I'm going to be sick

[Love Life]

deleted

[Bret4207]

Did you tell him he just traded possibly $500.00 worth of gun for a $100.00 gun? Give him a dope slap, with a 2x4!

[376Steyr]

Let him know how he screwed himself over. He's the one who needs to cry in the corner, not you. Furthermore, I see he's "a guy" and not "a friend". I'd keep it that way.

[EMC45]

People never cease to amaze me........

[olafhardt]

If I seriously want a gun, but need to go to the atm or whatever, I give the guy a $20 bill and head for the atm. When I did a lot of gun shows there were people who were sincere and there were " be backs". If you want to convince someone of your sincerity offer some kind of proof, money talks.

[mtgrs737]

I have one of those stories too. It is a story of missed opertunities, I don't even like to think about it as it still makes me mad.

[FN in MT]

Your "friend" sounds like a guy I know. He can start the week with a hi end British 20 ga sxs shotgun, worth $4K. By the end of the week and five trades...he would be down to the Mossberg pump.

With many people you just can't fix stupid.

FN in MT

[cgtreml]

These guys are never around me on payday. I have an old Mossberg if anyone is up for a trade. Just kidding it was my first shotgun and is worth way more to me than anyone else.

[fatelk]

A friend of mine bought a really nice S&W 29-2 last year, $600. When I saw him again a couple months later and asked him how it shot, he said he decided he didn't need it and traded it for a used Rem 700. I told him he should have called me because I would have made him a better trade or paid more for it.

I talked to him again recently and he said he needed money for rent so he sold the rifle for $250. I gave him heck, again, for not calling me.

The thing is he knew full well he was getting the bad end of the deal, but didn't really care because he was in a hurry and didn't want to mess with looking around for a better deal.

This brings up something I've wondered about:

Many/most folks here have bought, sold, or traded a number of guns over the years. Anyone want to talk about their own personal ethics regarding buying or selling? Maybe I should start a seperate thread to avoid hijacking this one.

The only reason I mention it is I've seen a lot of guys do what I consider to be shady stuff when dickering for used guns or whatever.

When I was a lot younger, in the early '90s, I had an old 1903 Colt .38 acp pistol. I bought it from an old timer I knew, with a box of ammo and a holster. After the third shot, a flat spring broke and it quit working. I checked around with a couple gunsmiths and nobody had a spring.

A few days later I got a call from a guy who said he got my number from the smith and wanted to know if I would sell it. He came and looked at it, ran it down and beat me up on the price pretty bad. He said the best he could do was $200. I said OK, but I keep the ammo and holster. Nope, nope, he said, I'm going to need those too. No deal without the ammo and holster. I needed the money so I took it.

I ran into him a couple months later, at a gun show. He was behind a table with some of his nicer stuff under glass. There was my 1903- with a $600 price tag on it! I'm still a little mad about it 20 years later. I know that's just business, but to this day I don't have much respect for someone who does business like that.

[fatelk]

It's pretty much the same for me. I once went to look at a bunch of reloading stuff from an estate, with $200 in my pocket. The nephew of the widow selling it pulled out box after box after box, said it all had to go in one deal. I got less and less interested as my rough estimation of retail value went past $1000. I told him that, to be honest, there was more value there than I could afford, but for curiousity sake, how much was she wanting?
"She would like to get $200"
I couldn't pull out my cash fast enough. I really didn't feel bad on that one because 1) she set the price, 2) she wasn't hurting for money, just needed it gone, and 3) it wasn't less than she would have gotten taking it to a gun shop.

On the other hand, I recently bought four old guns (not much value) from a friend who needed money. He named the price and I paid him about 20% more. I paid more than a gun shop would have paid, but still got a good deal and was fair with him. Now I have a couple more old rusty .22s to fix up.

I understand that gun shops have overhead and are in business for a profit. I don't mean to bash them at all, but some seem to be a bit better than others.

When selling guns, well, I pretty much don't. I only buy what I want, and only sell a gun if I hate it, and then just for whatever it will sell for, with full disclosure of any problems.

[DLCTEX]

I had a "friend" offer me a Rem. 722 in 222 for $200. I asked if he would hold it for a couple days and got "no problem". When I went back with the cash he upped the price to $300, so I told him to keep it, even though it was worth more. I felt a deal is a deal. About a week later he called and said if I still wanted it fir 200 come get it. It's one of my favorite guns.

[NHlever]

I was in a gun shop a week, or so ago, and liked the looks of a Marlin 45-70 guide gun they had there. As I walked around the store it seemed that just about everyone was picking up the Marlin, and one guy in particular seemed inerested. Anyway, I decidded I better pick up the gun if I wanted it so I did. The guy I mentioned came back with a clerk looking for the gun, and talking about how much he really wanted it. I passed the rifle to the clerk, and said, "I can take the next one I like". They both thanked me, and hustled off to the counter to do the paperwork. The guy buying the gun seemed confused about the paperwork, and said he had to run home to get his glasses to fill it out. Yesterday, the Marlin was still there as I thought it would be,.............

[TCoggins]

I once bought a Mossberg 835 with field barrel and rifled cantilever slug barrel from a friend for $250. Good deal and that was his asking price.

Fast forward about a year, and he bought a brand new Ruger single six hunter in stainless steel. He had that for about 1 week, and called me to ask if I would trade the Mossberg 835 for the Ruger.

I told him to go buy a used Mossberg somewhere and keep the Ruger, but he insisted. I told him to think about it for a week, and if he still wanted to trade, I would.

I felt guilty trading a $250 shotgun for a $600 revolver, but he insisted.

Sometimes you're on the good end of a trade.

[Olevern]

Sounds like the guy with the Mossburg was there at the right time. Ranks right up there with the $500.00 running Harley Davidson I recently bought.

[dk17hmr]

I once bought a Stevens 311 12 gauge at a Gander Mountain for $130 out the door. I took it home touched up the blueing in spots and refinished the stock, it truely was a great looking old shotgun when I was done, I shot it alot and used it for turkey hunting for one season. I traded that double barrel and a NEF 28 gauge youth model I had $100 into for an almost new (6 rounds fired) Colt Detective special. The guy I traded was all sorts of excited about the shotguns and didnt seem to care that the colt was worth more.

There was also a Remington 722 in 300 savage I bought when I was in college, the seller had it listed on a local website for $250 I called him and told him I would take it and would be up to his place after I got out of class, it was only a 20 minute drive. After a 20 or 30 minute conversation about the history of the rifle, why the stock was cut off, and how his neighbor needed money he said "sounds like you will fix it up nice, Ill take $200 for it if you send me a picture of it when you get it fixed up"

And than the 1903 Springfield I bought at a garage sale for $175 with an orginal 1905 bayonet and scabbard.....sold the bayonet for $225 on ebay a year later.

Some people just dont know or just dont care....havent figured it out yet.

[Lonegun1894]

Also sounds like the P-14 I bought recently for $150, and that was after telling the guy it was worth much more. His response was that it isnt a caliber he or I can go buy at walmart so its a wallhanger as it will never shoot again. I gave him $50 and came back with the other $100 about 15 minutes later to take the gun home. The gun almost looks new, and the only defect is that the volley sights have been removed. I also traded into a couple other guns over the years that were good deals, but the "sellers" didnt care and just wanted what I had instead--so I obliged them. Friend of mine bought a '98 Mauser with Swastika stamps from the same guy for $100 and an AR-7 for $20. Some people just amaze me.