Where do you get your wheelies?

Online mostly. The local shops that have revolvers tend to charge a significant premium.

Revolvers are usually priced about 10% below MSRP in my neck. My two local chain stores Cary a few. My favorite LGS, carries 40-60 different revolvers depending on the day. I live in a good place.

I also buy on gunbroker.com.

Gun shows for the old stuff that I like.

Estate sales & adds in the local paper / shopper paper.
Also little tiny local gun shows not yet infested with beef jerky & T-Shirt tables yet.

Lots of old guys clean out the horde and bring them to the little shows so they can rent a table and BS with their buddies all weekend.

Some of them are not internet savvy, and have no good idea how crazy S&W & Colt prices have become in the last few years!!

All kinds of good stuff show up from time to time.

I don't seem to look for them, as much as they look for me to give them a good home.

rc

I buy locally because I'm lucky to have at least 6 gun shops within 20 miles of home.

Do you have a Cabelas anywhere near you? They usually have a big selection of new and used revolvers for sale.

Ouch, sorry to hear that. I feel even more lucky now. Hopefully someone in your area is on this forum and knows where you can buy.

I got to the range multiple times a week. I always have a fist full of hundreds. Cash talks when someone is looking to sell.

Howdy

First of all, I never call them 'wheelies'. They are revolvers, have always been.

I am usually looking for older guns, not interested in anything new.

There are five or six gun shops within an hour of where I live. Most weekends I will take a drive and visit one or two of them. I often find something interesting in one of these shops. I am a regular at most of these shops and sometimes when I walk in the door I will be greeted with 'Wait to you see what I have' or something similar. Just two days ago I stopped into one shop and one of the clerks said he had something I had to see. Turned out it was a Nazi marked Walther PP. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it was great to get a chance to examine it. The other day I picked up a lovely little Beretta Model 71 with two barrels. The price was good and I grabbed it. Again, not a revolver, but my point is if you are persistent eventually you will be in the right place at the right time and you will find something you like.

I have gotten some great old Colts and Smiths just being in the right place at the right time. But I am persistent and drive around and visit a lot of shops. I never bother with the Big Box stores, they don't carry what I'm interested in. I also frequent the gun shows. While all the young guys are flocking to see the latest tupperware guns, I am finding the wheat among the chaff and ferreting out the nice old Smiths and Colts. I have a terrific old Five Screw K-22 Combat Masterpiece in front of me right now that I found at the last gunshow I went to.

You have to be willing to pay market price. Don't expect to find bargains just because the guns are old. Those days are gone. You have to know how to bargain a little bit to get a good price, but you have to be realistic about what the market value is of these guns these days.

One very large sporting goods store about an hour away posts their entire inventory of used guns on line. I browse it every once in a while, and run on up to see for myself if I am interested in something. Picked up an original Winchester made in 1882 that way recently.

Lastly, I attend auctions. Not online auctions, real brick and mortar auctions with a real auctioneer where you can inspect everything personally. I wouldn't dream of buying a firearm sight unseen on the net. Sometimes I luck out, after the really high dollar stuff has been sold, towards the end of the day the more reasonably priced stuff come up for sale. I have gotten some really fine old Colts and Smiths that way, after the high dollar guys have gone home.

You just have to put in the time and keep searching.

"I have a terrific old Five Screw K-22 Combat Masterpiece in front of me right now that I found at the last gunshow I went to."

Could you share that with us , please?

Could you share that with us , please?

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Sure

There's really only one place in town I routinely buy vintage S&W revolvers at. A very small store that doesn't have them all the time, but they get them far more than other places locally. The small odd little shops might be a better source for vintage stuff. Sometimes the bigger sporting goods stores only want to sell you hunting rifles and scopes. The folks may not be knowledgeable.

Online, you could check out Simpson's LTD. in Illinois, or Colosseum Guns on Long Island. I've bought some nice pieces from them at decent prices. Gunbroker or GunsAmerica are probably an even better source.

If you're not so much into vintage, and don't mind surplus, you might try Robertson's Trading Post in TN. If you want new (which can be expensive for nicer S&W's) Bud's or Palmetto State or Kentucky Gun Co. have good prices.

First of all, I never call them 'wheelies'. They are revolvers, have always been.

Click to expand...

And yes, I agree with this statement. Best wishes and good luck!

TanklessPro

If you want to find more revolvers, you have to get out more and widen your search area.

Do not be afraid to ask for a lower price. Only once, has a dealer been offended when I asked for a better price. I usually say something like 'what's the best price you can give me?' I try to let him make the first offer. I almost always get a discount. Don't try to beat him down after his first offer, just accept it as the best he can do and still make a profit.

If I have to make the first offer I will usually ask for $50 less than the asking price. They usually go for it.

Case in point.

Last year I went to the used cabinet in a local store. There was a pristine Model 14-3 and they were asking $500, which was already a very good price. I asked if they would take $450. The said the gun was on consignment and they would have to get back to me. I didn't think the consignor would go for it, but a couple of hours later I got a phone call and he had said yes. When I went to pick it up, the owner of the store said he didn't realize what a terrific revolver it was and I got it for a great price. Then to make it even better, he went out back and got the original box it came with.

See if davidsons "Gallery of Guns" gets you anywhere, also try armslist but look only at ffl sellers, and if none of those work try other distibutor websites like lipseys. Might be able to order online at basspro dot com and have them ship to the local branch. Also don't forget the aggregators like grabagun and slickguns, both websites I've seen stellar deals at.

Best of luck Tankless, and in my case I have an ffl offering davidsons guns at buds prices so I almost always shop from gallery of guns. I think with no local availability that turning to online brokers shipping to a local ffl is the only way.

Driftwood Johnson said:

TanklessPro

If you want to find more revolvers, you have to get out more and widen your search area.

Do not be afraid to ask for a lower price. Only once, has a dealer been offended when I asked for a better price. I usually say something like 'what's the best price you can give me?' I try to let him make the first offer. I almost always get a discount. Don't try to beat him down after his first offer, just accept it as the best he can do and still make a profit.

If I have to make the first offer I will usually ask for $50 less than the asking price. They usually go for it.

Case in point.

Last year I went to the used cabinet in a local store. There was a pristine Model 14-3 and they were asking $500, which was already a very good price. I asked if they would take $450. The said the gun was on consignment and they would have to get back to me. I didn't think the consignor would go for it, but a couple of hours later I got a phone call and he had said yes. When I went to pick it up, the owner of the store said he didn't realize what a terrific revolver it was and I got it for a great price. Then to make it even better, he went out back and got the original box it came with.

Click to expand...

Now that's a steal. Nice

Gotta establish relationships with your local shops that buy guns. One of my local shops will give me a call if they get something in that they know I might like. I guess we're lucky up here because our gun shows actually are worth going to (I try to get in on Saturdays when the doors open as we have a lot of S&W collectors up here) and don't be afraid to negotiate price. Scored this minty (unfired) 15-4 and the nickel 10-7 snub for great prices in one show.

I like the small town gun shows. I'll drive 60 miles to a tiny gun show even though there might be a big one 4 miles from me on the same weekend. There's always some old codger with a table of S&W's. And whether I buy or not, it's always a pleasure to visit and talk old guns. But I rarely fail to find something worth buying. I agree with Driftwood that it's usually pretty easy to knock $50 off the asking price. I think the best I've done was $80 off the asking price. With sparser crowds the seller is usually more flexible.

If there is something I want in particular, I haunt Gunbroker until I find one for what I am willing to pay for it. I have gotten some very good bargains.

There are large-volume sellers there that sell a lot of used guns. An employee looks it over, takes a picture, types up what kind of shape it seems to be in as far as they can tell, and starts the auction for one cent or $100 or whatever. The company is not trying to rip anyone off. They sell a lot of guns and make a good profit. Doubtless crazy bidders end up paying way too much for some of them. But some slip through the cracks one way or another and end up selling for prices that are actually below market value. It happens. I know this through experience.

If you are patient you can be that guy who gets just what he wants and pays a very reasonable price. And it can actually be a lot of fun.

I find them all over, but not so much at gun shops. I’m only interested in Smith & Wessons from about the 1980s and prior. I have acquired a few each from local gun shops and Gunbroker, but most of mine have come from gun shows, pawn shops and FTF purchases from local online ads. I don’t know what started it, but it seems that the prices on older S&W revolvers have skyrocketed during the last 6 months or so.

Got most of mine through Gunauction.com,
a few through Gunsamerica.com,
and a few through the local pawnshops and gunstores.
I avoid Gunbroker after being a victim of fraud my first attempt at a purchase there.
Never a problem at the other two sites I mentioned.

Online pricing has been much better for me than local pricing, with a few notable exceptions.