How much does "impulse buying" factor in to your firearms purchases?

I rarely impulse buy guns. About the only time recently was an Anaconda at a pawn shop for $1500 in quite good condition. They seem to run about $1700-2200 depending, and my plan was to re-sell it but I ended up liking it more than my 29 Classic DX so it became my new bear revolver instead and the sold the DX for what I paid for it.

I am not a impulse buyer. Example, I waited to acquire a Glock at Generation 3. I am not a Beta Tester either, thus we let others go thru that process.

LoonWulf said:

Nearly all of mine have some impulsiveness to the purchase.

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Yep, most of mine have "some impulsiveness to the purchase" too. Few of my gun purchases have been pure impulsiveness, but most have had "some impulsiveness" to them.
What I mean is, when I see a gun that I take a liking to, whether it's in a store, a magazine, on the internet, at a gunshow, or because a friend has one, I have a talent for dreaming up reasons why I need one. And it won't be long before I have one. I've even done that with cartridges that I thought would be fun to handload, and a few cap and ball black powder guns as well.
Furthermore, most of the guns I've purchased when there was a lot of impulsiveness to the sale were later resold - or traded off for another gun that I'd dreamed up a "need" for.

How's this for the opposite of impulse? I posted here in January, 2010 that I wanted a 3-inch Ruger GP100 in .44 Special. Ruger didn't introduce the gun until late 2016, and I bought one (already had it in my budget) in early 2017.

I very occasionally impulse buy. The last one I bought on impulse was a CZ-70. still not sure why i did that.

most of my purchases are simply made while looking for the right deal.

I don't even buy killer deals if it is not something I want. It would have to be really cheap for me to buy, say a Taurus auto pistol. Like sub $100. You cant take them with you, even the good deals. That is where I am at in my life at age 37. It just has to be something truly special.

I have had so many J frames over the years and am now down to just 2. When I was downsizing the collection I used to turn down deals like nickel Model 36s for $200. I just didn't want them anymore. Leave it for the next guy.

Gun shopping is actually quite easy for me anymore. I walk in and immediately delete all the brand new items. Then I delete bolt actions, ARs, any plastic pistol, and S&W with a lock, most of the cheapy brands (I do like a fair number of older Taurus and Rossi products though) and that pretty much leaves about 0.5% of any gun shops inventory for me to peruse which is usually one or two items that are usually over priced (not priced low enough for me that is).

So using that criteria, if I impulse bought, it would only be about one item every few years.

I pretty much don't buy any gun these days unless I think I can get my money back, or ideally make some money on it if I decide to sell it. If a prospective purchase, impulse or deliberated, meets that guideline, I allow myself some latitude.

The only guns that have fallen outside this rule for me in the past few years were some CZ handguns. I love those guns enough to pay the necessary price for them. You can occasionally find sellers with relatively good prices on the guns compared to other sellers, but it's extremely rare to find one that you can actually resell for a meaningful profit by the time all is said and done.

Never. Guns were always expensive for me, and the regulatory requirements of my state are so burdensome that it really has to be worthwhile for me.

Legionnaire said:

How's this for the opposite of impulse? I posted here in January, 2010 that I wanted a 3-inch Ruger GP100 in .44 Special. Ruger didn't introduce the gun until late 2016, and I bought one (already had it in my budget) in early 2017.

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i bought my 5" after looking at a sale on cdnn for about 10 seconds.....
Course Ive been considering a .44 special, since i got my .44 mag some 5 years ago.

I've been known to go in to Wanenmachers' show in Tulsa with the absolute certainty that I'll walk out with a firearm, while also completely in the dark about what form it would take.

A Ruger 3-screw 41 Mag, a Remington 788 in .30/30, a 4" SW 686 no dash, a 1903a3, and a JM marked 44 Mag Marlin are just a few of the surprises I've walked out with.

I never find a deal on something when I'm looking for it. And I've had to pass up some amazing deals that fell into my lap when I didn't have money. But some of my best guns were ones I stumbled onto when I did happen to have cash available.

I used to spend a lot of time in pawnshops and have made some great deals on stuff. When I go to a gun show I'm never looking for anything specific. But will carry cash and possibly something for trade bait and if I see something at a good price will try to make a deal.

Some I never intended to keep, but to flip at a profit or trade for something better. I once paid $200 for a Reamington 700 to a guy at a pawnshop that needed rent money. Then traded it less than 24 hours later for a Winchester 70 Featherweight that I still own . I kept the scope, sling, and carrying case and got $350 for the rifle in trade.

Walked into another pawn shop to find a Winchester 94-22 XTR sitting literally in their "Bargain Barrel" with a bunch of cheap single barrel shotguns. It was filthy, but the asking price was $200 and it cleaned up very well. That was one of the few times I whipped out the credit card because I didn't have enough cash. That rifle was worth $500 then, closer to $1000 today.

Of course I've made some not so good deals and lost money too. But most of those were in my younger gun trading days. I've gotten better at making good choices.

Only impulse buy I have ever done was a Ruger Blackhawk 44 spcl 4 inch. I don't need it. Just like Ruger and big bores. Found while hunting a 41 mag.

I like “Targets of opportunity” better than impulse buying.

Guilty! I've purchased a few guns on impulse. My only regret is that the purchases tied up my available discretionary funds until I could replenish them.

Bought two today! .....yep.... Good buys and pretty wood just kills me....

Two purchases of mine were "impulse" buys - a HK P7 and a Beretta DT-11, both relatively expensive, at least for me, and both were used.

If I didn't impulse buy id own very little

I love Korean War, and earlier, military surplus firearms. They can often be pretty difficult to find a solid source for them. So they are often “impulse buys”. I stop in many different stores when I happen by them. If something interests me, and I have the available funds, I’ll get it.

Wyman

Typically my new gun purchases are well-conceived in advance, meticulously planned, and carried out to perfection. Fulfilling as I get the gun I want but the "hunt" is not nearly as exciting as finding and buying something impulsively.

Impulse buys for me are much more random and usually occur while looking through the Used Gun display case at the local gun shop or while making the rounds up and down the aisles at a local gun show. Over the years I have become much quicker at making my "impulsive" decision to buy something as I remember all too well the ones that got away because I took too long to make my mind up or else I wanted to do a more in-depth study of the gun before getting it.

Some of my more spontaneous buys were a S&W Model 34 that was like new in the box (at a great price), a Baby Browning that was also mint in the box (another one at a fantastic price), a minty Browning Model 1910/1955 (super deal on this one too), a very lightly used SIG P229R with SRT, E2 grips, night sights, and three extra mags (all for less than half what a new one would go for), and a Colt Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless in 99+% condition with factory nickel plating and factory pearl grips with Colt medallions on them (it also included a Heiser "pocket holster")! Admittedly the last one was a trifle more expensive than any of the others but well worth it!

I usually spend a lot of time researching before I buy but there have been times I have made impulse purchases. Usually more money spent equates to more time researching.

jmr40 said:

Of course I've made some not so good deals and lost money too. But most of those were in my younger gun trading days. I've gotten better at making good choices.

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I think we all have. I used to stop in a small gunshop nearby that's been closed for a while now. The owner and I would trade around quite a bit to "rotate the stock". I got all excited about a old boxlock SxS 12 gauge with subtle engraving, a beautiful stock, and stag buttplate. Traded him a Tang safety M77 30-'06 for it. Thought it had to be worth 3-400...it was a Dumoulin, made in France. Took a while to figure out what it was and that I got skinned. He didn't know either though. I try to avoid French guns nowadays.

I've only impulse bought one firearm. I was in a pawn shop and saw a Remington 11 in 16-gauge for a steal. I think it was $165 IIRC (it was about 20 years ago).
I've always loved the 16-gauge so I snatched it up.

But these days, few guns I want come in at that low of a price, so I have to plan a bit for them.
Besides that, I've got several that I want, so I'll go down that list I imagine.

Impulse buys.... hmmmmmm. Ok Guilty to a degree.

Miroku Winchester 1866 rifle in .38 sp.
Kahr M1 Thompson carbine .45acp
Ruger Precision Rifle .17hmr.
Uberti 1873 Winchester short rifle in .45 Colt
Bersa .32 semi automatic pistol.
Miroku Winchester 1892 Deluxe takedown rifle in .32-20.

And maybe a few others over the years.