Changing Demand

Status
Not open for further replies.
At the price you were asking, there was no interest. That's the high end. That price might as well be a million dollars, or ten million dollars. There is no interest at that price.

There is only one reason goods don't sell. Price.

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And that is not necessarily driven by its utility.
 
There is only one reason goods don't sell. Price.
Well, yeah. Anything of any value will sell if the price is cheap enough. You want to find the price point where you have at least minimum rather than non-existant demand.

Rather than just dropping price to appeal to a seemingly limited audience, I’d expand the market base. As noted, websites are one way. If you do decide to sell, I’d really, really suggest listing it here in the classifieds. It’s free so you’ve got zero to lose.

List it at the price you were asking. If you don’t get offers, then keep it. If you don’t need the money, no big deal.

As an aside, years ago I had a friend that had a chance to buy an original Belgian Browning A-5 new in the original box for $600. I asked the LGS and they said it was too high. Even 25 years ago the shift to synthetic stocks had started.
 
Wood and blued steel is not the object of desire for many these days, but that makes it more affordable for folks like me.

It is regional as well as trendy. For instance, in my area, that rifle “priced to sell” would not hang around long and pre owned economy models tend to sit.

The thing here is that the price point of priced to sell is variable and subjective. In an economy where an item isn't in demand, a seller's opinion of an items value has nothing to do with what they spent on it.

For example, once more for the cheap seats, I am a pawnbroker. If you bring me an air conditioner now, middle of Nov. and sell it outright, I still have to wait 30 days to put it out for sale, who is going to be buying an air conditioner from me in the middle of December? The price I'm going to be offering is a lot lower than I'd pay for the same A/C unit in the middle of May, because once that June heat wave hits, I can sell the heck out of A/C units. Same unit.

A second example, women are wearing watches the size of what used to be a man's watch, men are wearing small wall clocks. The secondary market on small lds watches is horrid. If a woman wants a small watch she can get super deals right now. To the woman who spent hundreds of dollars on her watch and wants to sell it, she's not going to be happy to hear that the market is bad and I'd not give more than ten or fifteen dollars for hew watch, if I bought it at all.

To geezers like me, black rifles aren't interesting, but I drool at the sight of a wooden stocked Weatherby. But, since I live in south Florida and the only thing you can maybe hunt here with a Weatherby is a Buick, I'm not (here's earlthegoat2's regional point) likely to offer much on it as it will probably be an internet only sale and shipping et al involved.
 
I went to the range the other day to sight-in my Savage Axis--every other guy there had a Savage Axis(literally) and mine was the high end one because its stainless-----I have other better rifles but they all have synthetic stocks----I bought the Axis for a cheap back-up rifle in case something happens to my better gun, so I won't have a whole hunting trip ruined.

I've had wood stocked rifles before and even after totally babying them while hunting they still come back all scratched and dinged up----I won't buy another wood stocked rifle, no matter how pretty it is---I now only own one rifle with a wood stock(walnut) and that's a 10/22. I have shotguns with wood stocks and even then the Benelli M2 usually gets the nod when I go out.

Your rifle might sell in an area where they hunt in stands over feeders but where the hunting is hard--probably not.
 
I've given up trying to predict or understand what people will buy. Having attended many gun shows, auctions, and gun retail outlets and discussed this issue with many vendors, I've learned that most of the time it is a real head-scratcher. I've tried to sell numerous guns recently and predicting what will sell is like trying to predict the pay-out of a roulette wheel.
 
Sportsman's had the 84M in Composite for $749 new. Wonder if that could have effected it?

I really like nice wood but unless I'm going to a dry climate I usually hunt synthetic. I tend to look at my wood stock rifles as luxury items.
 
I've seen this both buying and when I recently tried to sell a rifle. The prices have dropped significantly from a few years ago on most higher quality hunting rifles. The one I tried to sell recently was priced very competitively, but the only interest I got on local forums were lowball offers from people who only seemed willing to buy it if they could get it for the price of a Savage Axis or Ruger American.

I finally sold it on a national site and shipped it to their FFL, but even there the prices have dropped significantly from a few years ago. I think this is your best bet, but I also think you should be prepared to take a loss on it.

It's just how the market is. Some of the budget rifles shoot exceptionally well, they are decent quality, and they are cheap. For the average hunter they work just as well, so there is no reason for them to spend more money. For those that can afford nicer rifles, it seems like they know the market isn't there and they are only looking to buy if it's a steal.

10 years ago $250 got you a Remington 710 or similar which were frankly junk. So a lot of people were willing to pay more for something nicer out of necessity. These days, $250 gets you a pretty decent rifle.
 
Last edited:
I've seen this both buying and when I recently tried to sell a rifle. The prices have dropped significantly from a few years ago on most higher quality hunting rifles. The one I tried to sell recently was priced very competitively, but the only interest I got on local forums were lowball offers from people who only seemed willing to buy it if they could get it for the price of a Savage Axis or Ruger American.

I finally sold it on a national site and shipped it to their FFL, but even there the prices have dropped significantly from a few years ago. I think this is your best bet, but I also think you should be prepared to take a loss on it.

It's just how the market is. Some of the budget rifles shoot exceptionally well, they are decent quality, and they are cheap. For the average hunter they work just as well, so there is no reason for them to spend more money. For those that can afford nicer rifles, it seems like they know the market isn't there and they are only looking to buy if it's a steal.

10 years ago $250 got you a Remington 710 or similar which were frankly junk. So a lot of people were willing to pay more for something nicer out of necessity. These days, $250 gets you a pretty decent rifle.

You do have a point. It used to be the only budget rifles I would consider were the Savage Model 11 and Howa 1500. Now we have cheaper rifles that shoot very well.

I have a TC Compass 6.5 CM (that I've seen for $199 on Sale) that I won as a door prize. It shoots under 2.0" with most everything and has shot several 0.60"-1.00" 5-shot groups with factory Premium Ammo. Honestly I think most groups over 1.0" with ammo it likes have more to do with the shooter than the rifle.

However it's hard for me to fall in love with a strictly utilitarian tool like that and with decent hunting condition Pre-64 M70 showing up for $800 in common calibers I don't have to.
 
I had to sell a bunch of guns recently. I looked at the web sites to get a handle. I went to difference places for offers. Yes, I didn't get what I paid for the gun - surprise. I adopted a philosophical attitude. I had an AR I bought for $700 in 2000 ish. It needed a new trigger and I sold it to a friend for $400. A loss? Nope. I had the gun for 18 years. Forgetting inflation calculations, $300/18 = about $17 per year. Thus, I rented it for $17 a year. That's a good deal.

Took a Glock to one local gun store - really low ball, Glocks are a dime a dozen. Took it to another that I used for several transfers - and got $100 more. Still it was about $150 less than I paid for it back in 1995. So I had $24 years of usage for $150. Not bad. Had to get a new washer and had to pay $20 to get the old one hauled away.

One local store worked like this - could put on consignment and see what the market would bring. They would put in on auction sites but took a cut. Or, they would look at sites with you for a comparable sale and off 30% from that price. If you wanted just to get out of the gun, it worked.
 
I had to sell a bunch of guns recently. I looked at the web sites to get a handle. I went to difference places for offers. Yes, I didn't get what I paid for the gun - surprise. I adopted a philosophical attitude. I had an AR I bought for $700 in 2000 ish. It needed a new trigger and I sold it to a friend for $400. A loss? Nope. I had the gun for 18 years. Forgetting inflation calculations, $300/18 = about $17 per year. Thus, I rented it for $17 a year. That's a good deal.

Took a Glock to one local gun store - really low ball, Glocks are a dime a dozen. Took it to another that I used for several transfers - and got $100 more. Still it was about $150 less than I paid for it back in 1995. So I had $24 years of usage for $150. Not bad. Had to get a new washer and had to pay $20 to get the old one hauled away.

One local store worked like this - could put on consignment and see what the market would bring. They would put in on auction sites but took a cut. Or, they would look at sites with you for a comparable sale and off 30% from that price. If you wanted just to get out of the gun, it worked.
This matches my approach exactly; it is practical and realistic. I've sold numerous guns at a "loss" if you only count dollars. But, having had many years of use out of a gun hardly makes the gun a bad deal. Only had a couple that were bad in my opinion. Bought a NIB Browning BL-22 Grade 2 for $600, very pretty gun, but I hated the way the trigger mechanism worked and didn't like the weight either. After shooting 2 boxes of shells through it I sold it quickly for $450, just to be rid of it. Probably could have held on to it and squeezed a bit more, but I liked the guy who bought it and that $450 paved the way toward buying a Marlin 39A that I absolutely love. Bought a Remington 121 pump on GB for $400 or so and it was an OK rifle, but it worked only pretty good and I realized I don't really like pretty good rifles and sold it for $335...lesson learned and fun. BUT, sometimes you get this.....Another deal.....bought a beautiful NIB Ruger #1 .204 ($650) and put a Leupold 4-12X 50mm on it ($400)...killed 100s of prairie dogs with it and scratched it up a lot in the process. Had it refinished ($150) and it looked better than new. I no longer used it for prairie dogs and have several other rifles for that and it was too pretty to scratch it up again. So, I sold it for $1500...like I said it was a really beautiful gun. Sold it to a guy who says he refuses to buy ugly guns any more and fell in love with my Ruger. Obviously, this is the best I've ever done on a gun, but it is extremely rare in my experience.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top