Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Scheels starting to go downhill ?

Who trades guns?

I looked over info the the "Blue Book of Gun Values". It appears its only use is to determine info or relatively new guns and specs of some older guns. I would not use it to determine used gun values. Obviously Scheels is looking for guns in great shape and in demand that can be sold in relatively short time. One example would be Gen 3 Glock with "frying pan" finish boxed in excellent condition, K-framed 9x19 S&W revolver or any larger S&W revolver with pinned barrel and recessed cylinder chambers (pre 1981 if memory serves right) if in excellent original condition. On the opposite end of spectrum would be something like: Keltec, Taurus,....... or some beat up Stevens hunting gun. Last year I recommended S&W 9x19 K-framed service revolver in excellent condition to member of THR that showed up on sale for $1450 at reputable US dealer site. He bought the gun and is happy to have it. One must remember they can give you at most about 80% of market value (if the gun is desirable and sought after) because they have to make a profit when they sell the gun.

$1,450 and no Ferris Wheel ride?
Nah.

In their defense they are leaving Cabelas and Bass Pro in a dust cloud as well as their price match policy on firearms.

I think the gun trade was driven by places like Cabela's. Now that they are getting out of the used gun market, the smaller concerns may look to do the same. There is a Scheels 5 miles from me. Their gun library no longer has guns, but safes, and boxes of stuff. Scheel will not ship or receive guns unless they are of a brand they sell in the store...no to Fox, L.C.Smiths, foreign guns, etc. I venture to say the gun trade will go back to small local concerns and internet auctions.

Scheels is going the way of LLBean, where hunting is a small side line compared to trendy clothes and ski equipment, etc. Face it, we are a dying breed. With the baby boomers starting their decent into immortality, hunting for working class people will also dye off. We won't be able to give our guns away. Guns in the $10,000+ class will continue to do well with the very rich.

I prefer a BIG ASS ROLLY COASTER to a wheel designed by Bueller.

But I haven't seen any gun stores at Magic Mountain or Coney Island since Johns Mannville closed shop, at least.

Scheels is awesome.

I agree the rest of the store is still OK, just the gun counter seems headed in a making money but not your normal store path.

The problem is - It leads the rest of the store in the same direction… Look at cabelas reloading now - woof.

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I followed up the next day by calling and asking if they had the Winchester. Nope, already gone. I highly suspected it never even went on the books and the rude employee carted it right home. I expect I was right.

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Did you really, just go full retard?

Cabela's, Bass Pro and Scheels all all EBB(Electronic Bound Book), in order for the customer to get paid, the firearm information would have to be imputed and then a cash out sheet will be printed for the customer to get his funds.

Scheels is still largely or entirely owned by the Scheels family. When they sell it or go public is when it will truly go to heck - just like when the Cabelas brothers sold out.

I thought Scheels was employee owned. At least that is what they advertised when they opened the store here in Colorado Springs

There is probably employee ownership, but the Scheels (they live in Fargo) are still the big dogs.

For some places, employee owned mean senior management, at .5 or 1%. A lot of this employee own business just a way to avoid health care and tax costs.

[/quote]I went to Cabela's back during Christmas break and was going to buy my kid a used Auto 5 shotgun. I took it up to the checkout and they directed me back to the Gun Library, for some reason. It was getting late and I think they just wanted to make somebody else deal with it. I stood there watching a semi-hostile Gun Library guy fingering from what I could tell from say seven feet away, a very decent pre-64 Winchester model 1894...30-30. Guy wanted like $500, which the Cabela's guy maybe should have just given him, the way gun prices are right now...and they weren't any better eight months back. So the Cabela's guy says the best he can do is $300! Guy asks for $350 and the pogue says he'll do him a favor and give him $325.

I followed up the next day by calling and asking if they had the Winchester. Nope, already gone. I highly suspected it never even went on the books and the rude employee carted it right home. I expect I was right.[/quote]


Gander Mountain also allow their employees to buy the used guns at cost, plus they could use their employee discount. The gun counter was a premium job. Those employee bought guns on the cheap and turn around and sold them on GI or Gun Broker. Gander Mtn should really have know better.

Like to hit Scheels once or twice a year in Reno. Kids still like to ride the Ferris Wheel even as adults.

Sell your gun on the internet if you think its worth more. Reality hopefully sets in after the third or four week of bumping your ad.

I like to marvel at their overhead and then buy stuff online for reasonable prices. However, when it was apparent that SR primers were going extinct in 2019, I scored several thousand at Scheels for regular prices.

Seems pretty obvious that you will do better selling a gun to someone who wants it themselves rather than someone who wants to sell it quickly for a profit. You’re also competing for their money against what they can make with that same amount of money by investing in a new gun from their jobber.

Sell it yourself.

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Never been in a Scheels. The one closest to here is
still an hour + away in packed traffic
The other chain stores are pretty much following that
same path, expensive hiking stuff, kids soccer stuff,
jockstraps, and team logo stuff, while the selection
of hunting, fishing, and camping slowly dwindles
down to the bare minimum
I told folks this would happen if we didn't support
the local mom and pop stores, and here it is.
There used to be a half dozen thriving gun stores
within bicycle distance from here.
There's one left about 10 miles away that doesn't
have much, but they don't have pink cleats and
mouth guards either

They have a relatively new store in Colorado Springs. I went earlier in the summer out of curiosity, just to check it out. It’s a nice store, and they have a schit ton of merchandise in there. But I didn’t see a single item in the entire store that was on sale. Nothin’.

If the previous manager was buying used guns at fair value, you know why he got fired, or is no longer there.

Most gun counters make Rick from Pawn Stars look generous.