I think it’s a bubble of sorts. Government handout money + time stuck at home due to COVID-19 fears/restrictions + some very real apprehension about what may transpire in terms of new restrictions on gun and ammo purchasing mean most firearm enthusiasts and collectors are taking the opportunity -right now- to buy anything they see that they’ve remotely been interested in one day adding to the collection. This has caused most guns to increase noticeably in price. The social unrest and shortages last year didn’t help, especially for modern self defense type stuff, and I think a lot of folks also figured that if they couldn’t buy a Glock or AR-15 or 12 gauge pump right now, they may as well grab that Winchester 94 or milsurp since those -were- available, thus carrying over the panic into more run of the mill guns too. Same reason why 22 disappeared quickly after Sandy Hook and now as well. Just a residual effect of the threat to more scary-sounding firearms or calibers.
Whether the bubble will burst dramatically, or demand will just slow down and prices will soften somewhat? I have no idea. At some point though, it has to end. At the end of the day an old relic rifle with obscure historical connections is only intrinsically interesting to a certain small subset of shooters, so I’d expect things to calm eventually, probably in the inverse order to inflation. BP repro guns will reappear first, then milsurps in obscure calibers (and maybe their ammo especially if it’s PPU/foreign), then more pedestrian guns, then the optimized self defense and carry guns. If a ban happens, it’ll be unfortunate but probably, hopefully, realistically, a defanged thing compared to the vitriolic rhetoric the dems used to energize their most radical base to get them motivated to vote.
The big driver right now is uncertainty and fear. Take that away, and the market will respond accordingly. If you’re thinking of selling now is a great time.