newbie here, and potential trade question

[seanc]

Hi all,
Newbie here. Shooting for a long time. Rifle, Pistol, Shotgun and Classiii. I shoot at Hopedale and Harvard, and Trap/ Skeet generally at Riverside.

Took a few years off and am just getting "the bug" again..

So, looking to clean out the safe and trade a bunch of stuff around. I was at one fo the local stores Saturday and saw a nice Beretta 92 compact (for $495 w/ 2 13 rounders).

I have a Sig 239 (40cal) that I just have never taken to.. Think it's worth swapping? Any idea what would be a reasonable trade?


Thanks in advance!
seanc

 

[News Shooter]

Trading in a shop is not a good economic move. At best you will get 60 percent of the used value. It's just like throwing money away.
New guns are just like new cars, after one bullet goes out of the muzzle they lose 40 percent of value.

Best bet is a FTF to sale.

 

[seanc]

I have just always avoided the FTF to avoid the possible legal issues. I have always felt if I go through a dealer, all potenital liability is on the delaer not me..

Maybe this is overly paranoid. I have a bunch of guns that I would like to sell trade. And obviously, i hate to take a bath on them...

 

[jar]

I think not trading with total strangers is prudent. I think your best bet is to pay the $19 to join the members area of this forum. Then you can come to the members only shoots and meet a bunch of people to trade with.

 

[Cross-X]

If you are more comfortable dealing via your local gun shop, maximize your profit by selling by consignment. My local shop, Four Seasons in Woburn, charges 18%.

 

[seanc]

Nothing against Carl and the fine folks at 4seasons at all. But, I just dislike consignment for a number of reasons. I have had some rather bad experiences with consignments.

Let me just say that this IS NOT reflective of Four Seasons in any way. And I did have one very good experience with 4S specifically.


I have put guns on consignment at several different shops.

What I have found is that first off consignment guns are not given "front row attention", as the dealer has a vested interest in the guns that they own, they will be given the premier spots and tend to be pushed quite a bit harder than consigned guns. I understand this as in essense your consignment guns is competing against the shops invested money.

Dealers are less motivated to sell consigned guns as they take up space, make the store look more stocked and don't cost them anything.

I have seen times that if there are 2-3 of the same gun in the store, the dealer will actively down sell the consigment gun (again they have money tied up in their stock). With something to the effect of, "well, yeah, that is a consignment, who knows what was done to it, Hey Luigi! is that the one that the guy dropped over board on the fishing trip into the salt water? Oh, You're not sure either, ok, Well, I know where this one has been.. It has only been test fired, once.."

When taking it out of the store after 3 months.. "Oh, I got a guy that was supposed to be coming to look at and buy that, just after you leave. So, you better not take it out now"

Or this one, AFTER the dealer sells it, this has happened MORE THAN ONCE. "Hey, I have a guy very interested in your gun, but he wants to cut a deal. It has been sitting here a long time and is the first one that is ready to buy. Would you take $X less? I know we can move it"

Or the best one, when you go to pick up the gun after weeks of it not selling.. "Oh, your not going to believe it! That gun just walked out of here 10 minutes ago" In essence the gun sold a while back, he just did not want to pay you right away, or just plain forgot about you.

Also had the, "oh no!! I sold at the price you needed to get for it, I screwed up, But I still need to now deduct my X%".

In the spirit of not trying to burn bridges and help out my local dealer I have let a lot of things slide and not held their feet to the fire. But, it has also made me less than anxious about doing more consigns..

Your thoughts??

 

[Cross-X]

Establish a good reputation here, get to know some of our paying members, and see if you can't spark a deal with one or more of them.

No commissions, few, if any, hassles.

C-X

 

[JoeT]

I'm sure you know, but you can sell 4 a year FTF. just make sure that the person has the proper LTC, fill out the FA-10 form, and you're done.

If you feel a little "uneasy" about FTF, have a FFL do the transfer. If it's a good deal, the $25 is worth it to most people.

Good Luck, when you're ready, I'm sure the fine people on this site will help you get rid of some of the guns you don't shoot any more

 

[seanc]

I will go to a few more stores and do some more research on what things *should* sell for.

As most everything I have tends to be at least 5-10 years old, and I have not been shooting at all, I am out of touch with the going rates on everything.

 

[SPG]

seanc, PM me, might be able to do something. SPG

 

[drgrant]

Nothing against Carl and the fine folks at 4seasons at all. But, I just dislike consignment for a number of reasons. I have had some rather bad experiences with consignments.

I guess it's just luck of the draw. In the past I've consigned many guns and never had to wait more than a month or two to get the money I figured I was going to get, at least most of the time.....

A few things I've learned about consigning guns....

-If your gun is oddball caliber/make thats not really desireable, forget about it moving quickly. It must've taken me 4 months with my .17HMR rifle before I could move that thing. (I think I ended up trading it to a dealer for a .22 LR semi... This was the only consignment attempt I've had that failed miserably)

-See what the store has that is similar to what you are consigning. If the store has 5 of the guns your selling, it's not going to move as fast... not even worth putting it up if they'repriced competitively.

-"Fudd Gear" almost always moves slower than "Tacticool". So if you're trying to sell that Rem 870 wingmaster that everyone else already owns for $20 lower than what they can buy it at walmart, forget it. Stuff like rifled deer slug guns, etc, takes forever to sell. (they're seasonal, so unless you sell it in the ramp up of the season, it will stay there forever). Also, many gun stores are chock full of hunting-oriented rifles and shotguns; meaning its hard to get the most value out of that type of consignment. You will almost always be competing with whoever has the cheapest of that style gun.

-Nobody will appreciate your overpriced XYZ Xiectalux milsurp Kar98 that used to be in hitlers personal collection with the matched serial numbers, etc. Anything that's special like that is WAY better off on NES Classifieds, Gunbroker, etc, I've seen lots of nice milsurps basically languish on someones consignment rack because the price was too high for most buyers going through that store. On the other side of the fence, more common, economical milsurps will move pretty readily. There are a lot of buyers looking for things like SKSes which were already douched of cosmo and fired a few times, etc. (I'm not knocking collectibles in any way here- the fact of the matter is the average gunshop
visitor simply doesn't appreciate things like matched serials, etc. )

-You have to be VERY realistic about how you price things. As little as 10 or 20 bucks off can throw a potential buyer off the scent.

-"Unbundle" the gun. (most) Consignment buyers don't give a rats ass about anything beyond maybe a fresh pair of night sights. Fancy Grips, large cap mags, other crap, the value of those is often "lost" in a consignment. Here's an example.... say you're selling a Beretta 92.... one has 4 "normal mags" with it and is selling for $500. The other has a couple of cripplemags with it and is going for $400. The cripplemag gun will sell first, every time, because the entry cost is more appealing. Same goes for crap like lasergrips, lasers,lights, etc. All that crap does is reduce the market for your firearm. A large percentage of buyers have ZERO interest in any of that stuff, or even if they do, chances are they will not like the particular crap you have attached to the gun.

Say two guys are selling a Glock 23. One guy has an extra barrel and a bunch of other crap with it. Another guy has just a bareassed G23. The bareassed gun will sell first, if it's in decent shape, every time.

-Actually clean the thing before you sell it. Unless its something I can't live without, or the price is really good, I put it back if the thing is really dirty. Extra points deducted for lead smeg in guns it doesn't belong in. (finding lead smeg in a polygonal barrel = bad)

As someone who was buying mostly consignment guns for the better part of a couple years and selling a few that way, these are the things that come to mind. Once you frame your expectations correctly it makes life a lot easier. IMO there are cases where consignment is useful and many where it's not a good idea.

Nowadays though if I'm not in a rush I'd rather list it in our classifieds or respond to someone's WTB post. I can say unequivocally that I've gotten the BEST deals buying and selling on NES, and especially with fellow NES members.

-Mike

 

[Mike1911]

I've sold a few guns on consignment at Four Seasons and I was happy with the deals I made. It's a lot better then tradeing it in on something else.

I did get a great deal on a S&W Model 64 a couple of years ago at Four Seasons. I had called Carl about it and he told me it looks like fewer than 100 rounds were fired from it. I told him I'll be right over. The gun looked factory new it was that nice. Clean, bright and tight. I bought it on the spot. A plus was that it came with 2 - speedloaders. The minus was it those ugly stock rubber grips. A quick look on eBay and I found the factroy S&W wood grips. I was a happy camper!