Just an opinion ,but since the market has slowed down quite a bit ,I believe what is happening to the Gun Broker market is ,sellers keep lowering prices because of lack of sales and buyers figure ,Hey might as well wait a few more weeks and the price will come down a little more ,and if the gun sells ,in this economy ,Oh well there will be another ! A year ago ,if you had your eye on a nice gun ,you had better bid ,or someone else would scarf it up ,especially the " Buy Now " guns ! With that said ,it really is a buyers market ,and I think a lot of the sellers on GB ,just can't afford to start their auctions at zero and hope for the best ,I believe they are just in them too deep ,I don't think most of the country ever believed things would get this bad for the economy this Quickly ! OOhay

Guns now selling are the ones which the seller has been willing to negotiate with the buyer. Personally I think, like everything else, there was a "bubble" in which prices rose to unsustainable levels. Now we're seeing equalibrium being reestablished in the market. Your 401Ks have taken a whack, why not your gun collection too?

My favorite seller on a gun auction site presently has 49 items for sale, all 49 have bids because he starts at a penny, all 49 will sell because they have no reserve, there is a total of 1175 bids, nearly all of the items are legitimate guns, but even his junk sells for a reasonable price because everyone knows that the next bid will buy the gun, not result in a "Reserve Not Met" message. No, I won't share the name of this seller, because I have bought guns from him for fair prices and I don't need competition. However, this seller should be a lesson to other sellers. People watch his auctions like hawks because occasionally a real hot gun shows up and sells for a fair price. He never sells guns for unreasonably low prices because so many people watch his auctions. Consequently, all of his guns draw interest and the junk sells for the price it deserves and it is gone in a few days, as he intended.

This seller I described has 100% positive feedback on 6361 transactions, has sold 810 guns on the site just so far this year. Some of his guns sell in the thousands of dollars and he doesn't put a reserve on any of them. You think he's not a happy guy? The rest of these crooks are not gun dealers, they are just plain lazy, putting their guns on "relist" for years at a time when they could sell them next week if they ran an honest ad.

I couldn't agree with eightbore's sentiments more. If you can find a seller as he describes it might be worthwhile otherwise gun auctions are for the most part a waste of time And this comes from 40+ years being involved on the inside and outside of auctions. Barrett Jackson finally got tired of the game playing a few years ago and went entirely to "no reserve" car auctions. If you watch the Mecum Auctions which still have reserves you'll see some of the game playing I'm referring to. Between reserves and unrealistically high fees auctions,for the most part, are IMO something to avoid right now. Are there bargians occasionally? Sure. But you're going to spend/waste a lot of time finding them. Anyway JMO.
Jim

i think the first thing gun broker and the like can do to remedy the game playing is to eleminate this crap of reserve not met either buy it now or no reserve period. either ---- or get off the pot. jmoa [regards]

The local CABELA'S has had the same eight used imported SxS's for sale for the past 12+ months. Apparently I'm not the only one that thinks they are somewhat over-priced.

With the recession, we are in somewhat of a "buyer's market" and over-priced guns don't sell very quickly.

In the past two months I've sold two handguns and two shotguns on gunbroker. None brought "top dollar" but I was satisfied.

gold40

I just looked at GB at Fox Sterlingworths. 59 are on the board currently. Of those 59 only 3 have bids. Those three that have bids have reserves and none of those reserves have been met. In addition, there are zero Sterlingworth auctions that have started at 1 cent with no reserve.

Also of those 59 I'd say 55 are repeat offenders and have been there before (many times). Interesting, the only one that has a buy it now option, provides no pictures and its a brand new seller with no feedback and the gun has pitting. Anyway, for what its worth. PS. If any of these guns move I'd be very surprised.

My guns usually sell fairly quickly. I can't recall having to list a gun more than twice... usually its gone the first time. When I see guns that have been re-listed for over a year, I don't even pay them any attention. Generally the seller is wanting too much and isn't willing to come down so I don't care to try to make a deal... unless its a really special gun. I too hate reserves. I think they scare people. I have always listed the gun for whatever price I wanted with no reserve and it usually works out okay. I may try a penny auction one day. I like them as a buyer... not so much as a seller.

Palunc, as for the AYA #56, it sold for a good price but it also had the most undesirable configuration possible... but it was a 20ga. It had a single trigger, vent rib, semi-beavertail forend, pistol grip, etc. Had it a more traditional set up, I would have kept it. The quality of the finish work was very high with very nice rose & scroll engraving, checkering, drop points, wood, etc (same level of finish as the AYA #1) A dealer would have probably tried to get $5000-$6000 for it. Had it a more tradtional configuration, a dealer would probably try for $8000 or more.

I would prefer always to list guns with no reserve, but in my experience there is a dynamic in auctions that have a low starting point but with a reserve. I have listed guns with no reserve at my selling price with no bids. I then listed the same guns with the same description and the same reserve but starting at a penny. Many times the gun that didn't get a bid starting at the reserve will get bids that ultimately meet the same reserve and the guns sells for the reserve price or more. I've seen it many times and it isn't a fluke. If I knew for sure what made people buy, I'd be very, very rich. But this dynamic does work with gun sales.