know what these fetch now a days.

She didn't quite look like this when I got her, but she makes me smile.

[URL=http://s614.photobucket.com/user/kamlooky/media/Brno%2021H/DSC08111_zpsd026a1c7.jpg.html][/URL]
 
My experience is that, on average, I lose approximately 30% of my initial purchase cost for lightly used, newer (under 3 years old) rifles that I sell on EE. Most of the loss is in the accessories and optics.

I always ask more for the special or rare stuff. I recently pi$$ed off another nutter by not wanting to sell my mint, unfired, non-refurbished, and probably unissued, 1953 Izhevsk SKS for a penny under $750. So sometimes my prices are way higher than the norm, but I'm in no rush to move the special stuff.
 
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You stole that beauty!

kamlooky said:
This thread brings back an interesting memory.
I was maybe just hitting 10 or 11 and dad's buddy had a Brno 21H in 8x57 dad was
interested in buying for me.
On one visit, this item came up and I remember them discussing price over a few drinks.
Dad was set on $110 and his buddy came up with $115.
They split the change, had another drink and shook hands.
That pretty gal is still here with me.
Most know what these fetch now a days.

She didn't quite look like this when I got her, but she makes me smile.

[URL=http://s614.photobucket.com/user/kamlooky/media/Brno%2021H/DSC08111_zpsd026a1c7.jpg.html][/URL]
Click to expand...
 
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