Larry, you pay less now to buy and sell for less in the future. What's the difference? Not all guns are collector guns. Some are meant to be used.
Because I know enough to trust my judgement of the gun itself, rather than depend on the branding, I'd rather pay $900 now and sell it in 10 years for $800 than pay $9000 now and sell it in 10 years for $8000.
Just means I didn't have $8000 tied up.
Please note, prices are exaggerated for emphasis and to help clearly explain the arithmetic.
That's a fair comment, Canvasback. I always take "more gun for the money" as meaning you pay less but get more--but that doesn't necessarily mean you're going to make money on the deal because you paid less to start with. Per Rocketman's post, you still need to know the "brand value" of the Belgian gun you're buying--and there are a bunch of not very well-known Belgian makers, even though some of them made pretty high quality guns. The Brit guns, in contrast: people are more likely to know the best makers, as well as the ones that made a lot of guns (like Webley & Scott). But I agree that you can certainly make good buys in Belgian guns if your main interest is not so much whether you'll make money on it at sometime down the line, or at least not lose much. But rather how reliable it is and will serve you for your hunting/shooting needs.
