I stopped at a gun shop today on the way to the range. It's a small shop in a small town. I bumped into an aquaintance outside and asked him what he was up to. "Buying a gun and selling one", he said. I asked him what he was selling and he told me he had a Winchester 32 WCF lever action. I told him that I might be interested and to go ahead and see what the owner would pay for it and then we could discuss it. I milled around the store and bought a magazine for my 1911 and after a bit, this guy called my name. I went over to the counter and he said, " This guy is going to give me $700 for this rifle". " What would you pay?" The owner came out of his chair and his wife got in my face. I turned around and left. I don't know what model the Winchester was. It had a octagon barrel and the butt was crescant. Dang nice rifle. Too bad the seller is an idiot.

A lot of business owners get mad in that situation because your making a deal in their store. Best to go outside or somewhere else to discuss.

If I was the owner I would have been pissed too.

Yep.

Think the point was, seller's lack of sophistication blew any chance. Gotta learn somehow; bad timing!

Yeah, the seller be a dumbschit.

Prolly a nice old 94 too.

Do your deal outside the shop. Don't use the guns shop owner as a Stalking Horse.

It had to have been a model 92 if it was .32 wcf.... and if I were the owner of the gun store Id have tossed you to the street with instructions to NEVER come back...

Ken didnt do anything wrong by telling the guy to go ahead and try the store.

The seller was a dumbschitt for doing what he did... I saw a guy a week ago try and offer a guy $25 for an old Colt pistol because it needed a small part. TOTAL BS. This Colt would bring at least $500 in any respectable shop...

The way I read the OP is that he understood the owners' irritation & blamed the seller of the gun for putting him in that position.

Don't think the OP did anything wrong...in fact, he left when the seller showed that he was an idiot...

Coulda been a '73, too, Poopbah.

well that sucks!

but yeah I don't find the OP at fault, to me he did the honorable thing


it was the guy that had the rifle that screwed up

if he'd have said "Well let me think about it" and walked outside with the rifle, no doubt OP would have hit the parking lot and they could have determined if he would have paid more.


just bad circumstances.

If the owner was apprised of the full story and still feels the OP was persona non grata, I'd be happy to comply were I in his shoes.

if it was accurately depicted then imo the OP did nada wrong, just the seller

loose lips, sink ships

Like an 'Antiques Roadshow' recently where a man had an old violin. He was offered $1000 for it by a music shop and had it evaluated at the show. Value was placed at $50,000.

I had no intention of discussing buying the rifle in the store and especially not in front of the owner. I expected the seller to get an apprasial from the owner and we could talk about it later. Moral of the story, never assume anything.

Yeh not your fault, he made a bad judgement call.

Gun shop gun buy

Was in the old Shapells gun shop over in Boise years ago looking through a box of used dies when a couple of guys walked in with a nice old double barrel, and a sawed off (18 1/4" barrel) single shot 12 guage to sell.

The deal was made and the sellers left, owner picked up the double, and a guy right there handy picked up the sawed off 12. As he looked it over ( it was kinda rough looking) the owner offered it to him for twenty bucks, saying " this is what I really wanted, and I'd just as soon that wasn't in the shop" as he held up, and looked over the double.
guy looked the 12 over a bit and laid it on the counter. I let him get about a step away and I said, "I'll take it."

Took it home, did a little fixin, and it stands behind the bedroom door as I write this.

You should have made an offer before he went in the store.

It's entirely possible the music shop owner didn't fully realize the full value of the violin as well.

It may be bad form, but as an honest businessman, I'd have no issues with someone knowing what I offered for the rifle. Just because it's a fair deal, don't mean the guy can't get more for it.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want people thinking they could do business like this all the time, but I wouldn't get THAT upset about it. You'd have to be a fool to think that it's not happening behind your back.

"It's entirely possible the music shop owner didn't fully realize the full value of the violin as well"

Since only one dollar amount is quoted in the OP it is also entirely possible that the shop owner was tryin to low ball and steal a gun.

Not cool...

If the store owner makes an offer and the gun owner accepts the offer there is no "stealing" involved.

We could haggle over terminology until the cows come home and get nowhere. What I mean is, and I know you have seen it, a shop owner offering an obviously uninformed customer a low ball price and touting how good an offer they are making. Call it taking advantage call it what you will and be happy. I'll just call it what I think it is.

Of course.

Why doesn't the business acumen "buy low, sell high" apply to gun shop owners?

Doesn't the seller have the responsibility to know what he is selling and have an idea of the value?

Not much excuse to be clueless about things today with the internet and all.

If I accept $100 for a $10,000 item whose fault is that? It was mine to sell at whatever I wanted.

YES, too bad....it could have been handled better, just go outside the store.

Yes I know that you didn't mean that the shop owner was actually stealing the gun but as long as they are both happy with the sale who's business is it besides their's?

THe other weekend I had a booth at a gunshow and sold a M94 that was made during WWII. I agreed on a price with a guy and I sold it. He later came back and showed me a USN stamping in the stock. Was this a rifle used by the Navy? Was it worth more than I sold it to him for because of that? I don't know but I would have liked to research it but I didn't feel bad or cheated because we both agreed on the price.

Truth be known, I was the first person he discussed the sale with, not the store owner. I wanted him to get a price from the owner so I could up it a hundred or so and we would both be happy. The guy had just purchased a new pistol from the store a few minutes earlier. Ken

Several ideas:

1. The music shop owner may not could have put any more than $1,000 into the violin

2. He may not have wanted to tie up more than that and

3. I'll bet the guy on the 'Antiques Roadshow' didn't reach for his checkbook to buy the violin for twice what the music shop offered much less the $50,000 he claimed was the true value. It is a TV show after all.

I love it when store owners/workers think they are doing you a favor by letting you shop there.


I love it even more when said businesses go titts up.

My gun store guy is a straight shooter. He'll look the price up in a book and show it to you and then will offer up a price.

He came across an old lady that had a German officers uniform from WWII that she wanted to sell, her dead husband had brought it back after the war.

He went to her home, she asked 200 bucks for it and he said no...I'll give you $20,000, and did. It's now displayed in his shop.

True story.

Yep, some of you boys really chap my a$$. What ever happened to treating people like you would like to be treated, pay a fair price and don't rip off the uneducated.

I stopped dealing with a relation's gun shop when the mother bragged about picking up a Parker double that was in an Ithaca box from a widow. She gave the widow the low ball price of an Ithaca: and 'stole' the Parker.

The store buying a gun generally will not pay as much as you or I if we want the gun because they are in business to make a profit - we just want it because we like them. If the gun if truelly worth $1000 according to the Blue Book you or I might pay that but a dealer can't pay that or they would never make a profit. So when they offer say $700 people think they're being ripped off which is not the case at all.

Exactamundo....afo one lurking on or around the premises looking to strike up an independent deal, you are basically doing it on turf they pay rent and expenses on. And yes, that includes the parking lot.

I all things financial........Caveat emptor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveat_emptor

So, what would you have paid for the gun?

No more than I had to. Which would have been less than 50% of the value I expected to get out of the item should I re-sell.

Key point being is I would have a very good idea of current values before I open my mouth.

any time you are in business and run off a customer you are one less customer closer to going out of business . Gun shops stay in business by a return and loyal customer base. Most just can't afford to lose a customer over one rifle deal . This gun shop owner lost more on this deal than he would have made in profit from buying this rifle. You wouldn't believe the guys who started gun business around here who didn't last a years because of their chittie attitudes toward potential customers

Yep, I've seen lotsa gun shops go under because the owners were dipschits in my lifetime. If I'd had the gunshop owner in the OP get pissed at me as described I'd have told him to his face to go get [bleep] and then I'd have told every hunter/shooter in three counties to stay away from the uppity asswhole.

big difference in running a business and playing with a hobby...

In the coming years,there will be less and less small gun shops due to expenses(insurance,health care,etc)A local shop just lost it's insurance carrier because they won't cover Guns or people that sell them.