Anybody ever downsized the collection and regretted it?

I became enamored with a hot rod project (aka money pit) a year ago. I guess it is sort of a late life crisis , something I just really wanted to do with no rational justification. 1954 Chevy pickup with the heart , soul and drive train of a '67 Camaro Frankensteined into it. Money had to come from somewhere , so now the safe is about 50% lighter.

Several individual guns left me with seller's remorse , but I gotta say - the margins I received above my purchase prices sure did ease that pain!

In short - I let go of a number of small toys to fund a big toy , and I am pleased with the result. And - it's not like I had to give up shooting ; I still have a good selection for various uses.

Ammo - now there's a different story. I actually increased my (substantial) stash during the course of liquidating about 1/2 of my firearms.

I sold a gun once. I have regretted it ever since.

Gg

Waveski said:

I became enamored with a hot rod project (aka money pit) a year ago. I guess it is sort of a late life crisis , something I just really wanted to do with no rational justification. 1954 Chevy pickup with the heart , soul and drive train of a '67 Camaro Frankensteined into it. Money had to come from somewhere , so now the safe is about 50% lighter.

Several individual guns left me with seller's remorse , but I gotta say - the margins I received above my purchase prices sure did ease that pain!

In short - I let go of a number of small toys to fund a big toy , and I am pleased with the result. And - it's not like I had to give up shooting ; I still have a good selection for various uses.

Ammo - now there's a different story. I actually increased my (substantial) stash during the course of liquidating about 1/2 of my firearms.

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As the owner of 49 and 72 Chevy trucks along with a 70 Chevelle, you made the right decision.

I'll take a Hot rod over a rifle any day of the week.

You want two opposing things it seems.

This tells me that it is not the time to clean house yet.

If you come up with different priorities in the future or develop a more solid plan on what downsizing the collection would accomplish, I think that would be closer to the right time.

I’ve sold a few over the years to fund other interests in life with mostly no regrets. Now the ones I’ve acquired and the ones I’ve inherited are here to stay. I’ve got 3 sons that will inherit them some day. Truthfully at this point in my life if I just kept a good 22 rifle ,a 20 gauge shotgun and maybe a 30-30 for big game I’d be good to go

Zero regrets.

I started a mass sell off more than a decade ago whittling down to a more managable number. The pandemic saw me giving away sentimental ones to family members.

Tomorrow isn't guaranteed.

After losing a job back in my college years on the North Coast of Ca. I had about two weeks of $$ left to figure out what I was going to do. To buy some time keeping a roof over my head and put some food in the ‘fridge I sold a sentimental gun; it was my Dads’ Savage 99F in .308 that he gave me for my 16th birthday. I also sold my first centerfire handgun, a Taurus 66 .357 and my first useless impulse buy, a Browning A-bolt Medallion in .338 Win Mag. (No reason to buy it other than at the time I had a union grocery checkers job paying Bay Area wages at 18 and thought it would be cool.)

My Dad and I both still feel for that 99F, it was his first centerfire rifle, too. He said he would’ve been happy to buy it from me to help me out but I wanted to make it on my own. Selling it was one of the hardest choices I had to make up to that point; I only told him about what happened to it years later when I wasn’t as embarrassed.

The other guns weren’t such a big deal to me so sending them off was OK. I will say the several hundred bucks I got for the three kept me from having to move into my semi-operational car with my clothes (and guns) while I scrambled to pull out of the financial nosedive I was in. I got a warehouse job paying $4.25/hr, pulled it together and made it work, learned valuable life lessons about focus, needs, choices and sacrifices, and I have been luckier and more successful than I ever imagined I could be.

Sometimes downsizing pays off in the long run… even when it hurts to do so in the now.

Stay safe.

I have already passed on most of the guns with family connections to family members. I was a collector/accumulator and had 105 guns in the safe(s) a couple of years ago. I now have about 30 after selling most in an online auction, and others consigned by a local gun shop. It was a bit of a "tug" letting go, and I OCCASIONALLY miss them, but realized I seldom/never shot most of them. I took half the money I received from the sales and bought a beautiful motorcycle after spending 30 years away from that sport, and have enjoyed it WAY more than guns sitting in a safe. The other half of the money is sitting in my nobody-but-me-can-touch-it bank account and is earmarked for whatever hobby I might take up next.

I can see selling guns to fund another hobby. Or for keeping food on the table and a roof overhead. Or even to afford to buy more ammo.

But if we're talking about just adding cash to the bank account, no way.

Some money is just too expensive.

For a long time I was on the sell one buy one plan, but now I’ve got $$ I don’t have the itch.

Anybody ever downsized the collection and regretted it?

Yes, and, after many months of therapy, I was JUST GETTING passed it until YOU stirred it alllll up again! At least 30 enablers above^^ !

Worse then hearing a song that used to play on the jukebox, memory lane (if only Sarah was here again, the convertible, sunshine, Hwy 1) & there you go.

Hopefully, I can resist the self medication, the smell of Hoppes etc. , and er, well.... Oh, the guilt! Regrets! The shame! THANKS for nothing!

I'm downsizing my life and like how it feels. Guns were downsized two years ago, and I don't regret it.

I do wish I kept my Saiga 12

If the OP's thread title means "Did you ever make stupid trades or sell guns you wish you still had?" then the answer is YES.

I'm planning ahead more than a decade to wondering what guns I'll want when I'm retired and living somewhere simpler and more relaxing. I know today's answer won't be the same as ten years from now, but the mental exercise is helping me prioritize what guns I really want to keep right now. Who knows what'll be invented in ten years? Maybe they'll come out with that one caliber that does everything from pistol plinking to big game rifle hunting, and costs the same as .22LR.

marksman13 said:

I’ve been toying with the idea of downsizing my rifle collection lately and maybe doing some cartridge consolidation. I’ve got several hunting rifles that I just don’t use with a bunch of use-overlap between them. Lately I’ve been thinking about buying an additional thermal scope along with maybe putting together a pair of hunting rigs (one long range, one short range) and sending some of my other hunting rifles to new homes.

Problem is, I post these guns for sale, but just don’t have the heart to let them go. They would all be difficult to replace. Some are no longer in production. Some just hold a soft spot in my heart. My brain knows that my needs would be better served if I moved some of these guns to a new home and used the cash for other purposes, but my heart is in a different place.

I know several of you have down-sized your collections over the past few years. Anybody regret those decisions?

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I have culled my collection of rifles on three different occasions and regretted it. For example, I had several Fin. M 39 I bought with the arsenal tag still on them and unfired. I bought these when they were selling out of New York for about 450 each, or unfired Persian Mausers, again, I bought several when they were selling for $300 each. These came with SN# bayonet and original factory target showing 5 shot group and signatures of the the people accepting that rifle. Or how about two pristine M 1 Garands, several M 14 with bayonet lug still on them ETC, ETC etc... Today these would be worth a fortune... Back then, These rifles were not worth much but today they cannot be replaced.. My point is, it may be better to pass them down to a family member unless you really need the money......

My plan is to pass them on to grandkids.
Several have already been passed on. I did not shoot them or rarely and have others of the same type. Grandkid needed it to hunt with, liked it and kept it. They use them, appreciate them, my job is done.
A few, they want, they shoot, but I use them extensively. ( my cowboy guns ). They are noted on my inventory list as to who gets what.

I have a strategy:

Never downsize.
so...
Never regret.

YES right here !!!

Well, down-sizing, in and of itself, has usually been a good thing, though some of my individual decisions have been regrettable, especially when I thought I was “trading-up,” parting with several firearms, to end up with one or two higher-end firearms, only to be disappointed in the reliability and/or performance of the newer weapon(s). The most memorable such mistake was parting with several pre-keyhole S&W revolvers, to finance two Kimber 1911 pistols, in 1997. The Kimbers were not the wonderful things that the hype had indicated, and became money pits, with only one of them finally becoming reliable enough for street carry. Yes, these were the “early” Kimbers, which were supposedly the good ones. Supposedly. (User error was not the problem, as my Colt Government Model pistols, also acquired in the Nineties, worked well.)

I regret every gun I've sold over the years but there are times when the money can be used for better things.

Recently I had to sell all of my guns because I was going to go into assisted living. I sold all my guns and reloading equipment getting ready for the move, then my fiance said let's stay in this house some more.

I could never get everything back. Since then I've been buying .22s and have a little collection, nothing to brag about but I hope things hold out and I can keep what I've got this time.

It's tough getting old. Today is my 70th birthday.

Recently I looked at my collection and decided I wanted to start downsizing. I felt I had reached a point of ‘enough’. Many of my guns were bought on a whim and weren’t really what I necessarily wanted, just something that caught my eye or something I had never owned before. I decided to sell the ones I had no attachment to, and buy higher end versions of what I had. I sold two Ruger Blackhawks and a Cimarron single action to purchase a new Colt SAA. That will event go to my son. I can’t take them with me when I go, so I wanted to leave really good stuff.

Yes and no. I decided to get rid of 3-1911 .45's and 2 AK's. I sometimes think I should have just hung out to them and I liked them alot but I felt like it was getting out of hand. I know how that could be frowned upon here but I reached a point where I just wanted to be more practical and keep 9mm and .223 as my primary target guns and so the x39 and .45 went.

I hung onto lots of other things I've accumulated for sentimental reasons and carry and shoot them occasionally but I figured focusing on stockpiling 2 calibers instead of 4 was wise at the time. I didn't see the "need" for 9mm, .223 AND .45, 762x39.

I've sold guns I didn't care for with zero regret, but never for the purpose of "downsizing".