I'll try to shed a bit of personal insight - I own 8 shotguns and I shoot all of them. None are safe queens and none are collectibles that don't go out in the rain. They range from a Victor Sarasqueta to an Arrizabalaga in price with Merkels and AyA in between. I have been watching the markets closely for a year or so with the possible intent of adding one more gun and find that a quality gun in the sub-40K range is tough to find and prices are flexible only when there's a problem (however slight) with the gun.
This mirrors exactly what's going on in other discretionary markets. I had two pieces of art that I wanted to sell and for the past year or so had a lot of bottom-feeders make ludicrous offers with the same general argument that I was better off with a small amount of money than none. I don't need a bottom-feeder telling me what "I'm better off" with and they might have been more successful had they simply said they can't afford to pay my price.
The Walmart philosophy works in Walmart but not necessarily in other areas.
Now, of course, if the economy totally tanks and people start going hungry then the situation changes (maybe) but even in the darkest days of the Great Depression luxury goods were selling well.
Whenever dealers in higher-end stuff sell something they encounter a difficulty in replacing it with a similar-value item for inventory. Sometimes it isn't possible and then their inventory quality or quantity falls and the sort of client they try to attract (i.e. people with money) are less likely to call upon them. A dealer's inventory is his public face and carrying a good inventory is just another cost of doing business.
