Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Private gun sales as an economic indicator?

I'm waiting for someone with a nice Fulton Armory .30 Carbine and 1000 rounds of ammo to fall on hard times.

I'll be happy to help them out if the price is right.

Auto loan defaults are at a 29 yr high.

Personal CC debt has passed 1 Trillion several months back, and the average interest rate on those CC's is the highest it's been since they started keeping data on it.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out things are not good in the big picture and I have been seeing things sitting at shops.

There's always been good deals here off of tables at flea markets or from private, but that said, local auctions where it is an advertised gun auction, are still HIGH. Always been that way around here for some reason. I almost never go because I can't buy anything but went to 1 a few weeks back because there were a lot of good guns there and figured maybe I could come away with something. Not even close. Most went for several 100 more than my stupid might pay it just because I want it price. I never even got to bid on a single rifle.

Stupid high, even guns that were run of the mill average. A tootsie roll 760 in 30-06 with the stock cut off and a recoil pad added, brought $925.

Dang! I've got 11 760s and 7600s that I have no use for; 243x2, 257, 270x2, 30-06x6. 9 are excellent, 1 is excellent, but it has had a recoil pad installed, and 1 has been hunted hard and shows it.

You'd make a killing around here at auction. Don't know what it is.........I quit going way back in the Obama yrs. Just ridiculous prices at auctions. I've gotten some really good deals on some darn good rifles laying on tables at local flea markets and from private around here. Even a few at small LGS. But auctions? Nope. A lot of good guns there, $1500 was probably the low end that most of them brought.

M70 458 Win Mag, $3600. Two 7600 7mm-08's, $1800 each. A bunch of M88's. 358 Win $4200, 284 $3000, 243 $2000. On and on.

No one likes 760's and that is why they never get used.

Yes you are correct
I end up buying lots of guns in these times
I notice my ebay sales are slow also

My 760A in 257 is #2411xx, assembled in 06/54. Not NIB, but at least 95%, it didn't get used much at all over the past 69+ years. There is almost zero demand for pump action rifles here.

People are routing extra income to household expenses. Need food and fuel to make a living. No room in the "what's leftover" side of the balance sheet for much else.

When things get worse next year and I start snapping up items people sell to make ends meet, do I feel guilty or no? How guilty?

LOL

Been seeing a lot of repo trucks lately

A lot of people made a lot of down payments with Covid money. Now, they can not make the monthly.

A lot of people ran up a lot of credit cards during Covid. I would be betting the rash of bankruptcies is just beginning.

Who, with two cents worth of brains pawns a firearm?????????

I knew a guy who, for a couple years, took a Parker-Hale 270 w/ 4-12 Banner, and a 5 inch Witness in 38 super to the pawn shop on the 15'th of each month. They handed hime $200.

When the 1'st came around, he handed the pawn shop $250 and took his guns home. Every friggen month!!!!!!!! What an idiot!

Nobody really knows much about private gun sales without some kind of reporting, which is something I will fight to my last breath. Otherwise, I am seeing mixed signs. 9mm ammo seems to be "normalizing" after the shortage, as it's available in all the usual stores, and commonly at $12 to $15 for 50 rds. of ball ammo. Centerfire rifle ammo shelves are full and prices tend to be MSRP in the stores such as BassPro, Academy. Pawn shops continue to steal guns at 25-30 cents on the dollar and I am seeing lots of guns in the pawnshops. Yet they still want full retail (compared with online asking prices, not actual transaction prices) and I am not seeing too many "deals" to be had. They say their prices are just a starting place and ask me to make an offer. With ONE notable exception I found a few months ago in Houston, they will offer to absorb the sales tax ($900 plus tax becomes $900 out the door) but won't go any lower.

Recent examples are a nice Model 94 Winchester pawned for $200 and forfeited 90 days later. The shop booked it into inventory at the $200 plus $120 accrued interest from the loan and tags it at $1200, but they'll take $1000 out-the-door if you buy it today. I went back the next week and it's sold. A guy walked in with a nice-looking Marlin 336. The shop bought it for $350 and it was on the rack next week for $995.

I have been seeing those guns at North Texas gun shows for about $1200 apiece, and am seeing the same guns show after show. And ammo is all over the place...at one table they want $32 a box for Hornady Pro Hunter or Outfitter 7mm-08 and three other tables want $40-45 per box for the same ammo in the same room. I think I saw it at Academy for $39.95.