Are people in private sales losing their minds?

SuperNaut said:

Not "panic buying" but they are most definitely buying:

Fender has sold more guitars in 2020 than any other year in its history

The used guitar, amp, and effects/accessories market is booming too. But you know, what an idiot right?

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Give me break, man.

You can make all the condescending comments you want but, like I already said, my dad sold guitars for years and I guess it never occurred to you that perhaps I could identify a regular used guitar and second-hand amp from a thousand dollar one. Believe it or not, $1000 is definitely on the more expensive side for a guitar for most people, and to insinuate Fender is selling these expensive models en masse in 2020 (as opposed just in increase in their normal sales footprint) is a pretty dishonest representation of that article.

The most logical explanation for their guitar's being sold is probably more representative of the fact that the economy had unprecedented highs for the last three years, people got stimulus packages along with their unemployment, and now everyone is stuck in their houses all day.

The notion that there is a guitar shortage (whereas there is clearly an ammo / firearm shortage) is just patently idiotic. That's clearly not going on. Even at this point I would say you'd be getting the short end of the stick to trade a semi-auto rifle for a more expensive guitar because there's no guitar shortage. If it's so damn rare and expensive, sell the guitar, buy the rifle, and have money left over.

I'll conclude this point by asking you how many of your firearms you've traded for guitars in 2020 since there's so many amazing deals?


As an aside, this is the "super rare guitar" $1000 guitar you keep defending: https://reverb.com/item/30851516-gitarre-applause-kaman-gtx23-1982-1989-crackle-finish

It's on the market for less than $600.

Tallinar said:

Quick 2 cents. My late father was a Mosin collector. Depending on what the Mosin is, it could very well be worth $900 to the right buyer. They aren’t all just cheap beater import rifles.

There is actually a lot of rich history spread across the gamut of Mosin Nagants. Some guns tell very interesting stories based on model, year of manufacture, what armory it was made at, whether or not it was a Soviet rifle captured and refurbished by the Finns, etc.

Part of the reason they were so cheap when they started to be imported en masse into the US 20 years ago was because there was not yet a robust collectors market for them. That is no longer the case, so don’t make too many assumptions.

Food for thought.

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eastbank said:

here,s a finnish rebuilt mosin rifle you can,t buy for 600.00.

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Holy cow guys, I get that Mosins can be rare and expensive. That goes without saying for any commodity. I don't disbelieve this point and never did. That said, for the third time, whether we're talking guitars or Mosins, just because some can be worth a lot of money doesn't mean every knucklehead selling one is sitting on the rarest thing in the world. If you haven't dealt with private sales before (whether it's houses, guitars, or guns), people almost always think their stuff is worth more than it is.

So what's more likely? Everybody and their brother was sitting on rare stuff and just decided to sell it all prior to the 2020 election / pandemic? Or is it that a lot of these things being sold are following the trend of inflated prices (like $1300 for a budget AK or selling second 7.62x39 ammo for almost 3 times what it's worth). Don't even get me started on what I've seen DPMS franken-guns selling for.

Even so, assuming a Mosin is a collector's item, that doesn't make it an inherently more performant firearm. You're still getting a bolt action 7.62x54R. If it's a collector's item, a lot of people most likely won't even fire it that often (if at all). If people want to collect stuff because they enjoy it that's fine, but treating commodities like some kind of investment is generally understood to be a fool's errand by professionals.


The way this thread is going I wouldn't be surprised to hear some of you guys jump in and start crying that this 7.62x39 ammo must have been in Stalin's private collection and each bullet was autographed by Napoleon.

bassjam said:

Aside from selling a Kahr I no longer wanted, I haven't made any transactions on Armslist this year. Just like OP's Mini 14 that he sold for $1k, I'm not paying peoples inflated prices right now. I have made a few brand new gun purchases over the summer, which is something I haven't done in years. It seems with everyone's interest in getting AR's and poly handguns that some other pieces aren't getting the love they deserve and those new prices were pretty reasonable, if not screaming deals.

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That is not an "inflated" price for that Mini-14.

Run of the mill Mini-14s were selling for roughly $750 two years ago, which was the fairest price they've been for decades. They're now selling for roughly $900.

The mags are roughly $30 a piece. : https://www.cheaperthandirt.com/parts-and-accessories/magazines/ruger/mini-14/

So if I took a mint condition Mini-14 and calculated $700 for the rifle (since it's used) : 700
Then added three mags at $20 a piece: 60
Then added a $400 scope 400


You're left with $1160. Because it's a used mini I sold it for about $100 cheaper and since the mags were second hand I only sold them for $20 a piece (and yes, they were blued / metal).