At what point is the line crossed between being an informed buyer, and overly demanding?

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I wouldn’t pay 80% of a current production firearm, buying used you slways run the risk of picking up someone’s mistake or at least a lemon.

60% yeah I’d take a chance but in a soft market I think deals on new guns are comon enough to give me pause.
 
Don’t let it get to you. We all want deals. Base your price off of:
1. The weapon itself.
2. The true condition.
3. The amount of use you’ve given it.
4. The price of a new gun (if it’s still made).

If you take all those into consideration and come up with say, 85% of “new” price, and you feel it’s fair, then start it at 90% of new. If the potential buyer can’t be polite on the phone or type/text in anything but that new shorthand jargon, the price stays at 90%. If they are polite, well spoken, courteous, and respectful, for me as the seller, the price goes down on its own.

Some may say that it’s just a transaction. “What do you want for it? What’s your bottom dollar?” But we’re talking mere seconds to include a little courtesy and politeness in the message. Something that is greatly lacking today. Something, that for some, still means a great deal.
 
^ Being polite and generally nice will get you a reduction is price from me as well. I generally base my pricing on condition and what other guns of its make and model are going for on the used market. this normally puts me somewhere around 70-75% of retail, unless the items arnt in as good a condition as the other stuff available.

huntsman said:
I wouldn’t pay 80% of a current production firearm, buying used you slways run the risk of picking up someone’s mistake or at least a lemon.
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I generally take peoples descriptions at face value, unless something dosent seem right. I guess you could say im pretty trusting when it comes to stuff like that.
I would never sell anything i felt was mechanically compromised except as parts or for repair. Ive hear other folks suggest doing that a few times, both online and in person, which honestly gives me more pause than any transaction ive ever had.
Ive bought and sold tens of thousands of dollars in hobby (ie i dont do this as a business) stuff on the web, from airguns, paintball gear, to car and computer parts, and a few guns. Ive been screwed twice, both times on ebay, once i got sent a paintball gun that wasnt in the condition specified, and another I wasnt sent anything at all. Ive bought 1 truck locally where there was some shady crap.
Other wise, Ive had a very good experience buying and selling. Recently has been a little different. Not the buying part, tho i guess i understand now why the last few guys ive dealt with have been surprised when ive made a reasonable offer on the stuff they were selling and followed thru.
 
I love to haggle and horse-trade. I don't much care if I'm buying or selling, handguns or hedge clippers. The negotiation is the fun part. With that said:
  • I know the value of what I've got. If I didn't, I wouldn't have offered it for sale.
  • I know the least I'll take for it. I'm willing to go down to that, but no further.
  • No, I won't tell a buyer what that number is, nor will I expect the buyer to tell me what the most he'll pay is.
  • I'm willing to listen to talk about all manner of trades.
  • I won't trade for something if I can't figure out what it's worth. (No, I don't want that "custom AR," which was built from spare parts that Bubba had laying around.)
  • I'm not afraid to walk away from a deal.

I went to a gun show recently with a pistol for sale. One guy showed some interest, but said that he wouldn't buy a pistol unless he could take it apart and look at the internals. He said something to the effect of he "never buys a gun unless he can inspect the parts," and actually wanted me to go out into the parking lot so we could cut the zip tie off so that he could disassemble my pistol. I told him that after he'd bought it, he could disassemble it to his heart's content. He seemed like a very nice guy, but there was just no way I was letting some stranger take my pistol apart.
 
I believe an open action on a handgun would allow for adequate inspection.

when I was into SXS shotguns the first warning sign was always buggered up screws, if something was wrong with the gun and the owner couldn’t figure out how to remove the screws properly then he really shouldn’t be doing anything to the internals either.

As for people being rude I chalk it up to inexperience when it comes to haggling with the occasional jerk thrown in.
 
I sympathize with you.
I detest haggling.
When I sell something (because I hate haggling), I price the item at the lowest price that I would take for the item (naively thinking I might avoid haggling). Often the price is ridiculously low. If I saw several examples of the same thing for sale, I price mine WAY below the lowest other one for sale. But of course this never works. You HAVE to do the dance. For most people, this ritual means a lot to them. It isn't about the price, it is about the haggling to them. And, I refuse to do it. They enjoy it and think it is fun, and I immediately think they are an ***hole. I have actually had something for sale, someone came up and started negotiating eventually agreeing to pay my asking price and then I didn't sell it to them because they made me have to listen to them try to negotiate. When I have sold things online, I don't even reply to anything except: I'll take it, where do I send the money ?

For me, I am always just trying to get rid of something that is taking up space. I don't NEED to sell it. I have tried to sell things and after having my fill of the tire kickers, the low ballers, the ones that want to pick the item apart: I just give it away free to someone I know that wants it. I have also just come home and thrown stuff in the trash (obviously not guns) rather than listen to someone who has watched too many episodes of Pawn Stars trying to impress me with their negotiation skills. I own guns that I have virtually no further interest in that I cleaned and lubricated and then stuck them in a silicone case and then put them in my attic so they didn't take up room in my safe; rather than go through the tedious ceremony of trying to sell them to some low baller. Whom ever cleans out my estate can deal with them.
 
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Courtesy counts for a lot. If the item is way over priced I don't ask about it. If its close to what I will pay I'll politely offer my price. If its less than I expected I'll pay it. If I'm selling, I use the same strategy. Most of the stuff that I've sold was priced to sell. I politely reject low ball offers and I'll usually give up a little for reasonable offers in order to make a sale. On forums such as this one, if it does not sell quickly its probably priced too high.

A couple of years ago when I retired I cleaned out my closets and gun room. The usual scopes, rings, bases, holsters, dies, odd brass, odd bullets, ect, ect. Me and a friend got a table at the local gun show. I priced my stuff to sell and I politely greeted anyone that stopped by. I tried to engage them in some way. My buddy had his stuff priced pretty high and just sat there mostly without speaking. I sold most of my stuff and he took most of his stuff back home. And I'm not really a people person!
 
huntsman said:
I believe an open action on a handgun would allow for adequate inspection. . . .
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I do, too. Open the cylinder, pull back the slide. Heck, I'll even be glad to allow field stripping, provided I know how to get the gun back together. As a buyer, I want a good look at a pistol, but I won't field strip a pistol unless: (a) I've gotten the seller's permission; and (b) I'm confident that either I or the seller can reassemble the pistol correctly.

I don't consider what I do "low-balling." I do try to get a decent deal, but I also try not to insult or rip off the other party. That's just rude, and bad business to boot. I might need to deal with that person again in the future, so I'd rather they walked away satisfied that I didn't cheat them.
 
Hokkmike said:
Courtesy and manners have long been abandoned in many interactions. Do what you can to keep it alive. Maybe things will start to swing back the other way.
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This is true. I have sold a few gun locally and the buyer always seems to come up $20 short of the price we agreed on.
 
JONWILL said:
This is true. I have sold a few gun locally and the buyer always seems to come up $20 short of the price we agreed on.
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They are likely banking on the fact that you need the money badly and will take the loss. Most people in the face of cash do cave. I have to say that that happened to me once; but it was only a $5 difference. I did take the offer.
 
Ah.
There certainly is no reason to be rude to a seller. In my personal experience, those who attempt to sell used, commonly available guns for the same price as new ones (or higher) and write FIRM! don't actually sell their guns. Perhaps they are placating an insistent wife who says they must list their guns for sale. (Honest, honey! Nobody wants them!)

Many sellers appear to have zero clue what their guns would actually be valued at by a knowledgeable person, and assume there are hundreds of uninformed morons with pockets full of benjamins lining up to buy. That may well be the case. But I've never seen it happen. My experience at gun shows where the grumpy seller doesn't want to even DISCUSS lower prices, and acts like you're doing him a disservice by wanting to buy what he's selling, is that his table is as full at the end of the show as it was at the beginning. Perhaps he just wanted to pay the fee to put his collection on display, get away from the wife for a weekend, and jawjack with his buddies. That's completely fine, but he won't sell many guns.

On the other hand, a seller should know the market value of any gun he is considering. I see no problem at all with a polite "Would you take $XXX" offer to any seller, particularly if the price is close to market value or higher.

I also feel that there is a general sense of entitlement and scorn by the vast majority of people, and as noted, these people often have either never been taught manners or have lost them when they developed an online persona. Most of the people who write "UR crazee if u think u sell at that price" or similar can't be relied upon to act rationally or politely in any situation, not just firearms purchases. But that's just a pet theory of mine. :D
 
Spats McGee said:
I do, too. Open the cylinder, pull back the slide. Heck, I'll even be glad to allow field stripping, provided I know how to get the gun back together. As a buyer, I want a good look at a pistol, but I won't field strip a pistol unless: (a) I've gotten the seller's permission; and (b) I'm confident that either I or the seller can reassemble the pistol correctly.

I don't consider what I do "low-balling." I do try to get a decent deal, but I also try not to insult or rip off the other party. That's just rude, and bad business to boot. I might need to deal with that person again in the future, so I'd rather they walked away satisfied that I didn't cheat them.
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I dont see an issue with allowing a basic field strip, or doing it for them if they are unsure. Im fairly likely to do that anyway, if they are unfamiliar with the particular gun, before they walk away so they can clean it and take care of it properly.
Im also happy to let people shoot the guns they are buying before they buy them if we can work out a time thats convenient for both of us. Buddy of mine asked how many guys just want to shoot the guns, and so far i haven't had anyone whos taken me up on the offer back out after shooting them. I actually had one guy make an offer on a second gun id brought to the range that day.
 
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LoonWulf said:
Im selling some guns locally and online.
Ive also sold lots and lots of other stuff, some fairly expensive, online.
This last round or sales has been vexing. Im used to being asked for lots of pictures, and info. Lately tho it seems like everyone (apart from guys on these forum) is trying to pick stuff apart and low ball every offer.
Am i reading more into this than I should, i mean i get that there are alot of scams out there, or is that really how it rolls now?
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This is nothing other than economic forces at play. Today is a strong buyer's market for guns, because there is an ample supply of firearms, and little to no political pressure to make the market behave differently. If you were trying to sell the same guns back in 2008 you'd have seen people falling all over themselves to get the gun, regardless of condition.

The same basic factors are impacting the housing market where I live. At the low point of the last recession buyers were being extremely picky around here. Sellers were having to make concessions, fix problems, and drop the price from the asking point. Right now our local market is absolutely booming, and a house in my neighborhood recently sold for $50K over asking price with no inspection clause.

This is a good time to decide how desperate you are to sell. If you're desperate to sell, play the game. If you aren't, just feel free to throw down the "take it or leave it" and walk away. My primary job is in law enforcement, but I run a small business on the side out of my home. Learning to say "no" has been a valuable skill in that business!
 
chicharrones said:
Internet selling is pretty easy for me. For whatever reason the first tire kickers always ask to pay 1/2 or 2/3 what the item is priced for. I always respond that their offer is lower than I'm willing to take and I'm going to let the sales ad keep rolling.

For face to face selling, as soon as a buyer says "you need to sharpen your pencil", I'm done with that conversation.
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That's how I handle it. I'm not adverse to letting an ad run for 3 months and relist when it expires. I might drop the price at that time . Generally my time frame is about 6 months for a sale. I think I left one ad up for almost a year. I'm fortunate because most of my stuff is pretty old. Someone in the market has a fairly limited selection.
 
lysanderxiii said:
When you start being an a--hole about it.

If you are going to haggle, you should have a good idea of what the market value is before you make your offer.
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Everybody is cheap, and willing to assume you don't know the value of what you have. When you begin to ask yourself
"is this guy being unreasonable?" He usually is starting to bend the bar, IME. Try not to waste too much time with the
low-ballers. At some point, cut them off, and just say "take it or leave it".
 
One possible buyer of my Bulgy Makarov wanted me to believe that retail prices are the Same as wholesale prices.

"Never sell a gun when you need money". No kidding here: Some of us (am I alone?) always need money for Another gun chambering or variation.
I've sold about eight guns in the last two years because of changing tastes, and disappointment with one or two. All of this for gun cash.
 
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lysanderxiii said:
When you start being an a--hole about it.

If you are going to haggle, you should have a good idea of what the market value is before you make your offer.
Click to expand...

True enough.

I usually just say something like "I only have X dollars to spend". Which is a true statement and works some of the time. Of course, I only make that statement when in reasonable proximity to the asking price and it is a previously owned firearm.
 
I use a local classified board to sell my firearms, ammo and accessories I no longer want. Have done this probably 20 times in the last seven years. Always meet at the local Academy parking lot with prices negotiated prior too . 99% of the people I have dealt with I could tell within seconds that the transaction was going to be smooth and only once did I have a problem.
I bought a PMR 30 three or four years ago when I already had one thinking I wanted another. Never opened the box and after sitting on my shelf for a good year I decided to sell it. I offered it for sale for what I paid for it minus the sale tax which was about $35 if I'm remembering right. I was up front in my ad letting everyone know it was NIB, case had never been opened, didn't really need to sell it and I was firm in my price. I don't know what it was about that pistol but it brought out the capital J in Jerk for several people. I was accused of trying to rip people off, that they could get it for less at an on line dealer or at their LGS and that they would pay x amount low ball figure take it or leave it. I basically would respond that if they could get it for less why even respond to my ad. Thanks for the interest.
I knew in the year I had that PM 30 they had became fairly scarce in my area but I didn't price it to reflect that. I just wanted what I paid for it at my LGS and if I couldn't get that I'd keep it. I had one guy that kept low balling me by $100 and I got tired of telling him no so I quit responding. After a day he agreed to my asking price and I arranged a meet. He arrived driving a new Tahoe with paper plates and tried to give me $150 less than I was asking flashing the bills in front of me like that would have some kind of magic effect. He couldn't believe I wouldn't sell it to him.
I ended up selling it to a young man just out of college that wanted it as a homecoming present for his father who was civilian contractor in Kuwait. I dropped the price $50 just cuz I felt like it and threw in 100 rounds of ammo. Being nice will get you nice in return.
 
Plenty of arrogant, obnoxious, low balling folks to go around. Gotta love'm though. I had a LNIB out of production gun for sale on GB couple years ago at what I thought was a fair price. Guy contacts me and says he "might" be interested at ~70% of my starting price, kinda like he'd be doing me a favor. Yea, I admit I was a bit insulted. Told him I was was not the least bit interested in selling the gun for less than I had listed. Gun soon sold at the price I'd listed.
 
Ignition Override said:
One possible buyer of my Bulgy Makarov wanted me to believe that retail prices are the Same as wholesale prices.

"Never sell a gun when you need money". No kidding here: Some of us (am I alone?) always need money for Another gun chambering or variation.
I've sold about eight guns in the last two years because of changing tastes, and disappointment with one or two. All of this for gun cash.
Click to expand...
I know a guy that is always buying and selling guns. I have bought five guns from him at his asking price.
S&W Mod. 10-2 2” for $350
Remington 870 Police Magnum like new in the box for $350
Glock 17 Gen4 like new in the box $400
Glock 19 RTF for $400
S&W Mod 27 for $500
He knows that he can get more, but he just wants to sell them so he can buy something else. I can’t wait to see what he has for sale next.
But when I buy a gun I buy it with money that I can afford to spend.
I’m also never in a hurry to sell a gun, but when I do, I have a set price and stay with it. Iowball offers don’t hurt my feelings.
 
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