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

I don't know of another soul, inside my rather large circle of hunting associates, who hunts with a S X S other than me. That doesn't depress me, it doesn't cause me to spend time pondering it, and it has zero bearing on my future gun usage. I enjoy them. I don't care if I'm the only one in 400 miles who does. I own lots of them because I enjoy them. Not because I hope to influence someone else to.

I plan to move a few that I don't use anymore before it's too late. But whatever is left when I cross the river will go to my son and grandsons. Screw the dollar value. That's not, and never has been, why I do this. I wouldn't lose any sleep if they went to ten cents on the dollar.

You must be doing something wrong, Stan. I think all of my regular hunting buddies now hunt with double guns pretty much all the time except for one who uses Grandpa's model 12 about half of time. They all come around eventually.

pleased to report that most of my double gon bis ness consists of field grade guns to bird hunters...

It’s a darn shame that ammo and components can’t follow suit and realize some depression….

From a development viewpoint the double, with ejectors was perfected anywhere from 1880-1890. After that improvements have been minor and even debatable at best. The double was done by the end WWI. Vets saw the potential of repeaters and bought more A5, Model 12, 17, 37’s(17’s by another mother) and later 500’s and 1100’. We went from labor intensive guns to machine intensive made guns which went from two to five shells. Rarely does old increase much in value when it goes out of fashion.

One of the reasons the doublegun continued in popularity among hunters in the US for as long as it did was the threat of government restrictions of shotguns to two shells, which prompted Val Browning to design the Browning Double Automatic.

I will point out 1 contradiction, at least here in the Midwest. There are more SxS shoots than ever before. I was involved in The Great Lakes SxS Assoc many years ago and we had maybe 5 shoots a year, that drew 30-40 shooters. Now there is a SxS shoot every month in the summer, some are small but Medford and Negaunee limit out at 120 and Woods and Meadows, which was only in its first or second year drew 71. I will admit most of the shooters are older, but each year I see more women and a few youngsters.

We are paying the price for the notion that a hard used sporting tool could be an " ïnvestment" plus the idea of collectibility.

Investment- compare the value of 300 dollars invested in a Dow Jones index linked fund, at any time after 1900, with the appreciation of a 1910 Purdey 100 guinea gun. Factor in the liquidity factor, ie you can sell the shares in seconds, the gun not so easy, and the idiocy of the investment thing is highlighted.

Colectibility in a bespoke item is a weird notion. But it was sold to the masses and they responded by filling bespoke makers' order books in the good times. The makers in turn realised that their brand name was worth a pile and exploited it to the hilt. No one figured that this seemingly lucrative practice was building up a stock of mint items in collectors' hands and that stock would be unloaded onto the market at some point. We are now at that point.

While this was happening in the high end market the makres of self loading shotguns achieved total reliability, owner serviceability and almost instant stock regulation at decreasing prices.

In a way it is refreshing to see those "inflation hedging barbarians"as Gough Thomas called them, sweating it out trying to recoup investments in guns they accumulated just because they could. The same way they drove prices up, by creating a non essential demand, they are now driving them down.

This depressing topic of double shotguns losing value keeps coming up, but I still don't see everyone dumping their doubles and running for the exit. Frankly, I'm a lot more concerned that the value of the U.S. Dollar has fallen by 96% since the 1913 inception of the Federal Reserve System, and there is no real end in sight. Any of us who have dollar denominated savings or retirement accounts has lost over 20% of that value in the last 3 1/2 years due to Bidenomics and extreme deficit spending.

I may be fooling myself, but I still believe that if I liquidated all of my guns now, I could at very least recoup all of my money, or even make a profit. But that's because I learned that buying guns is no different than buying stocks. The key is to buy the bargains, and let someone else pay retail or more. I don't NEED any gun, and refuse to ever buy any gun out of desperation or emotion.

Of course, if I did sell and converted my hard asset of guns to cash, in all likelihood, that cash would continue to lose value because our politicians just continue to print money out of thin air. Nobody knows how this mess will end, but the chances of a soft landing look worse every day. Some economists say that the stock and real estate market is in a big bubble, the deficit is unsustainable, and the shit will hit the fan. So hard assets like guns might be far better than near worthless paper dollars. Some say that things like .22LR ammo, shotshells, .223 ammo, canned food, or bottles of whiskey could become worth more than gold in a real SHTF situation. Here's a recent example of hyperinflation:



Hyperinflation doesn't just happen in Third World countries. It devastated Germany in 1923, and Hungary in 1946. It is still happening today in Argentina and even in oil rich Venezuela. But even the level of inflation we have seen in the past few years makes it much more costly to buy any assets, food, or fuel. And here's a picture of the biggest threat we face right now to the value of the dollar, and all firearms, not just old doubles:



Spread the word and get out the vote. Don't be intimidated into silence by foolish gun owners who support anti-gun Democrats!

Depressed Prices ?

The only depressed prices I see are at some of our bigger dealers . Steve Barnett, Robin Hollow, Conn.Arms. Vintage Arms,and about all the dealers on
Gun International. I get DEPRESSED looking at their prices. Most of their guns are double what they should be. Some even higher. I am depressed
because I can't afford those insane prices. Parker Trojans for $2500, Win. m-21 for $9000 (field grade), are they smoking! Try to deal with them
and I have been told, Why should I drop my prices, I DON'T HAVE any money in them, their on Consignment !

Trump - Vance - 2024