What do you do if you see a grail Gun?

H

horsemen61

Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2011
Messages
6,756
Ok everyone question time your out and about you go to a shop that knows you and you see on the rack a grail Gun Rifle/handgun/shotgun doesn’t matter what is your next move do you ask to see it? Do you check online prices do you leave in a feverish state only to return and find out it’s gone because you thought it was $50 bucks to high so What do you do?
 
Internet is portable. Look at it, do some quick looking (unless in one of those shops that thinks using the phone is illegal) to make sure not wildly out of price, then... usually buy it. By definition to me, your grail guns are things you do not see but every few years, or decades, in easily findable format, so if on the shelf: get it.

I was literally doing the paperwork to transfer one of these from a GB sale (SIG 55x), when I saw another long-wanted gun (Galil) on their shelf. Poke phone, brief delay to think, and ask for another 4473.

Can't go overboard so you can make up the payments, not do this every month, but if you only have a few, you make do.
 
look it over and make an OK offer that is still rather low, see if they come down with the goal of meeting in the middle and then check out quickly, or say thanks and go home and do some price shopping to see if willing to pay more, come up in price. leave them your number, ask them to ask the manager what they can do, make them take your number. they may call you. go back in a week and do basically the same routine, but also - if they don't get into your price range, just act like you can't believe it and totally dissapointed.
 
Great question! I usually hmm & haww, walk away, think about it some more, walk back, hmm & haww some more. Then I walk away again in the hope that someone else will buy it before I can't resist the urge to return again. Essentially I try to vacillate enough that someone else buys it, thereby relieving me of having to make a decision. All of that might make me something of a procrastinator, but I haven't really made up my mind about that ... yet.
 
My last "grail" gun purchase was in 2019, when a friend bought 4 or 5 guns from an estate. He gave me a package price deal on two guns, one of which was the grail gun. So I bought them both; kept the grail gun and sold the other about a year later. The package price was decent to begin with so it wasn't too hard financially after I sold the other one. The other one was easy to sell, as I sold it back to the guy I got it from, who decided that maybe he should have hung on to that one.
 
Any gun I would call my "Grail" gun, I would know exactly what it should cost and if I am willing to pay that for it. For the most part, the 2 LGSs around here have prices that compare to online sites, so I wouldn't have to search, if the gun were new. It is those guns I never thought of types, that would make me get out my phone and do a search.
 
buck460XVR said:
Any gun I would call my "Grail" gun, I would know exactly what it should cost and if I am willing to pay that for it. For the most part, the 2 LGSs around here have prices that compare to online sites, so I wouldn't have to search, if the gun were new. It is those guns I never thought of types, that would make me get out my phone and do a search.
Click to expand...
Exactly what I was going to say. If I don't know every detail of the gun, and how much the last half-dozen examples sold for, then it wouldn't really be a "grail" gun!
 
If I see it, want it, and have the cash then I do not walk away. The ones I walk away from do not meet the above criteria. Walk away and the next time you come back - chances are - it will be gone.
 
Riomouse911 said:
If it is one of my grail guns it isn’t often encountered for sale. So, if it is in front of me, in a condition I can accept and at a price that won’t kill me, it will be coming home.

Stay safe.
Click to expand...
Yep. That's a lesson I've had to learn the hard way more than a few times. sadly, at this point, I don't think I really have any grail guns.
 
horsemen61 said:
Ok everyone question time your out and about you go to a shop that knows you and you see on the rack a grail Gun Rifle/handgun/shotgun doesn’t matter what is your next move do you ask to see it? Do you check online prices do you leave in a feverish state only to return and find out it’s gone because you thought it was $50 bucks to high so What do you do?
Click to expand...
Fifty? Who cares, a hundred? Who cares. You have the money to turn it into noise. Who cares what the firearm cost. Within reason
 
If it's truly a "grail gun", wouldn't you already know what the value is and if you would buy it or not? Isn't a "grail gun" a gun you are not likely ever to come across, but if you do and you have the funds, you buy it without hesitation?

I guess my first two questions beg the final question...what IS a "grail gun"?
 
A rare and elusive grail gun? Something you've wanted for a while and Academy keeps it in stock? I participate in rare and elusive.
 
horsemen61 said:
Ok everyone question time your out and about you go to a shop that knows you and you see on the rack a grail Gun Rifle/handgun/shotgun doesn’t matter what is your next move do you ask to see it? Do you check online prices do you leave in a feverish state only to return and find out it’s gone because you thought it was $50 bucks to high so What do you do?
Click to expand...
I know exactly what my Grail Guns are worth. I would bargain a bit if it's over priced...and probably in any case. If it's priced right I would put it on layaway if possible. I'd have time to sell something to fund this gun.
 
A "grail gun" for me is something, typically an older firearm, that fills a niche in my collection. Certain models of old Colt and S&W revolvers, certain old lever-action rifles, certain 1911s or military rifles or handguns. Every now and then a certain modern production item pops up that I didn't realize until I saw it that it was a "grail gun." Example, a Winchester (by Miroku) 1873:
1704672115943.png



50 bucks isn't a deal-breaker for me. I will typically jump on it right there and then; too many times have I seen one of my "grail guns" and left, conscience telling me to sleep on, and have returned the next day to find the item sold right after I left the shop.

I keep a copy of SCS&W, and Fjestad's BB of Gun Values (and the mini-Blue Books for Colt and S&W) in my truck...And, just like the youngsters, I have this thing call a smartphone with the internet.

One of my main LGSs has layaway. 10% down and I got six months... Layaway is awesome. Not just for Christmas shopping.

But if it's something I just gotta have and shoot today, er, wait, new laws, I gotta wait ten days now to shoot it; there are options. Say, Cabela's Gun Vault or Bass Pro or Sportsman's Warehouse... they've all got ATMs inside. If a store doesn't, I know where the closest one is. Plus (and pay attention all you Millenials and G-Zers), I have this item with me called a "check-book." Now, if it's truly a Grail Gun that is more than, say, $2500, I might break out a credit card.

Kids are through college, cars are all paid off, credit cards are all paid off, we are set for retirement and the wife still works. Life is good.
 
Archibald Stanton said:
$50? You need to add several zeroes for me to walk away from a grail gun and I mean a gun I have always wanted but have never been able to find anywhere else, including online.
Click to expand...
Yeah. I think some of us are living int he past when $50 was a lot of money. Circa 2019. Today, $50 is a pizza dinner. I'm supposed to haggle over a pizza dinner on an item I've been searching for for ten years?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

1
  • Locked
Do you own your holy grail?
2
Replies
35
Views
2K
hankdatank1362
H
SharpDog
  • Locked
Grail Guns
2 3
Replies
54
Views
4K
Zaydok Allen
Zaydok Allen
David E
  • Locked
Cop asks to see your CCW gun......what do you do?
2 3
Replies
68
Views
4K
HOWARD J
H
V
  • Locked
What do you look for in a Gun Shop?
2 3 4
Replies
81
Views
3K
Bubbles
B
C
  • Locked
What do you do with cheap guns that?
2
Replies
26
Views
2K
keyhole
K
Back
Top