Which guns are good as an investment?

[silverlance]

guns are a great investment - if you have tons of secure room.

i can absolutely guarantee you , and i will put 100 bucks on that, that your run of the mill matching numbers VG+ condition romanian AK parts kit going for $99 right now is going to be pushing $200 within 18 months.

our company used to sell FAL parts kits for $149, IMBEL. now you see them on gunbroker for $300. that's 9 months later.

someone mentioned yugo sks rifles. well, the outlook for the 7.62x39 is good. remember, with guns, ammo is key. lets say that you buy 200 excellent-unissued m59/66 rifles. get them in their crates, too. you pay $150 for each because you are buying in bulk. you store them in a big steel container in a cool dry environment. since these are long guns, you put ALL of them on a single 4473.

two years later. you sell each for $300. that's a modest price ... who knows what the political environment will be then?

200x150 = 30,000$ and right now the dollar is at a low point!

now.. how many stocks, bonds, funds etc... can do 100% in 24 months?

and best of all... you can arm an army against the mutant zombies.

 

[1 old 0311]

Yugo underfolders are the best buy going now. You will NEVER loose money on one.

 

[22-rimfire]

I believe there is a place for guns in a growing net worth. Place for precious metals too. Guns, like art, are risky investments. If you invest in guns, you aren't trying to pick up 15-20% in 10 years. You need at least 200% or more in that amount of time. So, what guns have increased in value that much in ten years? Guns hold their value, but are generally poor investments. Some will surprise you though.

The best way to make money with guns is like silverlance suggested. Buy in bulk at a cheap price. If you can hold them for two years and turn them for double you money, you are way ahead of the game. Then you do it again and again and pretty soon you're a full time gun speculator and you need a FFL.

By the way, I have lost money on guns. Generally speaking, I'm not too interested in making $15 on a gun other than to say that I didn't loose money. Chances are you paid more than that in sales tax.

 

[Soybomb]

These three guns are excellent as investments. These guns hold their value well over time and prices have actually increased.

If you're defining an investing as something that holds its value or maybe increase a little, you're not talking about much of an investment.

Just to give you something to think about if you tuck $1000 in an index fund today that averages a 10% annual return (which is relatively easy) you'll have something like $4400 in 15 years. I wouldn't gamble on a gun value increase of $3400 in those 15 years.

Guns are fun toys and they don't really depreciateas much as cars or electronics, but for the most part they are not investments. If you're sacrificing contributions to your retirement fund to buy garands, you've got problems.

 

[GD]

The only good investment is one where you buy low and then sell high. Generally, firearms only follow the rate of inflation. If you bought a Yugo SKS about 17 years ago, you would have paid $1500 for a rifle that is now worth $200. If you bought a Soviet Mosin for $70 in 1990, it would now be worth about the same - which means a loss due to inflation. I do look at my firearms as investments only because I try to buy at a greatly reduced price. Pawn shops, garage sales, and occasionally a gunshow will provide the low price I am looking for. Some bargains I have found - a $325 Garand, a $320 SVT40, a $90 Finn M28/30, a $95 Finn M28, and a $180 unaltered M1917 Eddystone. Last winter I saw a guy pick up an unaltered Krag for $30 at a gunshow. These are investments that would bring an immediate huge growth rate. You buy a modern firearm for a fair retail price, I doubt you would see a return in the near future that would be worth your efforts to sell it. If you are planning for a social upheaval that would increase your earnings greatly, you would have what I would call a risky investment.

 

[H2O MAN]

Just to give you something to think about if you tuck $1000 in an index fund today that
averages a 10% annual return (which is relatively easy) you'll have something like $4400
in 15 years. I wouldn't gamble on a gun value increase of $3400 in those 15 years.

Yeah, but I spent less than $1000 on two ChiCom M14s about 18 months ago and they are
worth more than double what I paid for them. Imagine what they will be worth in 15 years.

 

[tblt]

Any name brand gun in good shape

 

[Deanimator]

Pre-lock S&W revolvers, especially pinned and recessed, blued ones. Prices are getting ridiculous.

 

[doc2rn]

If you want a to collect weapon systems that is your right, but for me mine are made to be used. Sure some will go up in value others down, but you are missing a great deal by just looking at them as property. I use mine to create memories I can look back on and smile. I would rather buy a rifle and go on a Safari in Africa, but hey thats just me.

 

[outofbattery]

Whether you look at them as an investment or as simply something that you would like to own now that would be much more expensive to obtain later,very few guns are bad buys.
I never thought that the Bulgarian SLR I bought new for $329 would be selling for $800 or that I would wish I had bought several more FAL's and CETME's for $250-300.I doubt you'll ever manage to lose $ on mil-surps,but they most likely won't increase in value as rapidly as some firearms.A couple of the guns I very much wish that I had bought when I had the chance were a brand new SP89 for $825 and one of the last Steyr AUG's for a then what seemed incredible $1200.Oh well!

 

[redneck2]

Just to give you something to think about if you tuck $1000 in an index fund today that averages a 10% annual return (which is relatively easy) you'll have something like $4400 in 15 years. I wouldn't gamble on a gun value increase of $3400 in those 15 years.

Guns as a true investment are typically a poor idea. I subscribe to a newsletter that has investment portfolios consisting of well known mutual funds and other mixed securities. They're running about 20-25% per year return. A model portfolio that started in 1988 is up about 2,200%.

The thing to remember about long term investment is compounding. For example, if you have a $1,000 investment that doubles every 5 years and you hold it for 20 years, it's then worth $16,000. I'm starting a college fund for my grand-daughter. We can invest $20 a week for 5 years and have college mostly or totally paid for when she's ready to go.

 

[22-rimfire]

I don't really want to throw politics into this discussion, but if the Democrats win the presidential election in 2008, I expect there is a good chance you will see a new "assault weapons" bill that is passed. That is very short term and more than likely existing firearms will not be affected. (Not always the case though.) So, military styled firearms are a reasonable short termed investment in guns. But you DO have to sell them if you want the return!

I buy firearms because I shoot them and like them. Some have appreciated in value significantly. I knew when I bought them they were good ones to buy, but I pay attention.

Pre-lock Smiths aren't a bad hedge against inflation, but as true investments, I doubt you'll see much appreciation beyond inflation as new gun prices rise. So, again, you need to like them to buy and store them. To make money on them, you have to keep your eyes open, buy and then sell and pocket your profit. Then do it again.

 

[CTPistol]

Guns as investments???

However, not often will you LOSE money - which is great considering its a hobby and passion for many of us. Where you will lose money is on "tool" type guns like Glocks, XDs, etc. but most other real guns - safe.

Try breaking even with other hobbies like planes, boats, cars, electronics, etc..

aint gonna happen very often.

 

[RPCVYemen]

Pre-lock S&W revolvers, especially pinned and recessed, blued ones. Prices are getting ridiculous.

One thing to keep in mind is that there are nuances that are worth a lot to a very few people. That still make it a valuable investment, but things like "pre-lock" may be very, very, very important to a very small group of people.

That makes me nervous about long term investment potential. We have a generation of folks who are growing up on polymer auto's. Don't get me wrong - I love my Blackhawk. But when I have it at the range, the guy who show the most interest are over 50 - like me.

The problem I see in the future is that the small group of people who are willing to pay top bucks for special nuances in revolver (or even 1911) may well be aging rapidly.

So a very high price today may not tell you much. Maybe it will. But you wan to pick something that will have a high price in 10 or 20 years. That's a far more difficult task.

For example, I am quite happy shooting my K31. It's closed to doubled in value in a couple of years. I have no clue what it will be worth in 20 years. I think at lot of "collectibles" have a pretty high spike for a couple of years, and then start losing value rapidly. Want to buy a $10,000 collection of Beanie Babies?

So a group of people who grew up on polymer semi-auto's may have little/no interest in revolvers, and may care less about pre-lock/post-lock issues.

i can absolutely guarantee you , and i will put 100 bucks on that, that your run of the mill matching numbers VG+ condition romanian AK parts kit going for $99 right now is going to be pushing $200 within 18 months.

When people "guarantee" a rate of return, I am highly skeptical. If you could guarantee 100% return in 18 months, then every Fortune 500 company in the world would be beating a path to your front door. Smart people with billions in capital work very hard to make 7% - 10% average returns over any long period of time.

now.. how many stocks, bonds, funds etc... can do 100% in 24 months?

I think that you need to read up on risk. There are individual penny stock that do that all the time. Picking them in advance is the hard part. If/when you read up on risk, it will become clear that almost always, huge returns are related to huge risk. That penny stock may go up 100% in a day - but it may disappear tomorrow. A Fortune 500 company is unlikely to go up 100% in a day, but will likely not disappear tomorrow.

It's the picking in advance that's the hard part. A number of companies have had periods where they have gone up well over 100% in 24 months.

EMC Aug 06 - Nov 07 Something like 9$ -> $25 270%
Apple July 06 - Nov 07 Something like $50 -> $200 400%

So the answer to the question "How many stocks can do 100% in 24 months?" is "Lots and lots of them can do that. Just not the ones I pick!"

Mike

 

[harmonic]

I've been buy/selling/trading guns for about 35 years. Whenever you start talking about guns as investments, you're necessarily comparing them (the guns) to other types of investments.

If you were to calculate the money you "invest" in a gun vs, say, investments in blue chip stocks, plus figure in inflation, opportunity cost, etc, the conclusion is that guns are never a solid investment. It's just what we tell our wives whenever we decide to buy another gun.

 

[putteral]

Exactly! At least that is what I tell my wife.

 

[Eagle103]

That makes me nervous about long term investment potential. We have a generation of folks who are growing up on polymer auto's. Don't get me wrong - I love my Blackhawk. But when I have it at the range, the guy who show the most interest are over 50 - like me.

The problem I see in the future is that the small group of people who are willing to pay top bucks for special nuances in revolver (or even 1911) may well be aging rapidly.

I believe that's a good point. You see the same thing with collector automobiles. As people age and become empty nesters they look for cars and other items from their youth. I think that's a big part of the reason for the runup in values of the muscle cars from the late 60's and early 70's right now while the value many of the older vehicles has begun to flatten out and even decline as the interest in them goes down.

 

[redneck2]

Two of the latest examples I can think of are Belgian Browning shotguns and Winchester 97's. 10-15 years ago a really nice Browning would bring $1,200-1,500. A few years ago I had a chance to get a NIB, never unwrapped one for $650 and passed. For a while (when SASS was the craze) 97's were bringing $600-700. Now they're maybe $350-450 range.

If you want to have something that you can use and maybe make a little on or at least break even, guns are the ticket. To buy one and never fire it to maintain value makes little sense to me unless pride of ownership is your thing.

 

[tblt]

Lock them up

The ones you can keep young thugs from steeling.

 

[no_problem]

<<now.. how many stocks, bonds, funds etc... can do 100% in 24 months? >>

Google? I bought 100 shares at IPO+ for 90 bucks a share. 12 months later it's breaking though to 550. But I sold mine at 150, thinking it was too good to be true...That's another story!

I don't buy guns for investment purposes. The Colt Sporter I bought when I graduated Boot Camp was $490 in 1984, today, an AR can be had for about $600. Twenty years later!

I buy my guns cause I like 'em, and I never ever intend to sell them.

That said, I have seen the three guns listed go up in value quite a bit.

 

[ironvic]

Any good, pre-lock S&W revolver.

 

[Oohrah]

Fifty years of collecting increased values from three to 1000 times the value
Example a $14.50 03A4 unfired $3500? Colt Python new in the box @ $125,
now? Any Winchester in very good to excellent? Ammo will be the next
value of the future! Many I know who played stocks, pretty much lost their
A$$es and had no where the fun I had with firearms and watch their value
go one way UP

 

[Deamon]

Saiga-12?