Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Custom rifles and resale value

Was wondering what the chances are of getting your money back on a custom built rifle if a man decided to sell it. I'll admit right off that I don't own one because I'm afraid of the beating I would take on resale. On the other hand I would love to own one because of their beauty, walnut and blued, of course. When you build one do you just throw caution to the wind and plan on keeping it? They are absolutely beautiful and one of a kind but I haven't been able to make myself take the plunge yet. Maybe you fellas can enlighten me.?

Spend your discretionary money in a way that makes you happy. Worrying about taking a beating on a custom does not sound like happiness.

I never consider resale value as I am building it for my self. Bear

I consider resale to some degree, or I should say that I consider the benifit of a modification compared to its impact on value. As a for instance, I would not build a top-notch hunting rifle in a Wby chambering with no freebore. It's a hunting rifle, so you just killed public appeal for the package due to a minimal change that probably won't make any difference in the rifle's performance on the hunting scene.

I've found that good quality components hold their value if they are assembled in a wise manner. Who cares if a fluted/braked 18" .338Lapua tube cost you $700? No one wants it. Secondhand items also tend to make better sense on custom guns. A good used action, stock, and scope will combine to make a rifle that will always hold appeal if only for use as somebody's donor project. Barrels are expendable, do as you wish, just don't expect to recapture much on that end. This has been my experience, but I'm into "user" guns, not showpieces.

I tend to buy custom rifles on the secondary market,you can get some deals on like new rifles and let the original owner take most of the depreciation.

It will not be built originally for you,but if you find what you like,it won't really matter.

Such rifles if cared for will retain value pretty well.

I've never bought a custom rifle yet where much consideration was placed on what it might be worth to someone else. My only advise would be not to have it chambered in some oddball configuration in the event that you must sell it down the road.

Buy a second hand rifle built by a well known and famous maker and I bet you won't lose much. Now finding one that someone else built and kept in great shape that appeals to your tastes could be a bit difficult.
dan

If you only lose 50% on a custom rifle you have done well.. Used custom rifles if they fit you are the best buy going.

I've bought several custom rifles on the used market, all at much less than the original guy paid. Excellent rifles, at a very good price.

if it's a Lefty it'll have nearly zero resale value.
each I've had made have been with intent to not part with it (them)

If it's a lefty, I'll bail you out at .20$ on the dollar! Only here to help!

I just bought one where somebody must've paid a small fortune remodeling and barreling a military Mauser. The work is beautiful but the stock was a little short for me. Fortunately, I have a synthetic stock in waiting and it will become possibly the ugliest custom rifle I own. The whole story is that I'm in the package less than $600 with a decent scope, dies, brass and bullets so I'm ready to shoot. That total is hard to beat and probably less than half what went into the metalwork alone.

A full blown custom rifle with exhibition European walnut will gain in value over the years, but these composite stocked, ss metal, all weather guns will devalue to 50 cents on the dollar and I doubt that they should be considered "Custom Rifles" persay..but there is a segment out there that will whup my old arse for such a remark or at least try!

On the other hand the synthetics are normally much less expensive than the full blown custom rifles, so that's a plus..A full blown custom rifle should be purchased with the expectation of keeping it at least until hell freezes over! boils down to whatever blows yer skirt up I guess.....

I've got two, one a shooter 700 with all the tricks, but it's no looker. The other is a true custom Muaser, (although neither were built for me) that's also a shooter. Fortunately, both of them fit me very well.

I paid a fair price for both, and haven't been disappointed. I doubt I'd ever get my money back on either, especially the Mauser. Seems to be a lack of enthusiasm for very nice rifles.

Oh, well...I'm not looking to sell them

I have always heard that a true custom made by a name smith like Al Biesen will appreciate. A custom made by a gunsmith down the street will probably depreciate no matter how good of job he does.

Ray Atkinson is right.
There are several different levels of "custom rifle".

And most people can't tell the difference, how how much difference there is, so the market of buyers is not that large.

A fine custom Westley Richards .375 H&H made in 1950, in mint condition, in the leather case with all its accessories, might bring $15,000, but how many people buy such a nice rifle, how many would not hunt with it, and who wants to wait 60 years to sell it?

A new WR would cost you $15,000 to $45,000, so ask yourself, did it hold its value?

Then there is the more common custom rifle of today, in the $5,000 to $8,000 range. You can find them, a few years old, all day long in great condition for $3,500 or less.

A custom stainless synthetic is not going to be worth any more than any other plastic rifle to most people. One of my hunting buddies bought a .280 Remington Custom Shop 700 Mountain rifle in a dipped camo Kevlar stock, Teflon coated steel, for $500 used in rural gun store, traded in on some new fancy. It shoots any 140-gr load under an inch, and Hornady 139-gr Interlocks into 1/2 inch.

Then there are the older, classic rifles, a style which most people under 55 don't care for. You can buy engraved Mausers for $2,000 or so that you couldn't build today for $10,000 if you were willing to wait a year on the work by the gunsmith, stockmaker and engraver. Those are the ones I look for, even I have to do some restoration work.

Lee24, that's what I did. Picked up a custom Oberndorf Mauser full stocked in very nice wood, lightly engraved, custom folding sights in 8x60 caliber. If I where to build that gun today, I'd guess $5,000 to 6,000. I bought it for $1,100. It may be the most accurate big game rifle I own.

resale value is the last thing I consider when I commission a custom rifle or handgun. The last thing.

Likewise, dead last.

I sell a project rifle I got tired of for the same as I'd pay if I found that same rifle on a store shelf. Basically I consider what the "durable parts": action, trigger, and stock, are worth in used condition.

The barrel is a throw-away, anything else is an accident. I expect any used gun I buy has a shot out barrel and I expect anyone who buys a used gun I'm selling to think it's a shot out barrel ... whether it is or not.

Optics ... most usually those are worth more sold separately than they are sold on the gun even if it's the exact same scope. If you leave them on the gun, folks think you should just donate the scope to them.

Tom

Lots of right answers here, but the bottom line is custom=huge loss on resale. Wood/ blue. SS/Synthetic...doesn't matter...in the used gun biz we call it the " custom gun curse"
I have two, one of each genre. If I were to re-sell them I would realistically expect about 35 cents on the dollar...
I've seen it too many times, luckily before I had anything built, or "done to them"
Both are rifles exactly the way I wanted them, had them for years, gonna have them till the end, so as so many said, resale was not even in the consideration column...
Just my 2 cents...
Ingwe