Interesting money isn't worth as much buying firearms as trades

[wtr100]

at least in face to face transactions

It seems lately folks are much more interested in swapping with either cash or even better ammo / mags to square things up.

I was joking with my dentist last week after getting a few teeth filled if I could pay in guns and ammo.

He replied, "Serious? What have you got?"

 

[dastardly-D]

I find that true quite a bit of the time.A fair deal is a fair deal !

 

[taliv]

it is an interesting phenomenon. people don't want to sell their parts, even for stupid money. but they are willing to trade to get a part they need more, or one that is the right color or a slightly different spec.

 

[rdhood]

Saturday, I discovered that I needed small rifle primers. I purchased an AR-15 three weeks BEFORE Sandy Hook. It actually arrived three days AFTER Sandy Hook. Being totally unprepared, I had 3 magazines and no ammo!. I was able to backorder some mags (got them in last week, Yeah), but ammo is out everywhere. So, I am starting to reload .223, and it never occured to me that .223 and 7.62x39 would use two different primer sizes. So on Saturday, as I was getting ready to load up some .223 (have been saving brass for about three years, and have 1000 bullets and plenty of powder), I realized that .223 uses small rifle primers.


I couldn't purchase them for any price. But I have plenty of ammo/reloading supplies to trade with, and was able to procure a couple thousand in less than 18 hours.

 

[rugerdude]

I see plenty of armslist ads where people have X and want to trade for Y and then state that they are not at all interested in cash. I have no idea why they are opposed to the idea of selling for cash and then using said cash to buy what they want.

Statistically, the odds are INCREDIBLY slim that a guy willing to part with Y even WANTS X

If you just want to switch up you collection and have something you don't mind parting with then sure, trading can be just the ticket.

Also, I just traded a few AR-15 mags for a bucket of remington .22lr. I can't find it at any price around here and I traded 5 AR mags for the bucket. I even threw in a 6th mag just because he drove to meet me. Sure, maybe I could have sold the mags but my buying power for .22lr wouldn't really have been any different plus those mags cost me like 8 bucks each. In essence I paid a pre-panic price by trading a hot item for another hot item.

 

[Dentite]

I often browse the local online firearm classified listings and it's funny how many people include in their listing that the item is for trade only. So you'll trade for a Glock of similiar condition but you won't sell it? Not interested in selling for $1000? Makes a lot of sense.

So far I've only done trades for money aka cash aka US currency. Works for me.

 

[-v-]

I can understand wanting to do trades right now. Yes, you can sell your gun for $1000, but can you then turn around and buy something with that $100? Right now its scarce times on all things firearms, and something tangible right now has much more worth then something less so - such as money.

 

[tallpaul]

Ruger dude...
It Is not that hard to understand only wanting trades at all. If you have x and only want y especially if y is hard to find if you take cash you may end up spending it before you find y and have neither x or y....

 

[TennJed]

I see plenty of armslist ads where people have X and want to trade for Y and then state that they are not at all interested in cash. I have no idea why they are opposed to the idea of selling for cash and then using said cash to buy what they want.

Statistically, the odds are INCREDIBLY slim that a guy willing to part with Y even WANTS X

If you just want to switch up you collection and have something you don't mind parting with then sure, trading can be just the ticket.

Also, I just traded a few AR-15 mags for a bucket of remington .22lr. I can't find it at any price around here and I traded 5 AR mags for the bucket. I even threw in a 6th mag just because he drove to meet me. Sure, maybe I could have sold the mags but my buying power for .22lr wouldn't really have been any different plus those mags cost me like 8 bucks each. In essence I paid a pre-panic price by trading a hot item for another hot item.

Not wanting to give up X until you know for certain you have Y. Sell your item, but are unable to buy what you want with your cash, could leave you wanting your old item back

 

[gazpacho]

Firearms and ammo are currently mis-inflated in price. Before the panic, a new AR was equal in cost to a new 1911 (more or less, work with me here!). Now AR are going for $2k to $3k, but 1911s are still under $1k.

People still have an idea of relative values for firearms, so it is a far better value for them to trade than for them to pay cash.

 

[avalys]

Yeah, I'm sure there is some kind of fancy economics name for it, but the point is that cash is less desirable when the values of things are uncertain and changing.

Pre-panic, I knew pretty much what all my stuff is worth, and how much other stuff cost and what the availability was, and this didn't really change on anything shorter than an annual timescale.

Now, prices are jumping all over the place, no one really knows what's going on or what will happen, and no one wants to sell their gun for $X only to find out by next week they can't buy anything equivalent for less than $1.5X (similarly, no one really wants to buy a gun for $X only to find it for sale for $0.75X next week). When you are trading a gun for a gun, you can judge fairness of the trade based on the relative quality of the two guns rather than worrying about fluctuations in cash value.

 

[Deer_Freak]

I am not going to base my gun buying on panic prices. Right now it's a sellers market so I am only interested in selling. I have all the guns I "need" but there are guns I "want." I am not going to look for a trade. I sold two AR's. I bought a CD with the proceeds. When the market settles and supply catches up with demand I will look to buy another gun. I am not going to settle for what is available at an inflated price. None of the guns I am interested in are targeted in anyone's legislation. I just want a fair price and the exact model I desire.

 

[beatledog7]

Buying now? Only if I really needed something, as in couldn't put rounds in my carry and SD guns. I was better prepared than many when this hit, not because I was clairvoyant but because I spent 2011 and 2012 leveraging availability of items that don't spoil while I had funds to do it.

 

[Jim NE]

Hey, I have to go to the dentist soon...

 

[larryh1108]

None of the guns I am interested in are targeted in anyone's legislation.

This is the confusing part. I kind of understand any handgun that has a standard capacity of over 10 rounds being driven by "panic buyers". However, why is almost every gun hard to find? Buyers are acting like Obama is banning everything that is not already owned by X date. The same with the ammo. Right now there is no talk of serious ammo restrictions but even .22LR ammo is scarce as are anything in the reloading supply chain. People are acting like this is Custer's last stand. It makes no sense.

 

[JERRY]

i have a few Xs to trade for a few Ys FtF, LOL.

 

[rugerdude]

It Is not that hard to understand only wanting trades at all. If you have x and only want y especially if y is hard to find if you take cash you may end up spending it before you find y and have neither x or y....

Sure, but if they refuse to deal with cash then they're going to have to bank on finding just the right individual to trade with and like you said, if Y is hard to find then it's highly unlikely that when one does show up that the owner will want X gun at all, much less be willing to trade. Then they'll be hanging onto X forever and never get what they actually want. It is this type of situation that money was invented for! You limit your selection of potential transactions this way, and since a gun is a gun, you can't trade half of it to get something half the value. Then you've gotta play the "throw in extra doo-dads" game. With money you can use the exact amount needed for a purchase and no more.

Also, having cash on hand allows you to pay for other, perhaps more important things. When the car breaks down and I have the money to fix it, cool. If the car breaks down and I don't and then need to sell something really fast, then I'm going to have to sell it low in order to ensure I sell the item quickly. People are very value-conscious these days and since everyone has access to the internet they can easily cross-check gun values quickly. Since people generally won't be happy unless they're trading equal values, you don't lose purchasing power with cash, or at least you shouldn't (excluding of course hard to find items like ammo these days).

Sometimes you may no know what you want though and in this case leaving an item up for trade is fun.


As a general rule I feel that if you limit yourself strictly to trading then you're unnecessarily handicapping yourself in the market. A trade can sometimes be the most efficient way for 2 parties to get what they want, but that's a dice roll so why not trade the thing EVERYBODY can use: cash?

 

[Akita1]

at least in face to face transactions

It seems lately folks are much more interested in swapping with either cash or even better ammo / mags to square things up.

I was joking with my dentist last week after getting a few teeth filled if I could pay in guns and ammo.

He replied, "Serious? What have you got?"

sounds like a man who owns his own business...

 

[Akita1]

A lot of doom & gloom here amigos! I have purchased four guns since the chaos started and sold two (both trades). I am very fortunate in that the two LGS I frequent are charging pre-craziness prices - do not bother with any who is behaving otherwise. And YES, I'm a capitalist and believe that things are worth what people will pay, but not shelling out $60 for a Pmag or $2500 for a mid-grade AR. Patience, grasshopper.

 

[bushmaster1313]

Four observations

1) Trading is more fun

2) It is an absolute certainty that if you trade trade a gun you have for a gun you like more, you end up with a net increase in warm gun fuzzies.

3) If you sell a gun for money, there is no certainty that you will find something you like as much as the gun you sold for the money you realized from the sale.

4) And the worst - Sell for money, and the money you receive will likely be spent on other things before you find a gun you want.

 

[Akita1]

Four observations

1) Trading is more fun

2) It is an absolute certainty that if you trade trade a gun you have for a gun you like more, you end up with a net increase in warm gun fuzzies.

3) If you sell a gun for money, there is no certainty that you will find something you like as much as the gun you sold for the money you realized from the sale.

4) And the worst - Sell for money, and the money you receive will likely be spent on other things before you find a gun you want.

#'s 2 and 4 are my favs

 

[19-3Ben]

#'s 2 and 4 are my favs

Ditto.

Practically speaking, should a scenario happen, like likes of which we don't discuss here on THR, having guns, ammo, and spare parts will be much more useful trade fodder than money.

Time has shown over and over again that money can become useless (think back to pre-WW2 Germans burning Deutschmarks as kindling because they were worthless). On the other hand, people always need food, clean water, medicine and the means to defend such resources. Those are the things that maintain value in an unsteady world.
Not that I'm suggesting such a situation is upon us. It may just be one of several explanations.

 

[rtz]

The cash is worthless right now because you can't buy what you want with it because what you want isn't for sale. Also too; just the principle of the matter makes one not want to buy for asking price.

 

[rgwalt]

In this climate, if you sell outright you may not be able to find what you want to buy, even if you have money. My strategy has been to find what I want, buy it, and then make a cash sale to finance my new purchase. Has worked for me so far. I don't particularly like trading.

 

[M1key]

Have guns. Will trade for gold or silver...

M