Is This Advice Right? Let Me Know!

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For years I've been telling people who are thinking about selling, trading or otherwise getting rid of their revolvers (or even autos) some fairly straightforward advice:

DON'T DO IT!!

Based on my experience, the odds are overwhelming that they'll regret it -- especially if they get rid of a gun because they need the money. Money needs come and go, but once a gun is gone, it's gone.

Yet people still do it and then later (months or years) they're kicking themselves. :banghead:

So why can't we learn from our mistakes? Even if the guns aren't as great as we thought they were, they will be even better in our minds, our tortured psyches. We will be bitter old men with shimmering memories of guns we'll never see again.

Ah, well, at least there's next year's models....
 
I'd tend to agree to a certain extent. I've only sold a few guns and regretted all but one, a small, loose no name .38 revolver I suspect was stolen. That was a different lifetime ago...

I do believe we regret it most when we didn't really want to sell it, but needed to because we needed the cash. Those are the worst. But if we want to trade or sell it becasue we've had it and shot it enough to know there's really something else we'd really like to have then we might not regret that except for the fact that usually, you don't get a good deal when trading with a gun shop. So then you can feel back knowing you got less than half what you spent on something.

I keep all my guns now but as I've gotten older I'm far more selective and realistic about what I buy and why. So I don't keep buying just for the fun of a new gun. So I'm pretty satisfied with mine and look forward to passing them down to my children but I wouldn't make too much of that either because let's face it. As cool as it would be to have an old 1911 Grandpa used in the war, we wouldn't be carrying it or shooting it at the range all the time so we'd still be buying some modern firearms, so there's no point leaving a lot of guns to our children so they can have them to shoot. So leave them one or two for them to remember you buy or leave them a bunch if they're truly an investment, i.e. chosen well, shot not at all or very little, with the box and papers, etc.

So there are a lot of little factors but I agree in general with your advice!

God Bless
Gideon
 
Trading guns and selling some so you can upgrade your collection can be a lot of fun! And they will all be going to someone else when you are gone anyway, so hanging on to one you aren't really happy with doesn't make much sense to me. The only guns I wouldn't sell are ones with some sort of sentimental value.
 
I trade alot, buy to sell later, sell to buy something differnt.

I have a few that i have had and wont sell. I have bought and sold more Makarovs than any other because i seen to find them for a good price and they're easy to get rid of. I don't regret selling them because i can find another later if i miss it that much.

I name my dogs because i keep them around, i don;t name guns or cars.
 
That gun is an asset. If there is a pressing financial concern one solution is to liquidate your assets. It makes no sense to stay in a financial bind when the sale of your guns can clear the matter up. Some of us have been lucky enough to have never been in a real financial crunch. Others know exactly what it means to need money right now and not have it.
You can't be looking to future regrets when the present have you saddled with pressing problems.
 
Money needs come and go, but once a gun is gone, it's gone.

I've never owned a one-of-a-kind gun. Sure, I've regretted selling a few guns -but I've replaced some of them with even better copies. I agree with Majic. As they say, it's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.
 
I have sold and traded alot and most of them I do not even thank about.
There is only 2 guns I wish I had back that went to friends out of maybe 30.
I have used buying and selling to upgrade my personal stuff.
 
I have sold a few guns over the years and have only regretted two of them.

1-SIG P225 that I promptly bought another when I realized what I had done.

2-Glock 30, I recently picked up an XD45 compact that I like better in every way then the Glock 30 so I guess that one is no longer a regret.

Chris
 
There are very few guns I would have sold if I could afford them all. There are certain ones I lose sleep over either having sold them, or passed them up when I had the chance to purchase them.
 
I sold and traded a few guns, and it's the revolvers I miss.

Here's my list of shame:

Colt King Cobra
Smith Bodyguard .38 (a stainless one with beautiful rosewood grips, yeah that was dumb)
Ruger Redhawk (dumb dumb dumb)
NAA mini (useless but fun)
 
I haven't regretted selling. I'm not really a collector and if I can't put it to work or find a niche for it, I don't want it.
 
The only guns I sold or Horse traded for I regret giving up. In particular I regret doing so to appease a wife who is now my Ex-Wife. I sold an SKS and a 1991A1 because they were "Army Guns" and nobody needs them. I got some Cash and an 03A3 in return, I miss the guns more than I miss the wife.
 
No, your advice is incorrect! I believe and advise people who need money badly to sell their firearms to me at really lowball prices.:neener: :cool: :evil:
 
Based on my experience, the odds are overwhelming that they'll regret it --

I just traded off a couple guns. One was my first handgun, a Taurus revolver that was simply outclassed in every way by the closely similar S&W that I picked up 4 or 5 years ago. The other was an autoloader I bought about that same time, that never ever did work as reliably as I'd hoped when I bought it.

The trade brought my handgun horde to right about where I want it to be, and everything works!.

So far I'm not regretting it.
 
M14 S&W

My eyes and shoulders don't do Bullseye very well anymore.
I have a decent shooter 8 3/8 M 14 that is about 85%+ on the finish.
I'm thinking about selling it or saving it to teach my boy how to shoot.
He's five.
 
I only sell the ones that I know I can get again if I want to. For instance, Kel Tec P32, Ruger Vaq, Ruger SP101, Ruger Mark II, etc, etc.. Haven't shed a tear over any of them. They are all easy to find and are not very special in of themselves.
 
Regret selling a few. Sold a Tanker Garand and a Colt Trooper that I wish were still around. They were sold as money trade ups to an M1A. Love my M1A more than the two of them combined though. I also sold of two M1 Carbines, just had no use for them, and I will probably get blasted for this but did not like the way they shot. Most of the time I got good prices for them but nothing compared to today's prices. The last few years prices has gone way up, I did miss the bubble on a few of them.
 
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