Home Forums Gear Free Classifieds Why are quality items so hard to sell?

Market downturn on AR and like stuff is down for 2 reason . Saturation and Politics. Collectible firearms will fluctuate some on the economy and market driven crazes sometimes. There is always people that have disposable money even in a bad economy.

If an item won't sell then the price is too high or you are targeting the wrong buyers.

Exactly! The people who bring an item back to the top 82 times without a price reduction just don't understand this or they are unwilling to accept it.

Jerry

Every time I see a bump ttt I look for the price reduction.

or

it has not been exposed to the market for an adequate amount of time,

the pool of buyers is too limited.

ya!


GWB

That is the most likely scenario and lets not leave out cheap azz buyers.

I like getting good deals on "stuff" and I'd like to NEVER lose money on anything I sell. But I share this view point as well. I have an old beater .22lr I bought for $120 at a gun show when I was 14. Mowed yards every summer, picked up aluminum cans and had money for fishing lures, bullets, pocket knives etc. I've shot the heck out of that little .22 and wouldn't trade it for anything. I see kids every day with cell phones that cost more than a half dozen of my "big purchases" when I was kid. Those cell phones will be tossed in the drawer in a year or two (or lost and replaced 2x) with no memories of anything. FFW 40 years and if I buy a gun, tool, whatever and use it for a while, but decide to sell it I take into consideration the value it has had to me for however long I've gotten to use it.

With that said.........if anyone has a stainless Model 7 in .308 collecting dust you want to sell for cheap just PM me!!!

Or the tight AZZ sellers.

If you are in your own little world and not in line with the rest of the internet on your prices, your item will not sell.
Also remember asking price and selling price are 2 different things.

You are correct: the current market is a hard market to sell in. Over the last few years, most gun owners have laid in what they have wanted and now may be more willing to sell than buy. That makes it a buyers market. That will likely change around, but who knows when? I don't.

There is also a problem with high priced guns. First off, there is often no name recognition about who built/sold the gun. Even if there is name recognition, everyone expects to pay much less than the buyer did because it is a used item. And they are right. It also seems that the seller, often is unwilling to discount his once prized purchase enough to generate interest. But at a price point above 1500-2000, there are few really interested, depending on what it is. Usually at prices above that range, the rifle will need some great wood and impressive targets.

And "what you paid for it" or "these used to be worth $xx" has little to do with current value.

I agree. I would also add that that potential buyer maybe hasn’t seen it yet or hasn’t yet entered the market. This is a highly active site and if your not bumping your ad back up every 12 hrs your in the back forty in 24. The fewer buyers there would be for a particular item determines the time it needs to be exposed to the potential market. It might need to be on the market on page 1-3 for a month or more. Not everything will sell the first few hours.
If you think your price is solid then keep it exposed on the first few pages until it sells..

I compare the price to gunbroker prices. I have rarely seeen a mass produced rifle listed here that was not below the average price on Gunbroker.

Asking prices are not to be confused with selling price. It doesn't seems those distinctions are quite understood. Markets in my venue, both local and Internet have cooled considerably. That old adage that gun prices continually rise ...has long gone he way of newspapers and local hardware stores, it has passed by. Guns are being produced in ever-increasing bulk and attract a different buyer. Quality of the higher-end guns often surpass the old collectibles. Fewer and fewer high craftsmen gunsmiths. I am a die-hard old time collector and have had to suck-it-up on falling prices, know many old timers having a hard time refocusing their thinking. Prices are soft and are not rising.

Competition shooters do not go after the old main stays, it is the new Berettas, Perrazis, Kolars,Kregioffs, etc. which have rightfully earned their place in the quality markets. CNC machining,. better materials and metals, better quality wood, younger buyers, different markets. It has hurt my collection value.

And as other say, competitive prices and using the Blue Book, just exacerbates the problem. Especially rating everything at 95 to 98%, when new can be bought with a few dollars more. 98% is ...as new just without boxes and paperwork, usually no marks or blemishes. Just from my knothole after 70 years and having enjoyed firearms of all types.

There is a shotgun in the adds right now that I'd really like to have, and I'm sure the value is equal to the asking price. However I'm not willing to pay that much at the present time. Money is tight and while I have the cash I'd rather hold on to it.
...............But if the price drops a couple of hundred...........................

Why not make an offer? Real gun traders do not go whinny and whimpy with a polite offer. Seller can always say 'no thank you', it does not have to be a personality issue. What if stock market traders got all miffed at low ball offers, no offers ...just sit until cancelled or it expires.

The higher the price, the smaller the market. You can sell a $7000 Hensoldt for $3500 and I am still not buying it. Thats what I paid for my last car.

I'm thinking the day has come to buy a firearm because YOU like it and not for investment. The younger people are buying the $300 plastic guns and could care less about quality. I do 3 or 4 gun shows during the winter months and hardly see any young people. I do see the same faces at many shows and they usually have gray hair. Done 3 shows this winter and sold 1 gun at each show late in the afternoon 1st day. No guns on Sundays. Sold lots of small items like powder at $20 bucks a pound, brass, and bullets. Today everyone is carrying their cell phone and looking prices up. If you are cheaper than the store they buy it and if not just they keep trucking. I did sell some knives this year that I carried around for years. I've sold off most of my Marlin collection in last couple of years and done fine and invested in river property. I am glad the firearms are gone because now I see rifles selling for less than several years ago. I keep asking why if the economy is so great, why aren't people buying firearms like years ago??

Less hunters and shooters to busy playing with their thumbs. Also think how very little things of good quality are made today. It's a disposable world now days. Most stuff now days is junk compared to what I grew up with. My mother bought a new clothes washer (Kenmore) in 1953 made guess where. She left it for the people who bought the house in 1991 working just fine. I like quality in everything and it's tough to find and expensive. The younger people 50+ and down juast buy cheap and throw it away the first time it skips a beat. 300.00 rifles now days have no charm but they shoot.

Q

But for god sakes please make offers in a PM. It lacks taste to throw a number out in the public eye. He gave a price of $xxx cash right now for a Glock 43. The offer was low, but that didn’t bother me had he done it in private. So I gave him the business and told him I’d throw it in the garbage before I’d sell it for that. I also told him I wouldn’t sell it to him now at full asking price. That little pistol wasn’t about the money, it was about I didn’t need or want it anymore. I sold it three hours later to a PM and a reasonable offer. All parties were happy and was actually a great guy. Never heard a peep from the public DB

I’m under 50 and I like quality products and always have. My father taught me a strong work ethic and I have been fortunate enough to afford quite a few quality firearms and accessories. I’ve just late grown a concern that it may be impossible to sell these items when I’m completely gray and needing to sell off “stuff” so my bride won’t have to. My children will hunt and shoot with me, but aren’t crazy as I am about it. With that, I’d leave them a few rifles/pistols/shotguns behind....unless they take a big turn toward passion for quality firearms. They are pretty young so there is still hope! But I agree. I see forums full of “long range shooters” with savage axis, 10, RAR etc that are putting scopes I’ve never even heard of and calling it good.....those rifles have their place. Just not in my gun safes....it is a world full of me too, right now, and who cares about later.....