How are used gun prices during a recession?

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TTv2

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Indicators are suggesting we are heading for a recession sometime next year or in 2021. We've been booming for a while, so this isn't a surprise to me. During the last recession I wasn't buying guns as I was a poor college student. I figure during recessions people will sell guns (among other things) for quick cash and I'm just wondering will the prices go down significantly or just a little?

Obviously guns that are already cheap (300 or less) will likely not be affected, but what about more expensive stuff like .45-70 BFR's and Thompson Center Contenders/Encores? What about military antiques like the Snider, Martini Henry, Chassepot, Lebel?

I really don't know what happens during a recession other than car and house prices go down, which is fine because I know I'll be needing a car within 3 years, but if I can score some interesting guns I'd love to own on the cheap, I can't wait for the recession!
 
Indicators are suggesting we are heading for a recession sometime next year or in 2021

I took it as the "The Crazed" were hoping angaist hope that we went into a recession. Even to the point of causing one.

If things got less expensive that would be nice, but the first to be liad off in a shrinkage are the carpenters, so it would be "not buying a gun" time for me.:(

We've been booming for a while, so this isn't a surprise to me

Yes, almost twenty months. Just six years to go till we get back above water. :confused:

A rising tide raises all ships. I don't like a good deal when someone is trying to save thier house.
 
What recession? Markets go up and down, but this so called scare is just a political tool to influence a up coming election ( in a year). In a real recession, most people don’t have the money to buy things, prices for some items actually increase.


Recessions are simply a sustained contraction in growth. It will happen eventually after a period of significant growth like we’ve had.
 
I worked in firearms sales from 2008-2011 in both MI and KY. There was less money in general in KY but used gun prices were all still the same and slowly rising just like now.
 
I didn’t discover Armslist until after the last recession, so I really don’t know. However, I do know that I sold about a dozen guns using the newspaper to fund a motorcycle to offset gas prices.
 
I believe we'll all still have jobs IF there's a recession, and I doubt there will be. Recessions happen because policies , wars, or something causes them to happen, and NOT just because a certain amount of time passes. That is, recession will not happen just because we're "do" for one. It's all politics..

Initially if people stop buying guns, price will drop and we'll see lots of deals and rebates simular to what we seen after the 2016 election. I suspect we'll also see companies introducing more low cost budget firearms just like Ruger did with the EC9s and Security 9. On the other hand, production of some guns will greatly decrease or be discontinued all together. With little supply, and greater demand, those firearms will increase in price. This is not taking into account any gun control panic buying that may occur.
 
Recessions are a natural part of the capitalist business cycle. They are cyclical and fairly predictable. Downturns like we had a decade ago are not the norm and was the result of a whole lot of unchecked stupid. There is no indication that we are driving off a cliff like 08.

Interest rates will go down to spur on investment borrowing, businesses will retact and unemployment will go up a tick. Actually, a slightly higher unemployment rate wouldn't be a bad thing. At full employment as we have now, there is a bottle neck of unskilled/general laborers that bounce around from job to job because everyone will hire anyone and will pay top dollar for a warm body. I start my guys at double the minimum wage to ride around in a truck and hand me a tool. If they last 2 weeks, I'm shocked.

I digress. As mentioned, gun prices tend to follow politics. Look at the last banic. Things weren't humming along economically but there was such a scare that everything was flying off the shelves at inflated prices.

My guess is that a few underemployed people who lose their jobs may dump a few pieces in the used market. I think that most who can afford it will hang onto their guns, magazines especially. A downturn lasting a few quarters is easier to weather than the preceived threat that a democratic president and Congress could enact another decade long ban.

I'm personally not worried about. Everyone's hair is always on fire over something. Work hard, save your pennies, invest when prices are low if you can, buy up 400 30 round AR magazines if it makes you feel better, but the road will NOT be as bumpy as it was the last go around. Make no mistake, we will enter a recession at some point, but unless things go sideways a great number of us won't feel the impact that much.
 
Indicators are suggesting we are heading for a recession sometime next year or in 2021. We've been booming for a while, so this isn't a surprise to me. During the last recession I wasn't buying guns as I was a poor college student. I figure during recessions people will sell guns (among other things) for quick cash and I'm just wondering will the prices go down significantly or just a little?

Obviously guns that are already cheap (300 or less) will likely not be affected, but what about more expensive stuff like .45-70 BFR's and Thompson Center Contenders/Encores? What about military antiques like the Snider, Martini Henry, Chassepot, Lebel?

I really don't know what happens during a recession other than car and house prices go down, which is fine because I know I'll be needing a car within 3 years, but if I can score some interesting guns I'd love to own on the cheap, I can't wait for the recession!

As all I buy are "antiques" or older (Pre 1960's) stuff I can tell you about that section of the market from what I have seen in the past.

Prices really don't change unless you have someone that really NEEDS or WANTS to move the item....think after a death or divorce.....or if someone is near the end of their time on the 3rd rock from the sun and does not have anyone to hand them off to.

Guns of this type usually don't swing in value with economic or social.....swings. Old stuff....and the type of stuff you are talking about are kinda what they are....the market for that kind of item is very different from the buyer of that Century "AK"....and you will not see prices jumping $3-400 in a week after a market or political shift.

Now about the only thing that will swing those items is the public attn to an event.....with the 100 year of WWI most WWI stuff got pretty spendy.....prices went up. Popular TV or movies will drive interest in older guns.....you want a Martini because of Zulu type thing.....and good examples of those will go up in value as more people want them.

The old stuff area is pretty different from the new stuff.

Modern things....I just remember during the last craze how things went nutz....I remember at a show I would see the same WASR 10 with different price stickers slapped over the old ones....slowly more and more. However things like the 1903 hammerless I looked at and finally bought did not change in price by one cent.
 
The gun economy is basically on a cycle of its own, and has more to do with politics (impending-but-averted bans are the boom instigators) than macroeconomics.
This. The gun market is a special case. It doesn't follow the normal rules of economics. In fact people might want to keep their guns even more in hard financial times. (They would feel a greater need for security.)
 
The gun economy is basically on a cycle of its own, and has more to do with politics (impending-but-averted bans are the boom instigators) than macroeconomics.
That's true, but I've mostly bought all the semi auto "assault weapons" with high capacity magazines that I've wanted, so now what I'm focused on is stuff that's not so assault weapony, which is stuff that's going to be legal for a long time.
 
If the economy gets bad enough, people might suspend buying new guns. But the economy would have to get really bad for them to start selling guns they already had.
 
Depends on the depth of the recession and the duration of it.
Historically, recessions only last 6 to 9 months (with two exceptions, 1930-1935 and 2008-2012, which is why both ought be called Depressions).
In a recession, unemployment typically only increases by 5-10 percent (except, potentially, in financial sectors, and industries funded by larger financial markets). For those still employed and with liquid funds, commodity goods generally become more affordable. They may not become more available, but they can have extremely tempting price points.

IN a Depression, with 15-25% increases in unemployment, larger number of people have to liqudate chattel goods to get by. Commodity items, especially luxury items, become widely available. Since it's not entire classes of luxury items, but specific items here and there, willy-nilly, the prices tend to stay good.

In bear markets, you have rising emloyment, more prople with disposable income, which means more buyers for goods.
 
I think we're nearing a recession but I'm not sure how much it will impact firearms. I think the upcoming election will have a much bigger effect. I know one thing though, its been a wonderful ride from 2008 to now for those in the market.
 
its been a wonderful ride from 2008 to now for those in the market.
For those that stayed the course, vs the ones that stopped contributing, or even worse, got out.


Up until the craziness after Obama was elected guns prices tended to stay pretty even keeled. After Clinton the used gun market got tougher, less people wanting to sell and higher prices, but not nuts like after Obama.

As noted by a couple of posters, gun prices are more likely than ever to hinge on politics.
 
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