Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats How you price your custom for sale..

I'm fixing to have to let some customs move on down the road to get a land down payment. My question is how do you guys go about figuring out an asking price for your custom gun.
Do you ask for the price you payed less the gunsmithing cost.
Do you base you prices off of used parts( stocks, triggers, etc)
Do you ask a percentage less of what it cost you?

Just trying to get an idea of how to price these.

Sum of parts to replace, then some discount for number of rounds through the tube. Not saying that is the correct way just the way I do it.

EddyBo is that the sum of new parts. For instance a new H&S cost somewhere around 350 but can be bought most of the time on here and other sites for 200-225?

If I can find used in like condition, I would go with the used price, but I usually start with new prices. But then again I rarely ever sell guns, just buy more safes.

Take the amount you have in the rifle, cut that in half, and hope you get that for it.

If you have the time to part stuff out, you can usually get a bigger chunk of your money back.

Yep.

Unless your rifle is made by some famous smith that many guys would recognize, such as Kenny Jarrett, then you're lucky to get the parts money back without selling action, stock and barrel separately.

Fifty percent of what you have in it, if your lucky. Start at seventy five and bargain from there.

Mule Deer,

Given that top recognized name smiths usually sell their wares at top dollar, are resale prices still likely to be anywhere near the original costs? To the extent this not so, it can make a difference in any dollars lost calculations.

Say for arguments sake, a $6,000 custom rifle by a top flight smith is to come up for resale in used but decent shape. If all the resale market will bear is @ 2/3s the original price, the seller would be out a minimum of $2000.

That can buy a lot of custom features in work by lesser known -- but not necessarily less skilled -- smiths. And some of those costs -- by no means the majority or all -- might be recoverable in a resale. (For example, the campfire appears to be a seller's market for tarted up Remington 700s with nothing left of the original but the bare receiver.)

And, of course, the original buy-in cost has a sorting out effect that leaves a smaller number of buyers for resales of guns by contemporary high end craftsmen. Those wars could be on the market for a long time.

1B

I recovered all my money I had into a custom. The key is to get a good deal on everything when you get one.Don't pay full price or you will most likely lose money. Taking good trades works too ,that add up too more than you wanted in the first place sometimes.

Jarrett's rifles have not been bringing near what was paid new for them.

+1

A custom firearm isn't worth any more to the average buyer than a mass produced firearm. If you want to move them fast you're gonna lose money - a lot of money. If you hold out, and wait for the right guy, you can recover a whole lot more...if you're willing to wait.

I picked up a custom Mauser in 257Roberts a few days ago
for a very good price. Not a well known gunsmith who built
it, but I couldnt pass it up, mostly the price, second the
caliber.

At least in this area, if you want anything to sell, you've got to price it as if it were a stock factory rifle, used, or expect to have it sit unsold for a couple years. Anything over about $400 to $500 is going to be on the shelf for a while.

Might be different somewhere else.

Tom,

Yeah, but that is in Orygun!

More seriously some areas are better markets for custom rifles, and some not so good. The Internet can be a big help...jim

If you really want to move them, figure 50-75% of the cost to build them. Factors that affect the pricing are what the chambering is, what the configuration is, and who assembled it.

There are some exceptions such as Echols that seem to maintain there price, or even go for more than what the customer paid. But those exceptions are few and far between.

Conversely if you went with a no name smith, unpopular chambering, and an unpopular configuration, you'll be hard pressed to even get what a factory rifle would cost.

Depends on where you advertise.

From the bench on a busy range day will often bring one more than the sum of the parts. Lay the targets out for all to see and then start pitching.....

Local smith around here is a no-name out in the big world. However around the Pa and Ohio area his work is recognized as top shelf for accuracy and function. Not hard to sell for a good price once the right people are getting the word out and the right person is interested.

That makes quite a difference to me when I am looking to buy, and I can't be alone in that thought. It amazes me the amount of custom guns I see online where they do not post any targets and make no mention of how it shoots. Oh, you might read the occasional "shoots good", what ever that means. I would think posting about a half dozen groups of around half moa (or what ever would be considered excellent for that particular style of rifle) would boost your sale price by 25% or more. Just my two cents.

I was thinking about that "target" thing. I always buy guns like they're a lemon and I'm gonna have to put a new barrel on.
I see a kustum or fancy rifle with a huge price tag, I'm going to want to know how it shoots.
Never mind that a lot of people can't shoot. So I'd be paranoid about paying mucho dinero for a custom unless I knew the shooter, TRUSTED the shooter.

I usually figure out how much I have into the rifle,then how much I can afford to lose on it,and then price it 10% below that!They seem to sell fairly quickly. Monashee