Actually many guns are still priced above real value.
I don't know when you started paying attention.
Gun prices shot through the roof in 2008-2009 as it became clear Obama was likely to be President, and then when it became clear he would be President.
There was very real reason to be concerned, one only needed to look at the candidate's record, voting for every single gun control measure ever proposed as far back as you could look, and even being on the board of directors of one of the major anti-gun groups.
Scary looking rifles began to sell for double and then triple their actual values. Guns that could be found used for half of their market value by those looking suddenly sold new for triple their value and used for only slightly less.
Many people who never owned a firearm before didn't understand the likely targets either and ran out to purchase even guns unlikely to be part of any new restrictions, before it was too late.
Handguns flew off the racks, and also were going for way over prior market value. Many new first time gun buyers wanted a handgun, before it was too late, which of course made no sense to those who actually knew gun politics. But the market didn't have to be educated to buy, buy, buy.
Many people stocked up on tons of firearms they thought could be impacted. Some planning to make a profit on grandfathered guns (naively assuming they would both be grandfathered and transferable like in the previous federal AWB) if restrictions were passed.
Hoarders bought more guns, and of the same or similar types, than they would ever actually want themselves.
FFLs who couldn't fill demand, and could make a previous year's profit every month stocked up.
Prices went up, and buyers continued to buy more than they really needed.
Suddenly they market was overly saturated, in the middle of a down economy where much of the market didn't really have the money to be doing such things.
Gun sales slowed down.
Yet prices didn't drop like they should. Many of these people paid 2-3x actual market value of these guns, and didn't want to take a slight loss on resale, never mind the type of loss they would take selling them for pre-scare realistic values.
So many retailers and hoarders have sat on stock of guns with excessive sticker prices. Hoping with sheer will power than they can sell those guns at a profit somehow and refusing to drop prices as the market seemed to dictate. They at least wanted to break even.
The result is a lot of prices on certain types of firearms sat higher than most people would really pay for many guns for the last couple years.
This market of new gun owners though has offset this somewhat by creating more new potential gun buyers of additional firearms than existed previously.
Along with more regular buyers of ammunition than existed previously. The market is in fact larger now.
There is more regular gun browsers and potential buyers in stores than there ever used to be.
However there was still many firearms that would have to be sold at a loss or hung onto for a long time.
Well they can only hope for so long. In a downed economy holding onto product for years purchased well above what it can be sold for in the hopes it will go up in value again is difficult.
People will have to start dumping these things, and it will start with a slow slide in prices, forcing others to compete or simply not move product.
As new products are created, and sold, and retailers and prior hoarders continue to sit on old product not selling, they will have to sell at a loss to make room for the type of product they can hope to sell more frequently or be stuck with that old product taking up space.
Most 'luxury' or unnecessary items (and certainly multiple guns is not a necessity) actually have less demand than before the housing crisis and are consequently worth less (even adjusting for inflation) because most people have less disposable income.
So guns in reality should be cheaper , not even the same price. But they didn't follow the same trend and skyrocketed in demand going in the opposite direction from the rest of the market.
A market with less cash than ever, was buying several times as much of the product than ever.
It is inevitable that this river flowing upstream couldn't do so forever.
Prices still have a ways to go down before they are even at their real prices.
People who think they are seeing great deals and jump on them before they fall even further will slow the rate at which they drop, but they will likely keep dropping on certain types of firearms owned in greater numbers than there is even demand for.
