38 years ago when I married my wife I promised to keep her. I've kept that promise. I make no promise when I buy a gun. There are a handful with family history and some with sentimental value that will be passed down to the next generation. But everything else is for sale at the right price.
I'm 63, bought my 1st gun at 16 with money I earned cutting grass during summers @ $3 per yard. During my 20's, 30's and 40's I was a prolific gun buyer/seller/trader. I've lost count, but have owned several hundred guns over the years. Never more than about 50 at any given time. Never had any high end guns, but there aren't many mid to lower priced guns I haven't owned at one time or another. Probably at least 75%-80% of the guns I've ever owned were bought used. Over 50% in my safe right now were used. I've not spent nearly as much out of pocket as you'd think.
Things have changed, but back then it was pretty easy and simple to sell/trade/swap guns. I discovered that if I bought used guns and watched the price I paid I could easily sell or trade it later if I didn't like it and recover most, if not all of my money. And it wasn't unusual to make a small profit occasionally. Especially if I kept it a few years. I literally bought many guns that I felt I probably wouldn't like simply to try them. Knowing I could easily get my money back if I didn't. I discovered that I was wrong several times and actually became quite fond of some of those. Glock for example.
I'm not sure my strategy would work today. I'm hesitant to sell or buy FTF anymore. I'd rather pay more, and get less when selling and go through a FFL to let them assume the liability of a gun getting in the wrong hands.
Once I got into my 50's I'd already tried just about everything and had made up my mind what worked best for me. I started selling off those that didn't get used and used the money to upgrade to better optics, adding high end aftermarket stocks, and in some cases better firearms. I also gave my kids several guns. I didn't see any point in them having to wait till I die to enjoy them.
During the height of the Pandemic when gun shops couldn't get guns I sold 10 guns for $6000 to a local gun store. I had about $2500 in them and made a nice profit, and he had some guns on his shelves.