How did you buy/sell guns before the internet?

[kidneyboy]

The armslist thread has me thinking about this. If the interwebs went away today how would you buy gun stuff? Are you old school enough to manage? Would you just stop buying and selling? Have you cultivated enough relationships locally to get by?
I am old school. My habits haven't change much since Al Gore invented the internet. All but one of the guns I currently own were bought at local gun shops and/or face to face. I frequent 3 gun shops and occasionally stop at Cabelas. These are all within 50 miles of my house. The 3 gun shops know me, some of my family and some of my friends. Gun searches start and almost always end at one of those shops. All 3 of those shops have a list of things I'm looking for. Most of my selling and trading also happens at these shops. Over the years I have bought and sold guns through the gun clubs I've belonged to and through word of mouth.
In other words, I do some leg work and talk to real people face to face just like I have always done.

 

[AFSG]

Before the internet I was a member of a very large group of friends who traded and swapped. I also traded on gun show floors.

 

[Speedo66]

Gun shows, friends, and coworkers.

Aside from gun stores, or maybe Shotgun News, what else was there?

 

[valnar]

I'm not that young myself, but I bought my first gun "over the Internet" in 1996 or so. That was a while ago.

I think we forget how long ye olde Information Superhighway has been with us.

 

[Ks5shooter]

Word of mouth and man did I get some deals. Seems the internet made everyone an expert.

 

[kidneyboy]

I've been to 1 gun show in my life. That was a couple decades ago and I wasn't really impressed. Although I spent years working art shows on the weekends and the whole concept kinda wore me out.

 

[Alex Clayton]

I for decades use ad's. The kind you used to be able to buy in papers. Most no longer allow it anyway. This state did away with us being able to sell anyway without using a dealer so that all but ended selling. More trouble than it's worth sadly. I always enjoyed being able to play with something for a while and then get the cash back out of it to try something else. Now it's a loss to sell and hassle. One thing it did was make it where I have never in my life owned so many guns at one time since it's too damn hard to sell one. Well unless I wanted to take it in the shorts on one. So I guess when I'm gone the kids can deal with them

 

[armedwalleye]

I recall a time when there were actually want ads in the daily and weekend papers for such things as guns and ammunition, taken out by individuals. Apparently no one was thinking of the children.

 

[FL-NC]

Face-to-face- either friends/associates or just carrying them into gun shows, The same way I still do it.

 

[AFSG]

I bought sold and traded dozens on Facebook before they closed it down.

 

[chicharrones]

Gun shops, sporting goods stores, and gun shows. Newspapers had classified ads for person to person buying/selling, although I never did trust doing that myself.

While I have purchased guns, supplies, and ammo over the internet over the last 15 years or so, I still go to local gun shops and buy from them on ocassion as well.

 

[AFSG]

My long trusted gun dealer has gone on to be with the Lord. I'm now looking another.

 

[1KPerDay]

Local classified ads.

 

[theotherwaldo]

I've bought three black powder guns through online auctions and one rifle from a THR member.
Everything else was bought in person from a shop, gun show or individual.

 

[chicharrones]

I'm not that young myself, but I bought my first gun "over the Internet" in 1996 or so. That was a while ago.

I think we forget how long ye olde Information Superhighway has been with us.

True, but that highway back then was maybe a freshly oiled dirt road in comparison to the 256 lane double decker we have now. I perused email based enthusiast lists back then which were good for meeting people, but webstores that sold gun stuff sure weren't what I'd call common place like now.

 

[chicharrones]

I've been to 1 gun show in my life. That was a couple decades ago and I wasn't really impressed. Although I spent years working art shows on the weekends and the whole concept kinda wore me out.

Yeah, the biggest reason I went to gun shows was to go there with friends to burn a Saturday away. We usually went to a local range after that to do some shootin'.

 

[e rex]

bought a .22 rifle in the early 1950s out of the Sears and Roebuck catalogue, bought a 1917 Eddystone from Kline's of Chicago out of a flyer they mailed out. Gave less than $30.00 for the 30-06 packed in cosmoline. Don't remember the price of the J.C. Higgens but it was around $20-25, but remember I made less than $1.00 per hour.

 

[guyfromohio]

I put a number of them up for sale in the Columbus Dispatch Classifieds. Never had an issue.

 

[Jack B.]

Never bought or sold a gun on the internet. Always at a gun store or a family member or a friend. Have get my hands on it and give it a good inspection before I buy.

 

[375supermag]

I have bought every firearm I own either from a friend/ coworker, at a gun shop or gun auction, except for my L C. Smith double barrel 12ga shotgun...I bought that at a yard sale many years ago.
Never have bought a gun off the Internet although my son has. I have ordered a few firearms from dealers but generally just do a gun shop tour until I find what I am looking for at a price I like.

 

[kidneyboy]

bought a .22 rifle in the early 1950s out of the Sears and Roebuck catalogue, bought a 1917 Eddystone from Kline's of Chicago out of a flyer they mailed out. Gave less than $30.00 for the 30-06 packed in cosmoline. Don't remember the price of the J.C. Higgens but it was around $20-25, but remember I made less than $1.00 per hour.

The 2 22lr rifles we had as kids (the 60s) came from the sears catalogue. The are still in the family and still functioning.

 

[alfsauve]

Besides newspaper want ads, some areas had special publications just for buying and selling. Think of it as the print version of Facebook's Marketplace. In Atlanta we had the Advertiser. Came out ever other week.

Prior to the The Web there were other electronic bulletin boards and forums, List Serves also. And how many remember rec.guns and tx.guns?

 

[Jack B.]

My dad gave me a Winchester M67A -22LR he bought at a Mongomery Ward store for about $8 back in 1958. I still have it. I was 6 years old in 1958. I don't know if he ordered it through their catalog or bought it off the rack.

 

[GBExpat]

How did you buy/sell guns before the internet?

Gun stores (DUH! ), mail order catalogs, sporting goods departments of department stores, sporting goods sections of some hardware stores, gun shows, classifieds, "trader"-type local-area publications, friends & family.

 

[Alex Clayton]

Besides newspaper want ads, some areas had special publications just for buying and selling. Think of it as the print version of Facebook's Marketplace. In Atlanta we had the Advertiser. Came out ever other week.

Prior to the The Web there were other electronic bulletin boards and forums, List Serves also. And how many remember rec.guns and tx.guns?

When I finally learned how to get on the net the Usenet boards were the first thing I learned to use. LOVED those two groups and had a lot of fun with all the back and forth on tx.guns since it was open and you did not have to wait for the Moderator to approve each post. The guy who set up and ran rec.guns was a Computer Teacher at a College in MD. I often thought if he was not Tenured he would have been long gone when they found out he was in charge of a gun group.