The For Sale Pitch of "Rare"

[kmcintosh78]

Is anyone else seeing more and more so called "Rare" firearms being sold over the last several months? I know in UT someone must have opened a hidden vault located at a secret location and found all these Rare firearms.

 

[candr44]

I see so called "rare" firearms at gun shows all the time. Most of the time its nothing more than a sales gimmick to get more money out of the ignorant. Sometimes the gun is rare but to me that doesn't make it any better and doesn't justify the higher price. Especially when all you are paying a higher price for is the name or markings on the gun.

The only people who pay higher prices for rare guns are ignorant suckers and collectors and the only difference I see between the two groups is one group isn't ignorant.

 

[deadin]

Over the years I've owned a number of "rare" guns but nobody seemed to give a cr** so they weren't worth much.

There many ways to determine rarity, and not all of them add value. (Except, maybe, to the owner.)

 

[RevDerb]

Remember the old adage; one man's junk is another man's treasure? I would say in the realm of gun ownership and selling those words are definitely applicable. Caveat emptor always.

 

[jnyork]

"They aint makin' these any more"

"Only a few made"

"They're gonna quit makin' these next month"

"That aint a very high price for it, it's a collectors item"

"You must be new to gun collecting"

"I've only seen one other like it in 28 years of selling at gun shows"

 

[rattletrap1970]

I think putting the word "Rare" on anything should justify getting a slap unless you have some kind of paperwork attesting to whether or not it truly is "Rare".

 

[NavyLCDR]

Three days ago. Pawn shop. Mosin Nagant for $400! Despite the fact that it had rust in the bore, missing the front sight completely... it was "rare" because it had the "original" loop of leather in the front sling slot! I'll pass. I'll go to Big 5 Sports and get the "common" Mosin for $115 on sale this week, thank you very much.

I keep waiting to buy that civil war gun for $10 at a garage sale. Just never seems to happen to me, though.

 

[deadin]

I actually heard a guy at a gunshow calling his Colt M1911 with a filed off serial as rare.
After all, how many 1911s without a serial do you see?

 

[GunsAmerica Fan]

I have an extremely rare Uberti 73 Winchester copy. It is really rare that the day someone gets a new gorgeous rifle they set it where it is going to fall over and get a ginormous gouge along the entire beautiful walnut stock. That's about as rare as you get.

 

[Oyeboten]

My usual reply, is...


"Yup...it is so rare, and such a good price, and so desireable, that's how come it's still sitting there huh...after how-many-shows?"

 

[Souris]

Heh-heh. There is a gunshop near me that has "Pappy" Boyington's .45 on the wall. Next to "Stone Wall" Jackson's boot gun.
I bet those are rare!

Disclaimer- they are tongue and cheek examples and not for sale.

 

[lwknight]

Its like having matched sets with consecutive serial numbers. Sure , its kinda neat but , no one will pay extra for it. In fact you often get more by breaking up the set.

Everthing is rare when a dealer has it. Its just common junk when you have it.

 

[John Wayne]

Just a sales gimmick. Sometimes a gun is "rare" but it doesn't necessarily mean it's worth any more. S&W produced a few guns with aluminum cylinders...those are rare, and valuable.

Some other company might have produced 100,000 or more of one handgun, but only the first 25 or so had smooth wood grips instead of checkered. That gun is technically "rarer" than the rest but it's still not worth any more to me.

Manufacturers are always making design changes to popular firearms, and if that firearm is collectable then down the road the less common ones might be worth more money. It really is anyone's guess as to how that goes; the market doesn't seem to follow any rhyme or reason. Say for instance that a company produces a revolver with 2", 3", and 18" barrel lengths...and no one buys the 18" version because it's impractical. The company doesn't make a lot of them by comparison, but 25 years later a character in a popular movie has a the gun with the 18" barrel and all of a sudden it triples in value and becomes ultra-rare and collectible.

 

[Kbovine]

All I can think of when I see something rare advertised is that they want me to pay way too much for it.

 

[russ69]

Rare means not many were made. In most cases that means that not many were sold. Desirable firearms is the key to retaining value, rare means nothing unless it was desirable first.

Thanx, Russ

 

[Shadow 7D]

Consider that most of the expensive stuff that is known "rare" are something like the army demo Lugers in .45, of which they know less 30 were made, and like 10-15 are located, and the most expensive is serial number 2, the demo piece, as SN 1 was destroyed.

That is rare,

OTH, you have stuff like the garand, m1911, M1911A and the 1903, where the rifle was made in the millions, and a rare copy, only 50-500K were made, compared to the total, Rare and 'desirable'
Compared to something in the 10-1000's made, not rare, but the difference is, the well know rare will sell at the premium, the true rare, is either a curiosity or some unknown 'junk'

 

[DRYHUMOR]

They sell cans of Rare......

And Old, Vintage, Hard to Find, Super Scarce, and One of a Kind.

Of course, the cans themselves are Difficult to Obtain........

 

[lonegunman]

I have a Weatherby rifle that the factory said is probably the only one like it they made. I had a guy from the Weatherby Collector's Association say that while it might be the only one like it, it was neither rare nor desirable and thus worth nothing over a standard rifle.

Both rare and valueless, now that is hard to do.

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Ebay destroyed the meaning of "rare" years ago.

 

[armoredman]

I had a rare steak for dinner, does that count?

 

[mgkdrgn]

I actually heard a guy at a gunshow calling his Colt M1911 with a filed off serial as rare.
After all, how many 1911s without a serial do you see?

Naaa, a felon with a gun is not all -that- rare.

 

[Sauer Grapes]

1933 double eagle $20.00 gold coin, rare. I see a guy selling guns on another web site always using the word rare. I didn't know the Ruger GP100 was rare in any configuration.

 

[sarge83]

Yeah I have seen the "rare" pitch a lot lately. I usually ignore it as it is way over priced to begin with and the sell price is still above a fair price. I have watched people however, take the bait hook, line and sinker and run with it and then watch the shop owner set the hook and skin them.

Thing is with this shop if you are patient and know your prices he will usually be accommodating and offer a fair price on most firearms.

 

[waterhouse]

I didn't know the Ruger GP100 was rare in any configuration.

I guess it depends on each person's definition of rare. I don't know how many were made, or if they have made more in the past few years, but about 5 years ago I was asked by a customer to find a 5" GP100. It took several calls and about a year of internet searching to find one. I've seen about 3 for sale since then. There was a bidding war for the one I eventually found, so clearly more than one person was willing to pay more for a "rare" GP100 (it went for about double what most of them sell for.)

Similarly, I've seen full rail version of the Springfield Operator 1911s go for far more than their half rail counterparts.

Perhaps rare isn't the correct word (does rare mean one, or 500, or 5,000) but certain versions of even common guns are certainly very difficult to find and command a premium because of it.

 

[Flame Red]

"Rare" is one of the GunShow, GunBroker, Classifieds mantra BS.

I do believe that there is "high demand" verses "available supply". All the full auto NFA are in this category. There is also the Python mania, especially for 3" barrels! There are many others I am sure.