Maybe someone could open a site that's free of new guns, only selling C&R, milsurps, and other second-hand, used guns? usedgunsonly.com, maybe?
Something to think about for those technically inclined. There are a lot of gun owners who will only buy used, purely from an economic standpoint.
Learn to use the search engines on the sites, if don't want to look at new guns then don't click those items
gezzer - Buddy, not only did you completely misunderstand what I was getting at, and not only are you actually
wrong in your conjecture, you were a bit of an arse in your delivery.
Try a search for "used <type of modern production gun>" on gunbroker.com some time using "search both title and description" option and tell me what turns up. I've got $10 on at least one of the search results having "new" and possibly "brand new" in the title.
Gunbroker, auctionarms, et al - including Ebay - suck now for the simple reason that they allow newly manufactured goods to be searched
by default along with used goods. Yes, this generates more revenue, but if you're looking for something used, cheaper, unique,
et cetera it will be crowded out by other items.
Those items are still there to some degree, but it's harder to find them. Often, the higher number of new items (even if they're junk - like automotive battery chargers for *whatever* device) for a certain search result will crowd out a legitimate search - way down at the bottom of the page. People still get the bargain on the used item, but fewer people who may have been interested in it see it, or can even find it.
What if I don't want to look at anything that's currently in production used or new?
(Or has been in production within the last 15-20 years would be even better)
Then you should be able to search for it. Most auction site engines are
horrible, with few to any options for creating or setting selection criteria other than string matching. I'm not too familiar with all of htem, but I know for a fact that gunbroker's is horribly inefficient and costly (in a computing sense), and very rarely returns appropriate, conceise responses unless what you're looking for is, indeed, niche.
And let me say this: from someone who was continually put off by GunsAmerica's search (or lack thereof) before the revamp, their new interface is much more conductive towards finding what you're after - even though the offerings are, indeed, utter garbage. But they are a far, far cry from what a person could reasonably expect to be able to use as a search criteria or target limitor.
And good search is
absolutely necessary[/i] when you start having more entries into your database - ie, more people using the site, and more sale entries.
Without thinking about it too much, it would seem almost trivial to make a multiple-choice listing and search tool that would have:
Product type (semi-auto pistol, shotgun, rifle, revolver, parts, holster, apparel, knives, ammunition, other - available from pull-down, defaulting to 'all' for search)
Manufacturer/brand (fill in the blank)
Model number (fill in the blank)
Used() or new()
If used, condition (menu w/ 0% to 100%)
Priced between x and y
in <state>
within <miles> from <location>
The biggest problem is not being able to consistently and accurately limit/exclude the "bulk listers" who have a dozen or more guns on there at any one time from their shop, are selling for $20 under new (after considering FFL and shipping), allowing them to reason that they can sell their beat up Mossberg 500 either at the store front for the same amount, or if not, they'll get some sucker online. (Unfortunately, the bulk of gun shop owners don't seem to have many scruples. I blame the fact that they have to deal with the ATF on a regular basis.)
Anyway, if you could search through those who are like you - people who want to buy or sell their personal firearms and other similar items - you might have a resurgence in interest. I've found that with all those 'bazaar salesmen' floating around, it results in a larger number of sleazebags trying to rip people off from the buying end, too. I know it's why I've stopped using Ebay (used to be a big seller for quite a while - I'd go to auctions and buy stuff I thought might be fun to sell), and it also lead to me searching for neat stuff on ebay less often myself.
