A friend and I were discussing the above and it brought back many memories . I once bought a Lefever 410 for $135 . It went down the road long ago and the buyer is still happy and so am I . Please , no stories about your third wife !

Bought an old shotgun “found in the attic”. Turned out to be a Burgess folding shotgun. Very rare. Turned a tidy sum on that one.

Went to look at a dirt bike. Fired it up. Ran like a watch. Took it home. An hour later my friend says “ hey there is pink stuff coming out of the motor”. Blew the case seals. Sold it for parts.

Had an old cotton top pay me $800 when I was 17 yrs old to make 3 55gal drums of machine shop hot-tank engine block wash disappear.

And the Cumberland River has been polluted ever since.........lol.

Bought a Wesley-Richards Cape Gun and took it to a gunsmith known for his work on such.

He charged me $500 to put it back on the face, then told me the firing pin springs were weak and might not work. Decided to try it anyway as I had already bought expensive brass and dies for the odd caliber. Ended up that it wouldn’t fire.

Other projects got in the way and about 3 years later I finally took it back to the same gunsmith to fix the firing pin springs. He had it for a month and I called him to ask about it.

He said, “Well, it’s off the face (even though it hadn’t been fired since I paid him to put it on face) and the safety’s buggered and the firing pin springs, well...I don’t think it’s worth your money to fix it.” Odd that he didn’t have that opinion the first time I took it to him.

I sold the gun for $100 less than I paid for it to a dealer. Now it’s someone else’s problem.

Sounds like a typical "gunsmith"

In 1975 I bought a well used 22 lr Win 190 at a pawn shop to keep in my college dorm room closet.

A week later I found a brand new Win 190 at the local drug store for 15% less than I paid for the used one.

But then there was an old Win 670 30-06 that I bought from a guy at work for $200. It was covered in a red dust of oxidation. After a couple hours of hand rubbing a light machine oil into the surface, pretty decent bluing appeared.

That old '06 shot everything from 125 TNT, to 165 bt, to 180 Barnes X or Black Talons, to the 190 Hornady btsp, into tight little groups. It shot as well as any rifle I ever owned, including several which cost four or five times as much.

When I was a kid of about 11 years old I had a Chicago city cop hire me to sand down a bicycle frame to be repainted. I worked my little butt off for the better part of a week and had it sanded down to the bare metal all over believing I would be paid more for doing such a good job. I was wrong. When I took it to him he handed me .50 ¢ and walked away grinning. I told his wife who was a real nice woman and she made him cough up a few bucks more which thoroughly pissed him off and he practically threw the money at me. I also got a great deal of personal pleasure about a year later when he along with several other Chicago cops got busted for running a payoff and bribes ring.

Best deal I was ever offered but turned down was a snub nose .38 Colt Cobra for $25. I turned it down because I figured it had to be stolen. I was right, too. The kid who was trying to sell it had taken it from a family his sister babysat for.

I was able to buy a remington 700 ss BDL, in .270 at gander Mt for less than their cost.

I bought it, and traded it back to them for something else at a later date. Making money on the deal.

Bought an all correct H&R Garand for 600.00 a couple of years ago

First wife...worst deal in history of mankind.

Slumlord ....you are funny ! Idaho ...... your Post reminds me of a Garage Sale I went to a few years ago . I asked if they had any Hunting or Fishing stuff for Sale . Guy takes me into his old Barn and shows me a Target Scope up on an old stone wall . Had red stuff all over it . Seller thought it was Rust and wanted $40 for it . I bought it , cleaned it off with some Solvents and all that red stuff came off . It was like new with perfect Glass . Can't remember exactly , but I think it was a Lyman 20X . Sold it to a friend who Collected old Single Shot US Made Rifles . We were both happy .

And you referenced third wives, not first!!!

Oh, and there were a couple of walnut Wea Vanguards in 243 for $349 and Leupold VX 2 3-9x40 scopes for $74 a couple years ago at Walmart.

Bought 68 acres for36k.
Sold 66k worth of timber off it.
Flipped the tract for 84k.

Wife and I went to a flee market that had lots of guns and I sold a gun. We were walking back to the truck and here is a Ruger 77 tanger in 250/3000 international in VERY good shape with a Leupold 4 power on it. I looked at the tag and showed it to the wife. I asked if that was the right price and the guy said yes. I promptly gave him the $400 he asked for it and was walking off. HE said "SHIFT" and was looking un happy about it. I asked if we were OK and he said ya it was his fault that he forgot to take the scope off. We walked 30 feet to the next vender and this guy had 4 international in the rack. Had them all marked $800 or higher. He saw ours and asked to look at. He about peed his self when he saw what it was and my wife says we just bought it. He asked WHERE did we get it and we pointed to his neighbor.. 30 feet away. He asked how much I wanted for it and I said well if yours are worth $800 with no scope, mine must be worth a thousand. He paused for a bit and said that would be his price, too. We kept walking back toward the truck and found 4 boxes of NEW reloads for it using new brass and 100 gr. Nosler BTs for $8.00 a box. Got home, cleaned the gun and shot a 3 shot 5/8 " group. That has been 30 years ago. Still got it Any body have an idea what it is really worth now ? Ray

My brother sent me an old Colt Single Action Peacemaker in 38-40. He said he had it about 40 year and someone had given it to him.I was in Scheels the other day and they had three of them priced at $2995.

Last summer I had sent my nephew a few firearms that were my fathers. He sent me an early (1906) Winchester 94,Octagon barrel , 38-55 in pretty good shape The LGS priced it as $2200

Years ago I bought an unfired 6.5 Sewed Mauser for $39 thru the mail and sportarized it. Can't touch then now fro $500

I've got 2 maybe three Coleman 5 day coolers.

Best thing goin' for keeping ice 50+ days in fall hunting weather.

Get 'em on sale at the BiMart when you can.

Don't tell jimy, he don't like 'em


Geno

Picked up a Python about 30 years back for 150. My how it has grown. Haven’t fired it in a decade or so. Should. Bedside / camper gun

too funny..........my 2nd wife

still waiting for my best deal

$300 for a Sako lightweight deluxe .243, plus Sako rings and a Weaver 6X scope - found in a pawn shop where the owner pointed to the "Forester" on the side of the receiver (the word "Sako" was under the rings) and said, "I think it's one of those English made guns".

I pulled my wallet out so fast I practically set my pants on fire.

I’ve had quite a few good ones. A lot of the mines around here give yeti coolers as safety awards. They frequently come up for sale on Facebook. Bought a few for less than $100. My best though. Recently traded a model 700 300 RUM straight across for a Remington 700 varmint special in 7mm-08.

Fully restored, matching numbers 65 Mustang for $10.250. Also bought a pre 64 model 70 375 H&H for $1200 about 15 years ago. Great deal then and still good today.

Stole this for $275 earlier this year.
Refinished it, sure as fugg didnt look like this when I got it.
Got it up and running, didnt need a gunsmith to " fix it either"
"broken/ dont work per previous owner".
Not many can say they owned and shot a May 44 manufactured Walther G43 8mm 10 shot semi auto.
Was gonna keep it, take it on a token deer hunt once in awhile, but finding parts for it would have been a royal and an expensive PITA if something broke.
Moved it on down the road....


Traded it for this.
Arsenal SLR 100H Type 3 AK47
One of the best and rarest made.
Much more useful, practical, and durable to say the least.



Got some excellent pawnshop steals over the years around here also.
Project guns...
Given a new life.

Gotta love it when pawnshops/ female workers aint gotta a clue about schitt
And corparate is breathing down their ass to meet weekly sale goals.

Best thing that ever happened around here was Pawn America
buying out 5 of the pawnshops in town owned by 1 family.

Told this before. 2017. Small victory. Cabelas used rack, a rem 760 carbine ‘06, a trace rust foxing on mag tube but appeared otherwise, honestly, new. Weaver k3 post reticle in pivot mounts. It was $260 or $270 out the door after discount. Neither of us “needed it,” but on principle, one of us was leaving with it! I got it.

Turkey day week this year, same old rascal friend comes over in the store grinning like a cat, holding an anschutz, granted a m64, but still, with a leup 3-9 AO rimfire on it, has sights and mag. Again, whole thing looks new. $500? He got that one.

Generally, i find something i REALLY like, overpriced 10-20%, 30% and have to choose, “How bad do i want this?”

Worst deal. Consigned a nice but not perfect 66-1, holster, orig grips and new altamount grips, thru a small local shop that since closed. Suffice to say, “checks in the mail” type chit.

I just picked up a new in the box Lee Loadmaster for 9mm for $140. Local gun store/range is getting rid of all their reloading stuff. The components are 25% off and equipment is 50% off. Still need to make another trip to stock up on some more stuff.

Oh and I loaded 100 rounds of 9mm through that press today with no hiccups. Primer system even worked properly.

When Winchester closed shop in New Haven, a certain sporting goods chain heavily discounted their current walnut/stainless of M70 fwts. I bought all they had.

2 years ago I bought a tractor off the internet for a little over $50k. Pretty sure I could sell it today for $60-65K.



10 years ago we bought our house for cheap. It literally doubled in value 2-3 years after we bought it.



To date I haven't made a dime off of these deals but more or less saved a bunch of $$$.

4 years ago pawn shop in Billings had a tikka t3 stainless 7mm mag with a vortex scope for $325 with their 35% off sale so I bought it. About a week later the shop owner called and asked if I bought the tikka, I said yes and he asked if there was anyway I would be willing to sell it back to him. He said the guy who pawned it came in to pick it up and it shouldn’t have been put out for another 4 days. I sold it back to him for $700 and a really good price on another rifle.

Bought a rem 40xbr and a custom built rem 600 243 with douglas bull barrel, canjar set trigger. Both had mint 20x lyman scopes. Bought them a guy that said his dad built them in the 70’s . Caught him when he came thru the door at a gunshow. Said he just wanted them gone. He didnt even know what caliber they were. Gave him 375.00 for the pair.i figured he stole them but he handed me his id and his dads name was engraved on the barrel of one gun.i was leaving at the time but a friend bought 2 ruger 44 mags from him later that day for 100.00 each. G

I bought 12 guns for the shop I used to work for from a guy whose dad had passed and he wanted the gone and didn’t know or want to know what they might be worth. When I offered him $120 for the first one he quickly said that will work, but he meant for all of them. I tried to explain but he wasn’t interested in hearing it and sold them all to me for $10 each.

The best part was when I bought a first year 444 that was part of the deal for %10 over cost! My manager run off at the mouth and said I could have it for %10 over before he knew what I paid for it.

I bought a 16ga Ithaca 37R at the shop for $20 after the owner told the girl selling he wasn’t interested because it didn’t have a barrel. 2 hours later she came back and handed me the barrel she’d found in the meantime. She wanted to give me the whole works but I made her take the only $20 I had in my wallet.

I traded a guy a single 40 round box of American Eagle 22lr for a barreled 700 action in 222mag during the rimfire drought. He said he couldn’t find 222 mag ammo anymore and he’d broke the stock off anyway so he just wanted some 22 shells, I had one box in my door pocket.

Gave $40 for an FN sporter in 243 with a bent barrel from a snomachine wreck. Made a neat 7x57 out of it.

I have lots more village gun bargain stories.

Lyman Supertargetspot target scope complete with adjustable mounts, very nice condition, $3.00 out of a big box of toys at the Sacramento CA Veteran's Thrift store in about 1976 or so. Still have it and shoot it occasionally.

Billings MT gunshow 10 years ago or so, excellent condition Kimber SVT .22 with 3x9 Leupold scope and 6 magazines. $375.00. Sold the scope for $175.00. Shoots as well as my 40X or Anschutz 1407.

Once bought a Remington 24 in good condition from a retired ATF agent, while I was stationed in California for $50 cash. Probably would have been 2008.

Best deal I got was on gun broker. I paid an extra$50 to be a premium member about 5 years ago. Then they offered 50 USMC decommissioned Colt 1911 to the members. I got 2 for $1400 each. I see them listed now for north of 7k.

Here’s one on GB

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/837454373

Best,The contract that is our marriage license.

I bought my first house for $58k, sold it three years later for $102k, used the profit as a down on my new house.



P

Bought a Marlin 39m Mountie with the hang tags still in the trigger guard for $289.00.

The best deal I ever made was through a friend of a friend of a friend I landed a slot on a boat and was able to work the 1980 and 81 king crab seasons in AK. It only consisted of a few weeks each year but paid amazingly well. Looking back historically it was what is now called the glory years of Alaskas king crab harvests.

After the 1980 season I was able to pay 40K cash for a sorta non-livable old house on 40 acres in the Flathead valley in MT. It was my castle, it had power, water and a wood stove but no septic but a fair outhouse. It needed work and so did I so we were a match, I'd been living in a slide-in pickup camper prior.

Due to a lot of deer meat and low overhead I made it til the 1981 crab season got under way were I managed to double the wages I'd made the prior crab season.
I returned to my humble MT abode and promptly spent all my earnings on a commercial property in the Flathead that provided a slight income but It needed lot's of work....and once again I was broke, I'd spent 80k cashing out the property. No real job, no credit to speak of equals no loans.

I had to sell the 20 acre parcel next to the one the house sat on to get by the next few years. Managed to get what I'd paid plus enough to pay for getting the remaining 20 acres surveyed and broken into 40, 1/2 acre lots but had to dump the other 20k into the commercial property in attempt to enhance it's monthly revenues.

Fast forward 15 years...A real estate boom had hit the Flathead Valley and I sold both of those properties.

The commercial property was then bringing in over 100k a year in rental income, It'd now paid for itself a few times over, it sold for 950k.

My beater old house was still the same, no septic but an upgraded outhouse and a better wood stove, those 40 half acre lots were then worth about 35K each.
I sold to a developer for 800k.

Everything hinged on those few short weeks on a boat in Alaska some 17 years prior and having the balls to go for broke or bust. So, that was the best deal of my life.

I had to reinvest the bulk of the monies to avoid getting hit hard on taxes, 1.5M went back into Flathead Valley properties which since have more than doubled in value and are now self supporting tax and insurance wise with a little monthly residual.

Spent $30 to buy back about $130 of my own chit.



Best/worst deal ever.

I had the opportunity to do that once, guy had broke into my truck and stole the stereo and the behind the seat speakers.
I choose the wiser road and called the cops, they followed through and arrested the guy for robbing me and others.
The cops called me in to identify my property and told me I didn't have enough evidence to prove the stuff was mine and they kept it...

I should'ov paid the ransom and been done with it.


worst deal....

How did you keep you sanity working at that shop? Last time I was in that shop had to been 7yrs ago.. I have no idea who works there now..

He used it in his hot tub.

Didn't need any chlorine after that.

Cheapest guns I ever found were in the 1960s when the DCM (predecessor of the CMP) sold surplus military weapons to NRA members. I got a Winchester M1 carbine, a Springfield 03A3, and a .45 ACP for $19.95 each. All unfired. Years later I got an unfired M1 Garand for $116.

One day my supervisor, who has since retired, asked my if I was interested in buying his Honda CX500. This was the one that had opposing cylinders, like a BMW. I had seen him ride it in to work and knew it to be a running bike. I asked him how much?

"I want 50 bucks for it."

My checkbook appeared instantly. I took possession of the bike a few days later, then rode it on weekends for a few months.

After a short time I knew I didn't want to keep it, in part because it was actually such a small bike, and in part because of my possibly over-developed sense of self preservation. I put it up for sale, and possible trade.

I had numerous trade offers on it...one being a Browning High Power which was a decent pistol but not one I knew much about, so I passed. A few days later a guy offered up a nice Colt Python, and he became the ownder of a Honda CX500.

How did I do??

1970 got married, cost me 5 dollars.
best gun buy was the same year. bought a 50 cal muzzle loader rifle from an old gentleman 35.00 . he said "i have an old 44 cal blackpowder pistol too if you are interested. he wanted 30.00 for it. was to my eyes pretty rough but i thought it was cool so i bought it. 1947 colt. it lives in a safe deposit box. i used to shoot it on the 4th of july but not anymore.

worst was i sold both my 1890 winchesters .

Simply An amazing story!! Love it

We moved the TV boxes to the basement directly beneath the TV. Wife wanted a super fancy remote that would control cable and tv AND go through the floor. Spent $300 on a remote. Ended up not using it and it's still in original packaging downstairs. Lessons learned.

Mid 1990 I had a cousin come by the house and wanted to sell me a Winchester pre 64 featherweight. I told him I only had 250 dollars at the house at that time and the gun was worth a lot more than that and I was going to the Tulsa gun show in a couple of weeks and that I would carry it to sell for him. He said no he wanted the money then so I gave him the money and I got the rifle. I knew that his dad had gotten the rifle new in 1957 and told him he could buy it back if he wanted. It has been over 25 years now and I am still using it.

I bought a Remington Mountain Rifle in 7X57 mauser with an older Leupold Vari-Xlll in 3.5-10x40 for $150.00. If I remember right this was back in 2010. Still have it. A few years later I bought a Mauser 98 that had been redone in 257 Roberts for $100.00. Young guys grandpa had died and no one knew anything about it. Just wanted to get rid of it.

Bought and still have a 1936 3-digit model 70 30-06 for $300.00. # 36X

I just got this Buhag 12ga SXS shotgun for $200.00 from Simpson. Add shipping and FFL fee and I paid $255.00. Buhag guns were made by the Suhl small gunmakers who still had shops after WWII. Being now in Eastern Germany they had high tariffs on their products charged by the West. The GDR had them form the consortium and often sell below cost through it to get badly needed cash from western nations. People usually see the name "Buhag" and are turned off by it, not knowing that these were made by Germany's premier fine gun makers.

This turned out to be a Kessler action gun. Kessler was one of the best receiver/action makers for the "guild". It has a chipped butt plate, but I have a good replacement.The wood is perfect, as are the bores, and it's tight on face.

I bought this browning hipower in 30/06 two years ago for $250.00.

Those $89 Walmart Remington 700 Youth model in 243 was a pretty good deal. So was a $124 11-87.

I bought a brand new Beretta 92FS plus eight boxes of 9mm ammo for $50 from my neighbor, who is a Dr. and whose wife decided all guns had to go when they started having kids.
Sold it a week later for $500.