doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Depressed prices?

For years I was the only one on the local skeet field with a double. In the past year or so some of them have either dug a double out of the back of the safe or gone out and bought one. However most of those are fairly inexpensive guns: a CZ hammergun, a BSS, etc. None of them are buying the higher end guns. When I go to other shoots (sporting clays and 5 stand) my SxS draw compliments and interest, but I rarely see another double unless it's a Parker, LC Smith, any of the older better quality American makers and an occasional Win 21.

I almost never see a British, French or Belgian SxS. While other shooters appreciate these guns, they aren't going to spend a lot of money to buy one.

I have always noticed that you have had some really nice guns for sale, ed. Keep up the good work!! 👍

dirty harry. You are correct that the dealers that you named their inventories are consignments. The exception might be Conn. Shotgun. Not saying that they don't have some consignments but they will write checks for guns. I have sold them some.

JOhn
Arrieta

In general, I agree with you! Here we are talking about depressed prices, but you sure wouldn't know it by looking at the asking prices from some of the larger dealers in the game. I've never understood the notion that when someone decides to sell a gun that they put a price on it that ends up being a sort of ransom where it ends up For-Sale forever, rather than sold for a realistic price that someone is willing to pay.

I get the consignment game where a person tells the dealer, here's what I want or need for the gun & then the dealer has to mark it up for his margin. The problem arises when the dealer doesn't hold his ground and tell the consigner that the market won't support his asking price plus the mark-up. I'm constantly scratching my head as to where the middle ground is in all of this.

There has been a change to the consignment game around here to a degree due to a newly enacted dealer gun storage law where the dealers now have to pull their inventory off the shelves every night and lock the guns in a vault. This is a major hassle for them and in some cases run of the mill consignment guns take up vault space & handling time two times a day & aren't worth the hassle. I know one dealer that has stopped taking in consignment guns becuase of this.

Where I have sold my guns on consignment, the dealer doesn't add on to the price I am asking, to get his "fee". He takes (such as) 10% of the price I am asking, after I sell the gun. So, if I say I want $700.00 for a gun, after it is sold, he gets $70.00. And I get $630.00 back. We usually agree on what I ask for the gun to begin with, but he gets his 10% after the gun is sold. I may have to decide on whether I should lower the price when the gun sits and doesn't sell, or take it back home. But my dealer gets his money out of the final sale. He doesn't add his fee onto the asking price at the beginning. What I understand that you are saying is that if you want $2000.00 for a gun, and he gets 10% and he adds his 10% onto the price, then the gun will be for sale for $2200.00. He shouldn't do that. He should get his 10% (or whatever his fee is) AFTER the gun sells at the asking price. He should get $200.00 and you should get $1800.00.

I've seen the consignment game work both ways. The bottom line is any item is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it & if you price the item beyond the high limit of the market it will be permanently For-Sale rather than sold. Auto dealers are in this situation with new trucks right now where their lots are full of overpriced trucks that a significant portion of potential buyers aren't willing to pull the trigger on. Both markets probably need a correction in pricing.