Guns are a bad investment, if you are looking to make money. They are a good hobby but only as a hobby if you want to use them or let them sit in a safe as a closet queen to be taken out and admired for their art work like beauty. Make your money elsewhere, don't try to make it in guns unless you have a lot of money and can wait decades to reach better prices. This anti gun fever is not likely to go away ever and the anti hunting, anti shooting in general is getting worse.
This is just my personal opinion and it is based on what I am seeing in the short term. Basic double guns, field grade guns like Sterlingworths, are not moving quickly. Well condition ones will sell if priced low enough but the market is flooded right now with guns with a lot of wear. We call them shooters and beaters. Prices needed to sell them are down but most sellers are not lowering prices to move them so a lot of guns are just sitting there not selling. Mid-range graded double, like Fox A to C grades only sell if either priced attractive or in pristine condition. If well worn they seem to be in the field grade interest and almost never seem to sell. High grade guns are a very small niche market and it hard to read, but they seem to move best at a major auction house.
Why the gloom you wonder. Demographics, Politics, economics, trends in hobbies and shooting opportunities. Demographics is the easiest to understand younger shooters want semi autos or O/U's with all the choke options, recoil reduction and bells and whistles. Pump gun and doubles are "old" and out of favor. There are a lot of old shooters getting to the age that they are not buying but are selling their guns. The Baby Boomers are all getting old at once.
Politics is not a slam against the Democrats but facing facts. They have built a lot of their rise to power on myths of the evil gun and if we just had more gun laws we all would be so much safer. Worse they are going to be able to pack the Supreme Court for the next 20 years in the next four years if they get in. I can see more gun laws coming and that does not help the market prices. In the end it will be no more effective than the Republican War on Drugs was.
Economics is the tricky one because this economy is going well in some places and not at all in others. So if yo live in the right place it is a good time to buy and if you live in the wrong place you might need to sell.
Hobbies and shooting habits just looks at where people spend their entertainment dollars and what they do with their spare time. 30 years ago Tennis was booming where I lived then, now it is just about dead. Horse shoe throwing was a big hobby in my youth with leagues and every park had several to up to 20 pits for use, they are all gone. Bowling was big in my youth and is now just a small interest. Point is that hobbies that were big like hunting and shooting have declined and are not likely to rebound to past levels. Maybe you should have cornered the market on Pokemon's.
