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Thread: Do most firearms keep value ?

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
    DerekP Houston's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by salpal48 View Post
    Going Up in Price and Finding a receptive Buyer Have no relationship to each other
    That would be my take on the situation. I know what some of my collection is worth 'on paper' but the logistics of finding a buyer and actually selling it is a different price point. I buy mine as shooters so if I get anything back in a trade it is worth it for me. Only tried to trade one once though, I don't make a habit of buying things with the intention of reselling.
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  2. #22
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    I had to sell most every gun I owned about 15 years ago
    The dealer offered 75% of book
    I made money on most every gun
    Mostly a small increase
    But a couple few were sleepers
    Condering the forced sale I did OK and made some $$$
    Now in the fullness of time, I have rebuilt a larger and better collection.
    If I had to do it again, so be it, but many of my guns have been tuned by the top SASS gunsmiths, and that $$$ would be lost. So I expect a second sell off would be much more painful
    Not likely to be in dire straights, but there are a lot of guns I would love to own so I would start over, never look back

  3. #23
    Boolit Mold
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    I think in today's market, trading guns to a dealer you will get 60% of MSRP. Unless it is a special weapon he probably has a couple in stock. Selling to private individuals is a crapshoot. It's worth only what someone is willing to pay. Just because you paid a price for a gun doesn't mean that is what it's worth. Guns aren't the best investment. Buy them and shoot them.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

  4. #24
    Boolit Master zymguy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Boy View Post
    All pre 1900 firearms has appreciated nicely in value. So have the Uberti and Pedersoli rifles
    this example kinda hurts, i really want a Pedersoli lightning in .45 colt. I watch them get listed over and over for big $$$ on gunbroker. They dont seem to sell, or come down in price.

  5. #25
    Boolit Buddy Sam Casey's Avatar
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    A bit like the stock market. Ups and downs. Quality means a lot. Some guys always looking for nice old Colts and Winchesters. Right now the general gun market seems weak. A glut of black guns and Glocks and not much interest in most hunting firearms.

  6. #26
    Boolit Man gtrpickr's Avatar
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    I think we all hope they will hold or even gain value, but I buy mine to shoot and if I have to sell or trade one and I can get a decent return then I am happy.

  7. #27
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    It depends. I expect over the years most, if not all of us, have seen markets, tastes and desirability fluctuate in favor of different firearms. Make no mistake politics also plays a role. The AR madness of a few years ago being a case in point. I never would have believed M-1 Carbines and the Garand would bring the prices they do today. 50 years ago you couldn't give away a fine British double rifle. Check prices now. Look at what a plain, pre-war B Mauser brings. Mannlicher's have never been cheap nor are they now. Pre-64 Winchesters were just a good hunting rifle or a platform for a target rifle....before 1964. Colt SAA's were just "an old pistol" in the 50's. Who would have thought the Colt Snakes would be where they are today, other than perhaps the Python.

    Run of the mill stuff will pretty much stay run of the mill stuff. If you buy higher end you SHOULD come out ahead whether that was your intent or not. Except for a couple heirlooms everything in my safe is worth quite a bit more than I paid for it.....at the moment. That might not be true this time next year.

    As others have mentioned as a firearm gets some age on it condition is important and original condition of even more importance. Modified, altered firearms always bring less as do those which have been kitchen table or work bench refinished. As with vintage cars they're only original once. Professionally restored firearms are a different story depending on the firearm but even they will not bring the price a nice, completely original firearm of the same type will. Having said that I don't think one could do anything to something like an H&R Huntsman or any of the old "hardware store" single shot, shotguns to enhance or hinder its value.

    IF we could look into a crystal ball and know what the next hot thing would be I expect all of us would put a few in our safes.

    Generally I buy firearms to learn about, form cases and work up loads and enjoy shooting and hunting with them. If they gain in value, and most of what interests me does, so much the better. If not...I never intended to retire from the proceeds in the first place.
    "In general, the art of government is to take as much money as possible from one class of citizens and give it to another class of citizens" Voltaire'

    The common virtue of capitalism is the sharing of equal opportunity. The common vice of socialism is the equal sharing of misery

    NRA Benefactor 2008

  8. #28
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    Quote Originally Posted by NoAngel View Post
    Around here, they ALWAYS hold their value if you are looking to buy.
    They NEVER hold their value if you are looking to sell.


    It's main reason I hate going to gunshows. Anything there can be bought online and shipped to a dealer cheaper than trying to buy from John Doe. Armslist is no different.
    My advice to anyone buying guns as an investment....never buy any for an investment that you do not really like.
    Ain't that the truth !

    I bought my first gun in the late 1980s.
    Over the next 20 years, as I became a collector, and selling a gun that no longer was desirable to me, so I could purchase another one, as well as going through several phase shifts in types of guns I wanted to own ...first Milsurps, then pistols, then sporting rifles...ect. Anyway, to the point, after about twenty years of that, I went through my books and did the math to see my large profits that my hobby brought in (I thought it might be in the thousands $ ???) ...it turned out that I lost $30 instead of making money it seems a fella remembers the good deals and forgets the bad ones.

    If I had hindsight, I surely wouldn't have sold all those Milsurps that I purchased for less than $100 (many were $25) back in the early 1990s. I also would have bought and kept more Wheelguns, especially the Colts...ain't it crazy what the pythons are going for today?
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
    ― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001

  9. #29
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    I just remembered one sad deal I did...

    My First AR-15, I traded for it, at the LGS in the late 1990s or early 2000?. It was a low end Bushmaster, retailing around $800. I traded 7 milsurps even up for it. Today, at least 3 of those, are EACH, worth more than a low end AR-15 at todays prices
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    “If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.”
    ― The Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 2001

  10. #30
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    I am a pretty tough shopper so I never buy a new rifle if I can help it.
    I will always buy a used but like new or maybe used but never fired safe queen.
    Those rifles will usually be purchased for about 75% of retail for a normal rifle. A cheap gun will be less percentage wise but the expensive guns will often loose a lot of value.
    Pity the poor guy unloading a custom rifle. He might get 25% to 50% of his original investment.

    There seems to be a cut off for bargains. It used to be around $800 for a used rifle. It might be more like $1000 now.

    The affluent and spoiled probably buy only new stuff. Billy Bob the once a year deer slayer is not in the market for an $800 and up rifle. Billy Bob is your competitor for all the $300 to $400 discount rifles.
    I really like the above $800 price range because when I find a nearly mint new rifle at less than 50% of the original cost I figure it hurts nothing to buy it because I have always gotten my money back if I decided to sell it which is not very often.
    EDG

  11. #31
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    Calibers figure in. If you weer silly enough to buy into the super short mag, short mag and ultra mag craze 10 years ago and don't reload you can't give it away. Those barrels are for sale cheap as the only solution to some is to rebarrel and fix the bolt to fit. I have no idea what a Remington 5mm is worth from the 60's. There are collectors but no ammo. As with all things, buyer beware.
    [The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze

  12. #32
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Examples of increased values:
    Pedersoli 74 Sharps Competition - 2005 cost = $1100 now $2195
    Uberti HiWall 38-55 Deluxe - 2006 cost = $895 now $1450
    Regards
    John

  13. #33
    Boolit Master
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    Better investment than just a normal retirement account or IRA or such, no.

    In most cases they will not stay up with inflation. As mentioned some cases will make more IF sold at the proper time. As the owner of some more rare guns I've seen their values drop in half, then triple in just a few years. I have also made some money at guns. A good example was an AK type (MAK). Bought when the political climate made prices lower ($400). Sold less than a year later, after an election when prices spiked ($650).

  14. #34
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    yup. Buy a new gun and your going to loose probably 25 percent off the top if you trade it at a gun shop. A little better loss rate if you buy used. If you buy used and get a decent deal and its a gun that has appeal to many like a bolt 270/06 or something like a 1911 or a 44 mag you can about come out even when you trade.
    Quote Originally Posted by NoAngel View Post
    Around here, they ALWAYS hold their value if you are looking to buy.
    They NEVER hold their value if you are looking to sell.

    It's main reason I hate going to gunshows. Anything there can be bought online and shipped to a dealer cheaper than trying to buy from John Doe. Armslist is no different.
    My advice to anyone buying guns as an investment....never buy any for an investment that you do not really like.

  15. #35
    Boolit Master
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    There are exceptions, but for the most part I think guns are like gold and silver. It sometimes fluctuates, but for the most part they keep with inflation. All of the guns I have had over the years for the most part are worth more in quantity of dollars than I spent when purchasing them. I can buy the same quantity of milk and bread with todays $400 SKS value as I could with the $90 gun of the early 1980's.

  16. #36
    Boolit Grand Master

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    A lot depends on the Gun rarity availability and quality as to how well it holds value and resells. A High end Shiloh, C Sharps, Dakota, or some others of the semi custom may sell better as the wait for delivery isn't there. The modern production guns arnt as likely to lose a lot but may not gain quickly either. The Low end firearms may drop a lot and never recover. A lot depends on the demand, availability and condition of the firearms when being sold. Ive seen auctions bring big money on firearms, tools, and some other items but the trick there is you need 2 people who want the item present and willing to spend. One person willing to spend is a give away, LOL. While not a dead sure thing either way there are examples both ways to see

  17. #37
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    I've never bought in to the"buy guns as an investment", hogwash! Buy them to use, ain't that what they were made for? Buy high, and sell low has always been the way it worked with me, if I have to sell some, then so be it. Just take the best offer ,and move on! I buy what I like, old Marlins, Winchester, and Remington's, nothing newer than around 1960's. But the real problem is if ammo ever goes sky high, they all be worth very little! Of course there'll always be the collectors that never shoot them, and they could care less what ammo sells for. Kinda like back when gas prices soared up, the average joe didn't need big block muscle cars anymore, you could buy one for a song, everyone wanted mini cars and trucks.

  18. #38
    Boolit Master
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    Anything surplus has jumped up in price, guns and ammo. AK parts kits jumped threw the roof. Ar's have tanked.... buy one now if on the fence. I do regret not buying a crate of MN or sks 10ys ago, but I don't think I would have sold any lol

  19. #39
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    Quality firearms hold value. Bargain basement is always bargain basement...and Taurus, lol.

  20. #40
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    In the last 50 years I've had enough guns run through my hands to fill the bed of a pickup truck, and I've lost enough money on them to buy that pickup truck.

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