My father had the same believe that you don't sell unless somebody will pay two times what you think the value is. I do trade up. I am constantly looking for kitsch rifles. Kind of like Stephen King books. I need more of those. 80-90% Aborts, Remington 700s, savage bolt rifles, Remington 600s/660s that I happen into for 250-450 dollars. I get about 15-20 of those and they allow me to punch upwards to get something really good in trades. I think sometimes really nice rifles are hard to sell for small shops. I have missed deals because I don't have enough of the trade fodder. I missed on a Winchester 1895 Deluxe takedown in 3003 that I could of obtained for 1500 in trades but was low on them. Heck last week, I missed on a Pre64 Model 70 Standard that was refinished for 900 with a VXII 4-12 Leupold scope because I didn't have trade fodder and had bought a 1949 Winchester 94 in 30-30 for 550.00 the weekend before.
Do I feel regrets about some of those trade rifles? Yes, but I get more satisfaction out of the 1952 Steyr MS Deluxe 30/06 with a Nickles and Marburg Scope than the Sako 85 laminate Wolf 375HH that I traded for it. I will be able to find other Sako 85s but not so much for the Steyr. I have three other 375s so that isn't a problem. I remember about 15 years ago when I saw all these old guys snuggled around lever action Winchesters at gun shows like they were cozily sipping hot toddies around a campfire with chiteating grins and I thought they were a bit nuts. Now I see their point of view and wish I would have arrived on that level of enlightenment 10 years ago. When we were looking for a house, we looked at about 15 houses and then we found this house that had two rooms that were reinforced on three sides with concrete and rebar that were off the blueprints and were completely underground and I didn't say anything but put in an offer. I have been at working on filling up the first room and installed a steel vault door on the first. The beeroom with 65,000 bees is one room from there so we will find dead burglars if they try to bust in. I am about two thirds way to completely fill room 1 up and then I have another room to go. I will be retiring in a year or two and then I will have to probably cut back on gun purchases.
I get great satisfaction from the history of the search on guns. It is great to learn about elements of different guns and find the connections. I have done this more than just purchase guns. I will try to sell guns for gun shops if I am interested in them. I do this because when the gun is sold I am no longer tempted by the gun. This has backfired. There was a CZ550 American Safari High Grade in 458 Lott that had nice figure that I got 3 different people to put on layaway then they would cancel because of angry wives. The last time it was cancelled it went home with me. Its not going to go anywhere now.
I need some more levers and probably head down that rabbit hole of LC Smiths, Parkers, and Fox Shotguns but I need to slow down the accumulation cycle and spend more time staying directed towards getting classic customs from the 60s, 70s and 80s and focus on this.
