how do you guys find these smoking deals??

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WestKentucky

WestKentucky

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In my search for a winter project I have searched high and low through the auction and surplus sites looking for a revolver to adopt. No such luck so far. I'm looking for a beater but keep finding great guns...the opposite of the norm. So for those of you who have been bragging over your online deals, how did you do it and what keywords did you use in your search? As always gun pictures are welcomed.
 
Right place.
Right time.

That's about it.

For instance I was t minutes late for 8 pounds of pistol powder znd 10k primers for free.
But first to respond to 16 pounds of 45acp cases for 4 cents a round
 
I guess right time right place is pretty much the definition of a good deal.

why not put an ad out there in the local paper/craigslist/armslist?

Sometimes people don't know they want to sell some old piece of junk until they realize someone actually wants it.
 
I stop by gun and pawn shops on Friday afternoons to see whats new. I figure people who need the money sell guns during the week and I get a crack at them before the weekend rush. You have to account all the gas you spend "wasting" doing this but it pays off. The owners are more friendly and it's often easier to negotiate because you at least appear to be an informed customer.
 
I't's kinda like girlfriends in youth, stop looking and one'll come along eventually. I don't recall ever successfully searching for a project; car, motorcycle or firearm. But they do come my way in their own time.
 
Last week J&G or CDNN (can't remember) had their $279 deal on Smith Model 64s again.

Kind of impossible to beat that.

But yeah, deals just happen sometimes, eventually, and usually when you just spent that cash on something else. ;)
 
I keep a bit of "mad money" on hand for just such a thing. IF you can manage this it is well worth the trouble IMHO. Also some deals just will fall into your lap IF you set the groundwork beforehand. I have been doing this for years but it will work soon if you get lucky. I will tell all my shooting friends and gun friendly acquaintances that I am looking for a new firearm and do they know any one that has something they might want to sell as I go through life. Also I tell them if they find that they need to sell some firearm to pay the bills I will try to give them more than the LGS. All this to someone that I know is not going to sell me something stolen. This has lead to many good deals over the years let me tell you. A time or two someone has approached me and said a friend of a friend of a friend said you will take in an old firearm/ammo as I do not want to just throw it away at the dump. I will always go retrieve firearms and/or ammo for free. I live in a rural area and ask about firearms/ammo at local yard sales I even find some there but you have to ask.
 
Yeah deals just happen. You put it out there that your looking for a X X X X and then start looking. No I am not going to give up my super secret websites for awesome deals! ! !:p

It'll happen when it is ready grasshopper.:)

be safe
 
1. Have money in hand

2. Join a local gun trader forum/group/message board/whatever you've got.

3. When you hear about a great deal, drop everything and buy it immediately.
 
^^^What wolf said. Have money set aside for a smoking deal. A lot of people don't like Facebook, but I am a member of a few local and state gun trading groups. Lots of turds to wade through, but deals pop up. The key is being willing, ready and able to act.
 
Right place.
Right time.
Click to expand...

Pretty much.
Not everyone finds these great deals. It just seems like it because we love posting about it on the web, and showing off all those great before/after photos.
The actual number of times we find these deals is relatively low.
 
You "NEVER" find a smoking deal when you are looking for one. I take cash to gunshows expecting to find nothing. Usually I don't. But occasionally something too good to pass up comes along.
 
WestKentucky said:
In my search for a winter project I have searched high and low through the auction and surplus sites looking for a revolver to adopt. No such luck so far. I'm looking for a beater but keep finding great guns...the opposite of the norm. So for those of you who have been bragging over your online deals, how did you do it and what keywords did you use in your search? As always gun pictures are welcomed.
Click to expand...
Tell you the truth I think most guys are full of it with regard to what they say they pay for things. I have seen the same bull with lawn mowers cars tractors you name it they will say they paid 10% of what it is worth. It seems they justify the money spent by tweaking the price and making you think they are better then you
 
I don't worry about smoking deals. I try to find what I want/need at a reasonable price. Once in a while, I get a smoking deal because I am looking for a reasonable price.

You can spend your life looking for a smoking deal and miss out on a lot of fun in the process.
 
As others have said, "smokin' deals" are such because they are unanticipated ... right time, right place. Helps to be in the right places. I was first guy into my LGS after someone put a Ruger SP101 on consignment for $250!! :eek: Needless to say, that puppy was in my possession less than 30 minutes after it was dropped off (still can't figure out why the store owner didn't buy it himself).

If you have any interest in black powder, here's a "good" deal. Cabela's has the Pietta 5.5" 1858 on sale right now for under $200. Gotta admit it's tempting me.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shoo...-1858-New-Army-44-Caliber-Revolver/706233.uts
 
Got to go with "Right time, Right place" also. Have found a number of great deals perusing the used gun case as soon as I get there. I also like to make my rounds to all of the local gun shops on a fairly regular basis. Haven't found too many super buys at on the gun show circuit in quite some time.
 
The early vulture gets the juicy bites.

When one of my salesmen bought a boat and the first dern payment came calling a month before he was expecting it, he brought in a .357 K-frame that he only asked $100 for. You don't even need to be in the market for one of those to know that is not to be passed by... and it wasn't. It's in my wife's closet wall safe right now. :D
Sam1911 said:
Last week J&G or CDNN (can't remember) had their $279 deal on Smith Model 64s again.
Click to expand...
Yeah, but you remember when they were $199 when you buy five, right? Now those were the days. I was inches away from putting together the group of guys needed to get a bag of them... but didn't, for no good reason. Dang me.
 
Most smoking deals I've gotten were by word of mouth not ads. People are interested in selling but don't bother to post an ad.
 
After many years of trying to figure out where the best deals are, I found slickguns.com, about 2 years ago. You can save huge there, I am on it all day. Sometimes you won't even see it because it sold out. Just google it and select handguns, then refresh often. Not unusual to save $300 + on an expensive gun
 
HB said:
I stop by gun and pawn shops on Friday afternoons to see whats new. I figure people who need the money sell guns during the week and I get a crack at them before the weekend rush. You have to account all the gas you spend "wasting" doing this but it pays off. The owners are more friendly and it's often easier to negotiate because you at least appear to be an informed customer.
Click to expand...

Sometimes the it gets to the point that the employees look forward to you coming in. There are two pawn shops where I'm greeted by one or more employees with guns-in-hand for me to look at. They're usually stuff that I am interested in. I might not buy anything, but I buy enough that they know what I'm looking for. I have found some screaming deals that way, but most of them have been from out-of-the-way pawn shops and gun stores that don't really know what they have or don't really care.

Another way I've found a couple is to go to garage/yard sales in rural and older residential areas and ask if they have any guns they're wanting to sell. I usually get weird looks, but I've had quite a few say that they did and would bring them out. Most of the owners thought they had something that was totally unique and were asking 2-3x what it was worth, but I've found a couple that were priced right and I picked them up. That also can bring out the nightmare maintenance problems that people have. One was an arisaka with an intact mum, capture paperwork, and a duffle cut stock that was completely rusted. And this is in Utah where you have to really work to get something to rust that much.

The deals are out there, but it all goes back to the right place/right time/right budget.

Matt
 
Well you have to think as well, if someone gets a snubbed deal or looses out or just gets an "average" deal, they probably aren't going to make a thread about it so everyone can ooh and ahh at there new gun and be all jealous at the insanely low price they bought it for! :D!
 
Patience...

I look for auctions that don't draw much attention, and then toss out a lowball bid. I've surprised myself on several occasions by wining a very nice firearm when I was the lone bidder. About this time last year, I picked up a pristine 1969 S&W 5" 10-5 revolver for just $300.

But it took months of looking and lowballing to yield that one win.
 
I have gotten lucky in pawn shops by stopping into a couple of them once or twice a week. Occasionally a gem will pop up on the shelves. This rarely happens if you only go by once a month. Many pawn shops don't have gun people working there so they make their mark up and let the gun go. It seems lately that most of them are getting more savvy and understanding the value of guns so deals are harder to find.
Some of my best finds have been friends of friends needing cash. When a friend or relative wants/needs to sell a gun I tend to overpay to help them out but when a friend calls and says their friend wants to sell a gun then I go into bargain mode. I have picked up many guns this way and all of them have been less than half price what a new gun would cost. Just last month I bought 16 guns from a friend whose mother passed away and he isn't a gun guy. He hunts deer with me but isn't "into" guns so he just wanted to get rid of them as he doesn't have a safe. Of the 16 guns I really like 7 revolvers and shotguns but the other 9 are old SS 22s and such that, while okay, really aren't anything I would look to buy normally. Money isn't an issue for this guy so I just gave him what I wanted and he was happy to get rid of them. The problem is that this purchase necessitated another safe!
 
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