Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles What drives used gun sales right now?

I know where a Ruger RS in .35 Whalen is for $1250. It is an early tanger in about 90+% condition. Even for that price I am kind of surprised it is still there.

The other shop has a Winchester model 100 with a scope in 308 Winchester for 299.99 with a wee bit of room.

No doubt. Not only a matter of taste (they ain’t got any, as yet anyway), but also attitude about “stuff” in general.

Younger generations don’t look at their purchases the same way as their elders. The days of ordinary folks saving up for nice furniture, china, silverware etc. are mostly over I think. Many will likely never own a home, or sometimes even a car. Guns are more like tools, the cheapest that do the job are what sells. Some sense to that actually, but I’m not there yet and still look at guns as almost the definition of a long-term, even lifetime purchase. Oddly, they do spend freely on their phones and other e-doodads that have relatively short lifetimes and get cast aside as soon as the next new thing appears. If you watch a bunch of pedestrians sometime, you’ll understand why; they just can’t put their phones down, even to keep from steeping in front of a bus or walking into a light pole. Seems like their whole existence is based on what’s on those screens.

Yeah right. It's Boomers doing most of the buying. I miss out on so much because they snap it up on weekdays when I'm working

I think there is a lot of truth to this, but there are so many new technologies out there(carbon fiber, new cartridges, just to name a few). This with all the hunting media pushing this people think that newest is greatest. While I gave altered my buying, I have a mix of old and new, but have slimmed down as stuff sitting collecting dust I don’t see as a benefit. Still have more than I need but the days of just buying have slowed some.

There was a time when people worked hard to acquired nice things to hand down as an inheritance and to a degree a means of preserving wealth.
Not anymore.

I local shop has a new looking new style BAR 243 synthetic on the used rack in 243 for $900. I haven't paid much attention to bars but this one has a nice feel to it, it points well, and is a belgium/Portugal gun. It's been on consignment for a while and thry said the owner would probably take less for it. Could be a fun way to shoot up some 243 ammo. I was wondering how it would do with 55g nbts at about 4000 fps for coyotes.

Bb

T , I bought mine in 1989 on clearance for 289 nib the dealer had cases of R-P 200 gr corelokts and 250 gr rn corelokts for $8/ box. I like 225 gr nbt's and 250 gr Speers in mine. I put a Vari X lll 2.5 x 8x on it and zero'ed it with only minor adjustments in 34 years. RCBS die set with a tapered expander ball made many a 30-06 once fired, into 35 whelens with 1 stroke of the press. Mb

That's where I'm at. I actually have a couple on consignment. My LGS also charges 10%, which is cheap compared to other places I've seen. I'd rather do that, than deal with gunbroker. I did something I never do, and trade one for another yesterday. A great rifle I rarely shoot, for a new piece of eye candy. The new shop I traded with treated me very fairly though. First time I've bought a gun there, so she was probably just being nice.. Her shop is in a small town, but she moves stuff and has a loyal customer base. I visit her when I am looking for hard to find bullets, because she has a good selection, at good prices. My safes are full, so I may have to sell a couple more!!! However, Now is not the time to sell though, for multiple reasons.

This…
Same problem for all the “stuff” we boomers have collected over the years: tools, cars, firearms. The world has moved on. If it doesn’t have a chip in it, the younger generation doesn’t know how to use it.

Low sales results from a poor economy. Always has, always will.

I think "obsolete" is the word you're looking for. It applies to just about any cartridge with "Weatherby" in the name...

I, personally, would disagree with this.

Prices are pressured down right now for sure but good hard to get guns are still bringing more money than they should IMO. Seen on Guns International today a Ruger M77 Ultralight in 250 Savage that was listed as sale pending for $1899 plus $100 shipping.

I bought one a yr or 2 back that I thought I paid enough for, but I wanted it and not even in the same ballpark as that price. First one I ever seen in this area being a UL in 250 Savage. My gun has a few minor nicks and scratches on it. This gun had nicks, scratches, rubs, and 1 fairly substantial bruise on the underside of forearm. Not saying it was beat up junk, it wasn't, but I sure wouldn't trade mine for it on my dumbest day.

This is always the slow time of the year. Time to buy is right now.

My LGS is busting with used guns of all types. Bidenomics has kicked in and people need the cash. There are some good ones that came out of safes - if you are in the market.

I agree that the younger people just aren’t going to pay for a quality used gun when they can get a cheap Ruger American, Savage or Tikka for 4 or 5 hundred dollars in lieu of a 6-7 hundred + dollar used gun. I posted a custom 300 WBY M700 a while back for 1100 dollars and it came with 150 pieces of brass, two sets of dies with one set a virgin Redding Competition set, Talley 1" rings and the plastic 50 round quality cases, not the MTM type. It is a left handed rifle too and has a Timney trigger and muzzle brake and less than 100 rounds fired. I didn’t even get any low ball requests or any other kind of interest. I listed it on two forums that are popular in the southwest.

2 things.

1. It's lefty, that narrows the possible pool of buyers. Lefty's will buy a RH rifle but righty's tend to not buy LH rifles
2. It's a 300 WBY, not that it's some monster cartridge but it is a cartridge that wouldn't really be as popular as say a 300 Win or even 30-06. Not everyone (and I'd say fewer and fewer these days) worship at the Weatherby altar. Paying retail for factory ammo isn't something a ton of people want to do and I can't remember the last time I saw Weatherby ammo on the shelf. I can remember the last time I saw 458 Win on the shelf, in a mom/pop MI shop.

Your prospective customer had to be a left handed reloader - was it really economy and price that left it unsold or was it the combination of that?

Great post. I think he posted a thread asking how much his rifle is worth, and I suggested that he list it on gunbroker. I doubt he did that. He'll get a lot more people looking at it there, vs. any of his "southwest" forums. Those forums/sites are probably much like any other site on the internet. Guys there are always looking for a stellar deal. That's how this site is, and other PNW sites I frequent. Guys searching gunbroker, are looking for just the right rifle. Sometimes you get multiple bidders and guys wanting that rifle, so it has the potential to sell for much more, there, than anywhere else. Gunbroker has its downfalls though, but they may outweigh listing it at places like here in the classifieds.

There is always enough people with enough money to buy the ‘good’ guns. The economy is not an issue to some.