Ruger the new Hi-Point and other weird trade offers

[DCR]

Good Retort to Low-Ballers

A family member has been an FFL & 'smith for 40+ years & has a foolproof way to shut up the low-ballers.

Lowballer at a gun show tried to tell him his $500-600 price on a nice S&W revolver (I forget the model & cal, but it was from the late 60's-early 70's) The gun was LNIB, the model, caliber & length were desirable, and the price was at the low end of what the same gun was SELLING for on Gunbroker. Lowballer said the price was way too high, and that that gun could be bought & sold all day long for $300 in Spokane.

Family Member rolled out 12 $100 bills on the table, held them out and told the Lowballer to go buy 4 of them, bring back 3, and that Lowballer could keep one for himself.

Shuts them up fast, and they never return to his tables unless it's with a realistic offer.

 

[hemiram]

The opposite of the "I can get them all day for $300" is the "It's rare, so it's $600!", even though you really can get the same gun for $300 on GB. I have a friend who owns a local store, and even though I've known the guy for almost 45 years, he still gives me totally ridiculous prices on police scanners and other radio items. Full list, at first, then he comes down to about $50 over the normal street price. After much whining and sighing, he finally will agree to match the normal price, but will do the exact same thing over and over again with each accessory you buy. There was a guy I knew who did the same thing with guns. He would offer you a really lowball price when he wanted to buy, but on used guns he wanted what new ones went for at the lowest priced LGS. New ones were almost always over list. I don't think he understands why he went out of business even now, like 10 years later.

And then you have the buyer's who decide after the deal is done that they paid too much, and want to renegotiate. It's only happened with guns a couple of times, but on Ebay, it's happened several times. One guy I sold a $1000 Shortwave receiver to, a low price for that model in the shape it was in, suddenly claimed it had a problem, but said he would keep it for $800. He called me when I wasn't in a great mood and I got short with him and told him to send it back. Then he said, "How about $850?". Finally, I got fed up and said, "Send it back, and I'll refund the money, or keep it for $1000, that's it!". He sent it back, and I refunded his money. Of course, it didn't have the problem he claimed it did. I put it back up to buy and ended up selling it for $1200 a week later. Funny, that buyer sent me an email saying how happy he was with it.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

He preceded to tell me mine was a $150 gun so I'd have to add a lot of cash. When I repeated the brand and model and cited my purchase price and the lowest online sale price, he acted like I was trying to rip him off and said he worked in a gun shop so knew the retail price --

Did you find out where he worked, because I'd really like to shop there if prices are that low.

Since when does a like new condition, quality name brand firearm with extra magazines bring only 50% of the lowest retail price you can find?

Yeah, I'd expect that maybe if I was reselling or trading in a gun to a big chain store like Cabela's, but in a private trade you can get more for sure.

 

[JTHunter]

Some time back, I took an old S&W in .32-20 to a local show to try and find the value of it as it was an "inherited" gun.
Two different dealers looked it up in their "blue books" to help me find the actual model and they determined that it is is a "Model of 1905 - 4th change, made somewhere between 1915 - 1940. Both gentlemen told me that, if I had the box, it would have been rated at 98-100% as only a tiny spot of bluing on the muzzle tip is missing. The lack of the box dropped it to 95-98% and when they quoted the 95% value, I retired the gun!!
Even though I have fired the gun and still have ammo for it (VERY difficult to find!), the .32-20 factory loads only come in LRNs and are fairly low powered.

So it is now a "case queen".

 

[TSH77769]

Couple months ago I was selling a brick of .22LR. I got offered $25, 15 pounds of moose and 10 pounds of organically grown brown rice.

I did the trade. I thought it was interesting and entertaining and I was sympathetic to the young man.

I don't regret it. The young man assured me the meat was taken care of properly (makes a big difference).

My wife and I made several wonderful dishes with what we got and we went to the movies.

Alaska is a special place. Barter is VERY common here. ESPECIALLY in remote areas. You can even barter ammunition, gasoline, meat, or grain, for a doctor's house call.

 

[ol' scratch]

Never hurts to ask...

I sort of understand asking. A few years ago a neighbor was selling a bunch of high end reloading equipment..calipers, neck turning equipment, six sets of match dies, like new RCBS digital scale and powder measure, RCBS press and an AR 80 percent jig with two lowers and ETC. It worked out to about $1400 in stuff spread out in four boxes. I offered an M1917 Enfield and 200 rounds of HXP. He jumped at it. We both walked away happy.

Maybe the seller was confused? My father-in-law was perplexed that I wanted a Browning Hi-Power. He thought I was a little off when I found an FN for $300 with matching numbers and a great bore and snapped it up. He told me he couldn't understand why I was excited about getting a pistol for $300 that I could get NEW for $150. Then I had to explain the difference between High Point and Hi-Power.