Anybody else embarassed to sell an AR?

[Guest twpayne75]

I have considered selling an AR. Not to take advantage of the craze, just because I could use the money.

 

I see two angles to what is going on.

 

1) People that are stupid are flagging "overpriced" on sales adds that are over $1000. Contrary to what the ignorant people think, quality ARs do sell for more than a $1000, even before this latest round of stupidity came about. And when I say quality I am not referring to DPMS, Bushmaster, Delton, CMMG, etc. There is nothing wrong with them, but people are flagging DD, Larue, Noveske, BCM, etc. because they are priced higher.

 

2.) I see tons of $700-$800 ARs, DPMS seems to be the most offered, selling for $1500 (or atleast for sale for that amount, not sure if anyone is buying). If they are getting $1500 for those, why would I sell anything decent for less. If any DPMS is worth $1500 then anything I own is worth $3500. But I don't think I could sleep at night if I did that to someone.

 

I don't even know why I am typing this except to hear other people opinions. I started to list some PMags on another gun site just because I could price comparatively and make $40 a magazine. I typed up the add and then deleted it. I couldn't do it.

 

I know most of this buying is going on due to stupid people that didn't have enough sense to know this could easily happen again. Most of us here over the age of 35 should know better. So in a way some people are getting what they deserve. 

 

I am thinking and hoping that in a couple months things will settle down. I don't think prices of anything will get back to two weeks ago, which were already stupid high. I am only 37 years old, but even I can remember getting into ARs when I was in high school and ordering a case of Wolf .223 from sportsmans Guide for $75 shipped to my door.

 

Thanks for allowing me to vent. 

[daveW]

If you post it for sale-at whatever price and someone buys it, good for you. It's not like you drove the market to this horrid state of affairs. I posted a few lowers on Gunbroker knowing they would likely go for much more than I paid...and they have. The thing is- if I turn around and buy things I need-ammo, components..l gotta pay stupid prices too. Why exchange a lower for last months market price when I gotta pay today's market price on other things? Admittedly, I would feel guilty selling them here as I value this community.

[c.a.willard]

I would recommend using an auction.  Set your reserve price at whatever you feel the rifle was worth two weeks ago and allow demand to determine what the rifle is worth today.  I have a few Pmags on gunbroker now that i set the reserve at 8 a Mag since they were used.  I expect they may bring more than that but if not i will not be upset because i have gotten good use out of them.

[Slpeod]

I agree, I wouldn't put anything on TGO for the crazy pricing that is currently ongoing. If the crazies in MI, IL and the rest of the North want to pay the premium, heck I figure that's only fair since they voted to keep in the current administration.

I do though have several GB auctions though that are bringing some good prices. I also set the reserve price as $2 over what I have in the item to pay for the listing fee.

[Guest twpayne75]

I get what you all are saying. I have to much time here, Sigforum, or even Arfcom to sell on any of these at these stupid prices.

 

I have not bought anything recently except for 10 PMags that I didn't even need last week. But I still paid just a little over $12 with free shipping. I can't imagine anything I would ever need that I don't already have except for ammo, and I have no intentions of using much of what I have any time soon.

 

I don't expect to aquire another AR......ever. Even if I didn't own one, and knew for a fact that there was going to be an upcoming ban, I still would not buy one at these prices.

[DaveTN]

I don't even know why I am typing this except to hear other people opinions.

Your post sounds like you are getting ready to do something you know isn’t right and want someone’s stamp of approval. You will get all kinds of posts that anything you do is okay, free enterprise, supply and demand and all the that non-sense. But it’s your credibility, and your own personal moral compass that you have to look at. Unless you openly put a crazy azz price on it here, the only one that will know is you.

 

If all you want is the money; I would wait, this is just getting started.

[xRUSTYx]

There is a guy on TN Gun Owners Club (facebook version) trying to sell .223 (not 5.56 even) for $4/round ...

 

truly truly sad :(

Edited December 27, 2012 by xRUSTYx

[Guest Sysvr4]

Your post sounds like you are getting ready to do something you know isn’t right and want someone’s stamp of approval. You will get all kinds of posts that anything you do is okay, free enterprise, supply and demand and all the that non-sense.

 

I'm sorry, you lost me.  

 

Hundreds of years of basic economic principles are "non-sense"?  It isn't right to sell a given asset for its fair market value?  I'm curious whether the people who espouse this kind of argument here anchor only gun prices or other assets as well.  I suspect it's mostly the former.

 

I have a feeling most people on this site lean towards free market capitalism.  So please explain to me why selling assets for their current value or (*gasp*) even making a profit through the disposition of certain assets is somehow immoral now.  

 

If all you want is the money; I would wait, this is just getting started.

 

We agree here.

[runco]

Most of us die hards could easly cash in on the craze, but I for one did not acquire my thunder sticks for making money, I acquired them to have, to use, and to fill up a safe.  Once you sell, its gone forever (likey).  Instead of passing down a real legend to your kids, you can tell your kids of a legend that you once had...., but sold it to turn a profit. 

[atlas3025]

It is only gouging if it is a necessity of life, and even then it is debatable.  I do not believe gauging exists on wants.  Obama and the lefties believe you only have a "right" to a little profit.  Fuck them.  Who is to say how much profit you have a right to?

 

If you list the gun for $2k and someone buys it, it is worth it. 

 

Think of it this way...very few people would sell their AR's for what they were worth 2 weeks ago...that means that there would be very low supply and very few people who could get one iat all f they wanted it assuming they were "capped" at only spending what was reasonable two weeks ago.  By them offering more money for an AR, they are brining more guns into the marketplace that otherwise wouldn't be there.  So good for them if they are willing to pay a premium, and good for you if you are willing to sell at one.  People who bitch about gouging often don't know what they are talking about.  You don't have a crystal ball anymore than a buyer.  This may be the last AR you are ever able to buy, OR sell.  Or nothing may happen and the buyer who you "gouged" my wish he'd waited...but he paid a higher price for piece of mind at the time.  You can't buy life or health insurance AFTER you get cancer either (well, with Health you can, which is why it is going sky high).

 

It's like selling chainsaws and water for high prices in disaster areas after a hurricane.  If they weren't allowed to mark them way up, then it wouldn't be worth their time and investment for people to bring chainsaws and water to sell in the affected area, so they wouldn't come and there would be a massive shortage of chainsaws and water.  Let them charge what they can.  It is better to pay $10 for a bottle of water than die of thirst. 

[No_0ne]

In order to help assuage your feelings of guilt, I'll take those nasty $12 PMags off your hands! :usa:

Seriously, if you are going to be selling anyway, the fact that someone else is willing to pay exorbitant prices is their problem, not yours. 

[Dave Keenom]

I have not bought any of mine for investment. People have been after me to sell them 1 for the past 2 weeks. I have pointed them in the right direction to get 1 but am unwilling to sell one right now due to what it might cost me to replace. I would feel bad selling a friend a gun for 2 to 3 times what I have in it.  If I had bought/built them for investment I might feel different. I almost never sell guns but have been known to trade from time to time.

 

I get to attached to them. I could have sold my Colt SP1 during the last ban and used the money to by a new one and all the extras on dept letter head with money left over. I have had the Colt since I was a teenager it would have been like selling a friend. Just felt wrong.

 

If they put the things on the NFA list but do not stop the selling of new ones as long as you do the paperwork, the prices will drop again. Since they will not be as mainstream with the paperwork and tax, I expect that they will not drop to the level that we are used to but they will drop.

 

The whole thing just makes me sick......

[DaveTN]

Obama and the lefties believe you only have a "right" to a little profit.  #### them.  Who is to say how much profit you have a right to?

I’ve never seen Obama or the liberals address profit on the sale of a gun; they don’t want you to be able to sell it period.

I did however see the video of the guy walking around the Democratic National Convention asking the question “Should the profits of Corporations be controlled?” If you can get past the pathetic part of it the responses were hilarious.

[Links2k]

My concern is not being able to replace my rifles and magazines. However, If someone is crazy enough to pay me enough to purchase a Glock for ten magazines that would be hard to turn down. If someone offered to pay twice what I paid for rifles that I don't use. I wouldn't turn it down.

My view is that ARs will be banned and I would really like to keep at least one to leave a piece of history to my kids.

[Slpeod]

There is a guy on TN Gun Owners Club (facebook version) trying to sell .223 (not 5.56 even) for $4/round ...

truly truly sad :(

What that is crazy...never even heard of the Facebook site but I'll avoid it now.

[Spiffy]

If you sell for less than the current demand........someone is going to buy them and sell them for the current price and call you a sucker for not doing the same. Half of the people driving the panic is looking to buy to sell later to make a buck. There are a bunch of folks who bought cases and cases of mags the 1st time Obama got elected just for resell at $100 a pop if they had a ban.

[Guest TNSovereignty]

Interesting discussion.  Problem is that some are espousing 'free market capitalism' when this situation is nothing of the sort.  The government has entered the market & drastically altered the economic landscape.  When a gun that was worth $1K last month can now be sold for 50% higher doesn't mean the seller is unethical or that the buyer is stupid ... it means that the same government that works to undermine our Bill of Rights is also hard at work in thwarting the free market.  Heck, the feds don't have to confiscate guns/ammo ... they just have to beat us w/ their propaganda wars, start a panic, and weapons that were readily available a month ago are now pricing average folks out of the market.  

 

I don't think anyone should be embarrassed to sell an AR at the 'new' market price ... question you gotta ask yourself is would you rather be holding a tangible commodity with inherent value, now and into the future, or 1500 federal reserve notes that will be devalued by continuing inflation?  Maybe the guy buying an AR at today's prices is getting an EXCELLENT deal ... ask him/her in 10 years when your $1500 has been pissed away ;)

[Guest 6.8 AR]

I know I've been on both sides of this dilemma and I don't think it matters much, in the end. If you want to sell

your gun, that's up to what you need to do, not anyone else. It isn't capitalism, so don't try that one. It is crony

capitalism because of the politics and the fear temporarily placed on the market. If you want to sell it, and there's

a person who is willing to pay the price, go for it. After all, it's your self interest, not mine.

 

I think after the dust clears and there is no legislation for a gun ban making its way to the White House for a signature,

prices will go back down. I won't participate in the market for a while.

 

That may change this weekend in Knoxville if there is a decent price on something I need, but it will otherwise be

for entertainment purposes only.

[runco]

Guys, its just simple supply and demand.  I didn't fully understand this concept in the 10th grade, but some 30 years later, we are living what my economics teacher talked about.  The government may have invertantly motivated demand, in reality the government has done nothing (yet), just talk so far.  The blame is on people's panic desire to own something that may or may not be available a year from now.  The supply was caught off guard, but rest assured, if the manufacturing side can ramp up more production, a flood of ARs, ammo, etc.  will hit the market, say in about 6-8 weeks.  Assuming no EO gets in the way.  So if supply can catch up to demand, we will see normal market pricing once more, and maybe if supply out paces demand, and any new gun legislation dies, then we are in for windfall of opportunity.

 

Just a seperate thought, I wonder what the demographics of AR15 buyer are, both pre-Sandy Hook and post.  I would think there are significant differences. 

Edited December 28, 2012 by Runco

[GlockSpock]

Maybe the guy buying an AR at today's prices is getting an EXCELLENT deal ... ask him/her in 10 years when your $1500 has been pissed away  ;)

 

And 10 years from now the only transferable AR's are the ones that are to be registered via NFA just like machine guns. That $1500 purchase may be worth a house at that point. Impossible to say, but it's just all speculation. I say, sell it at market value, and don't feel bad. Feel bad if you buy at current market value and then 6 months from now whatever you purchased today is worth 50% of what you paid for you. THAT is when you feel bad:)

 

But don't ever sell anything for any amount of money if you like the item you are selling and can do without the extra bit of money. That $1500-$2000 might seem great now, but lets say that there was a ban and you could not in the forseable future legally purchase whatever you sold.

[graycrait]

Is anyone keeping track and following the upward trends on various firearm related goods?  What are AR mags actually going for?  Glock mags, S&W M&P mags etc? 

 

One guns store I know of was and is holding a limit on sales to three boxes of any like type ammo.  They had a 5 mag limit on PMAGS at $15.00 and change for the last couple of hundred they had.  I heard one fella who got the last 3 at that store say he was going to sell them on Ebay.

 

Maybe another interesting question would be what have you seen in price jumps through retailers?  I would venture to guess that the wholesale distributors will announce a whole new pricing scheme after 1 Jan. I have heard rumors that some gun store owners threw out their business plans and recently sold at speculator prices.   THat may have been a smart move as there appears to be few guns in the pipeline which make makes todays profit tomorrow's survival.

 

Current pricing in some items has changed the gun buying landscape for me for sure.  My income isn't going up so my gun purchasing power is being reduced dramatically. 

 

I sure hope there is a frenzied cost spike on used .22 pistols and rifles, I have a number of each I would like to sell at ridiculous prices.   I could use some crazy money right now. 

Edited December 28, 2012 by graycrait

[swim615]

If no new laws take effect and the manufactures increase production to keep up with current demand, in six months when there is a surplus and prices fall to well below what they are now, are you going to be embarrassed to buy at prices 1/3 or 1/2 lower than two weeks ago?

Edited December 28, 2012 by swim615

[Guest twpayne75]

Good discussion and some very good points made. I have decided I am not selling anything unless something comes up where I have no choice. Of course I have always been like that. When I have extra money I put it into guns, when I need money I can alway liquidate. My return is always better than that of a saving account or definately my IRA.

 

Other than ammunition there is nothing that I should ever NEED. Of course we all have wants, but that is another story.

 

I am with most of you that I think (hope and pray) that this goes nowhere and the bottom drops out over the next few months. I will not have lost anything if it does as everything I have has been bought at normal pricing, actually good pricing because I got great deals on everything I got for my last build.

 

I guess we will see.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Good discussion and some very good points made. I have decided I am not selling anything unless something comes up where I have no choice. Of course I have always been like that. When I have extra money I put it into guns, when I need money I can alway liquidate. My return is always better than that of a saving account or definately my IRA.

 

Other than ammunition there is nothing that I should ever NEED. Of course we all have wants, but that is another story.

 

I am with most of you that I think (hope and pray) that this goes nowhere and the bottom drops out over the next few months. I will not have lost anything if it does as everything I have has been bought at normal pricing, actually good pricing because I got great deals on everything I got for my last build.

 

I guess we will see.

You should always do what is in your self interest, based on moral and ethical beliefs, and your reason to sell, not

mine or anyone else around here. I couldn't tell anyone what to do or not. I'm not not in those shoes. All I can hope

for is to treated with respect and trade value for value. I just don't consider this marketplace to be realistic right

now. It will be funny when someone who paid 2 grand for a $700 gun finally sees that in a couple weeks or months.

 

More importantly, these people panicking out there right now, might include a lot more idiots in the crowd and may

be better off watching TV. There are already enough idiots who don't know anything about which end is up with a

firearm. Some people are better off staying away from the business end of one and finding out some other kind of

contribution to theirs' and others' well being in the future.

[swim615]

Here is the opposite thinking If new laws are passed and companies can no longer make certain products are you going to be embarrassed you sold for such a low price six months ago?

 

My thoughts are that we can not see the future so anything can happen with prices up, down, sideways, who knows.

 

I have been trying the trading thing lately. I figure if I trade a desirable item for another desirable item I am safe as the price should fluctuate back and forth about the same amount with each.

 

Plus it helps with the itch.