Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Typical price loss from walking out the door ?

I had a side-by-side Ithaca 12-gauge shotgun for sale at the very reasonable price of $595 at a recent gun show. One guy came up and asked if he could take the barrels and forend off to examine it, standard procedure with doubles. I said OK.

It had plastic snap-caps in the chambers, in case anybody wanted to test the trigger pulls. He took one of these out of the chamber, leaving the other one in. Then he "rang" the barrels, doing the standard trick of hanging the rear lug over a finger then tapping the barrels near the muzzle.

But "ringing" the barrels with a plastic snap-cap, with another snap-cap still in the chamber, resulted in a dull buzz rather than the desired bell-like sound. He knew it would, and tried to tell me the solder between the barrels was loose.

I had rung the barrels when buying the gun a couple of years earlier, and knew they were fine. This guy is also fairly notorious on the Montana gun-show circuit. So I just looked at him, waiting to see what else he'd come up with.

He said, "But I'll still give you $400 for it, even though it has to be fixed."

I shook my head. "I'll sell it YOU for $800."

And he went away.

It takes profit to run a manufacturing facility and a retail shop. Wages, taxes, utilities, rent, advertising, etc. Not to mention potential litigation. Out of the profit a firearms manufacturer makes, how much of that do you suppose they need to cover that cost? That goes for anything we buy today, I'd bet they all have some amortized litigation costs factored into their pricing.

I have no issue on the mark up of firearms and related equipment. Just stating the obvious. Sometimes I wonder how some of these shops do it, what with the overhead, employees and all.

My employer, maker of pulp and paper, makes anywhere from zero to $600 a ton, paper is about +30% on cost. Times are good now with pulp selling at $960/ton and paper depending on grade up to around $15-1600 a ton.

Ya so that $90 serpentine belt for your car cost about $20 and you pay $80-90 retail. Just the way it is.

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As far as the markup or margin that a manufacturer, distributor, retailer, or other business must make...

Any business that has been around a while knows that the natural business cycle produces good years and not so good years.

One has to make enough in the good years to keep the business alive and healthy in the not so good years.

Think old Aesop had a Fable about that.

But that was a while back.

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Thanks for the update JB. I'm glad that he's still among us and doing well. He certainly did (does?) beautiful work.

I manage parts for a heavy equipment dealer and it costs between 12% - 15% just to unlock the door and turn the lights on. The expense happens every day whether we sell anything or not. Business hasn't been bad lately but there were some slow ones that made me break a sweat! Anyone that puts their hands on a commodity has to make something on it to stay afloat and keep them jobs.

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I appreciate it when the seller puts a reasonable market price on their wares.


But no one should be automatically insulted because someone asks about a better price. Horse trading has been a proud profession for thousands of years. There is a certain amount of pleasure in the process without anyone getting mad. In "The Shootist", John Wayne's character haggles with the livery stable owner over the price of his horse and also with the funeral home director over the price of his upcoming funeral.



As far as buying a gun owned by a country singer or a gun scribe, figure it would bring top dollar for the honor of being able to own such an item. Just think, the lucky buyer could be the only person in their community to own a 16 gauge side-by-side once owned by...

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Very nice

djs,

Oh, yeah, Jerry is still making great rifles! I doubt he will ever quit.

I know the wealth and social esteem of many a woman has increased exponentially after walking out the door with me, but I digress as I'm also quite the collectible.

Liar, liar - pants on fire.

Even if only briefly?

Preferably briefly.

There is a guy that goes to the gunshows in my area and
I have seen him a few times flicking the reciever of a bolt
action with his finger and telling the seller that there
is something wrong with the gun by the sound it makes.
He does this with the action open, most people just look
at him when he tells them this and a few guys have told
him to take a hike.

Yeah, there's always somebody like that!

The guy I'm talking about has even been been invited out to the parking lot--by a guy who is packing, and not concealed. Sometimes I wonder why he still shows up at the shows.

If your selling your guns at the gun show you have them priced to low.

I'll give you another exception. A couple of years ago, I bought a Ruger No. 1-H in 9.3x74R, unfired and NIB, from a well-known gun writer. As I recall, the purchase price was $750 shipped and I was happy to get it, as that was a little over $100 less than the best price that I had been able to find locally. The rifle was as advertised and has served me well. However, a few months after it arrived, as I was storing the box, I noticed a price sticker from Capitol Sports in Helena, MT, for around $669 or so. (I tried to find the box tonight to confirm the amount, but must have shipped another rifle in it.)

I still like the rifle and the deal, but it obviously didn't diminish 25% in value after it went out the door!

Hammer,

I have tables at the local gun shows several times a year. I would PREFER to put my best price on the items on my table. Here a few years ago, I made a bulk purchase of new RCBS dies. I had about $12 into them /set. So I marked them $16 at the show. There was NO other vendor at the show that had new dies for less than $20. But yet, every single customer wanted to jew me down... Because of this attitude, I am forced to mark my merchandise up 10-15% to be able to get the fair price that I really want... That's not the way I prefer to do business, but what can I do?

GH

Strange, but the same thing happens at yards sales. Several years ago, we had a yard sale and I wanted to sell some sports equipment that I hadn't used in a long time.

I priced them at yard sale prices, and everyone wanted me to take less. After a few customers tried to get me to come down, I doubled the asking price, came down to for what I originally wanted for it, and sold every item.

That is both hilarious and terribly sad... (but I'm glad you were able to sell everything!)