Quantity vs Selective

Early on it seemed like buying was like the "gun of the month club" and then once the safe filled up, buying slowed a bit.
Now more interested in the milsurp or unusual. Being in MA. cause other issues now that Colt and Springfield came to the state....
Haven't sold much to date...
 
I own just a few late model guns. Everything else is older and most were ftf. I’m going with 10% max new.

Many of these were deals not to be passed up but I also don’t live my life like I have to be always on top.
 
I admire certain guns but if I was afraid to shoot them because they might lose value I won't buy them. When I do buy a gun I prefer it to be pretty like my women and cars I don't need utilitarian things I like nice things.
 
I've been doing the same over the last couple years. Selling off cheaper (lower quality?) easier to get guns in order to buy better quality harder to get guns. Few examples, sold GP100 to get DW 715, sold Ruger SRH to get DW 744, sold Norinco MAK 90 to get Arsenal SAM7. Sold my Henry big boy 44 rifle (brass) to put towards the Henry all weather 44 (hard chrome and light weight) for deer hunting.

I've also been buying accessories for many of these guns instead of buying more guns - especially with my budget build AR. My safe is almost full and I really don't want to get another safe with the limited space I have now....
 
Bless me Father for I have sold two firearms.

I did buy one back.

I just bought another rifle last weekend.

Like DrGrant my taste as improved.

My safe is full.

A new acquisition of a HK-91.

I guess a new safe is in order.
 
I have taken to being much more selective, while at the same time drooling over everything outside of my budgetry means at the time. There are only a few left on my “must have” although it grows slowly as I shoot and research.
 
I admire certain guns but if I was afraid to shoot them because they might lose value I won't buy them. When I do buy a gun I prefer it to be pretty like my women and cars I don't need utilitarian things I like nice things.
I shoot all of my firearms!
 
Bless me Father for I have sold two firearms.

I did buy one back.

I got VERY lucky recently- several months ago a fellow NESer pinged me and offered to sell me back one of the guns I sold, and it was one of the few that I missed.... he remembered what I told him- and he needed the money, so I
bought it back. It took it like 4? 5? years to come back but eventually it did. [laugh] I didn't really NEED it but
I wasn't about to squander the chance at getting it back.

-Mike
 
I got VERY lucky recently- several months ago a fellow NESer pinged me and offered to sell me back one of the guns I sold, and it was one of the few that I missed.... he remembered what I told him- and he needed the money, so I
bought it back. It took it like 4? 5? years to come back but eventually it did. [laugh] I didn't really NEED it but
I wasn't about to squander the chance at getting it back.

-Mike
One of my losses was for charity. My Benelli super nova shotgun.
I have to say I missed it!
 
I have to say when I first started. It was about filling up the safe. Made a lot of stupid purchases. Hell I have a Hi-Point Carbine I probably have six hundred bucks into. After adding every stupid accessory they sell. Now it's about quality and value. I try not to buy anything new unless it's a good deal. I won't buy anything used unless it's mint. Whatever I buy I hope to be able to sell it for what I paid if I ever have to.
 
I've never been able to afford quantity (at least not as of yet), so when I do buy I try to make sure I know I want it. I'm probably an 8 for selectivity on the previously mentioned scale.
AR, revolver, bolt action, bullpup, 10/22, 12ga, compact EDC, full sized edc...
 
To this day I kick myself in the ass for not buying one that was in a shop. Stupid me said to myself nobody is going to be in a rush to buy that. Wife even said to just buy it.
When I went back it was gone.

And then the next time you saw one it cost twice as much..... [laugh]

-Mike
 
I don’t have nearly as many guns as a lot of you, so I’d say I’m pretty selective. I didn’t start out that way though, and I foolishly thought that some things we’re “good enough” for my purposes. They weren’t.

I sold an SKS because I predicted it would be as good as an AR. It was fun, but no AR.

I sold a Ruger SR45 because I wanted a larger pistol. It was replaced with what I really wanted the whole time, a G19.

I sold a shotgun because at the time I didn’t hunt or shoot skeet. My only really purpose for it was destroying trash for $1 per slug. That’s the only one I regret because I’ve taken up hunting and have a better purpose for it. I’ll probably replace it with a semi though since I figure if I’m only going to have one shotgun it might as well be a really nice one.
 
How are we categorizing between quantity vs selective?

If quantity/tramp = readily available in store, polymer, Anderson/S&W
If quality/The One = need to do legwork, steel, BCM/Noveske

Excluding the usefulness factor, I'm probably at 40% quality.
Agreed. The problem is, due to all the bull here, those tramps (Andersons, M&P15, SR556, etc.) have sort of become prizes. People are still paying $700 for Glocks. I have an M&P15 that if in a free state a would've sold by now gained so much value with me because we can no longer walk in a store and get them for $600. Though I have another AR of the quality you mentioned and a stripped lower...I just can't seem to let go of the S&W. Though I should sell it and get a 12GA or 10/22 and build my strip lower into quality. I'm fighting with myself to sell it.
 
Guns are tools for me, I have very few that have any sentimental value. The rest are for competition or home defense/CCW. If there is a gun that I shoot better then the lesser gun gets sold. I also don't see the value of having a gun and not being able to shoot very well, so ammo and practice is far more important to me than how many guns I have. I'm a gun shooter not gun collector. It would be nice to be both, but its too much money.
This is the direction I'm heading in, I have so many different guns and I shoot a lot but never get very proficient with one or two, I want to change that and the one pistol that has always been a constant over the years in my collection is the 1911. Plus, Me and the Mrs. are downsizing where ever we can. I have a few guns that I forgot I had.
 
Hell I have a Hi-Point Carbine I probably have six hundred bucks into. After adding every stupid accessory they sell.
This almost happened to me, but I learned from others' mistakes. I wanted to add a stock and sights to my Mini14, but at the end of the day I'm like "its a mini and it shoots fine". Same with my hi point. Even my ARs are basic, aside from critical components like trigger and sights. With high prices and political scrutiny, I'm not in a position to trick out my guns and would rather use the money to acquire a new gun.
 
I'm a sucker for match-grade target rifles and pistols. Never new ones, unless it was built by somebody i know and not a corporation.
Target firearms are always quality. I'll trade into them with lesser quality stuff I've gotten over the years in other trades. I've taken junky guns in trade for farm equipment I was selling because I knew some idiot would want an AK or Taurus revolver eventually.
 
Agreed. The problem is, due to all the bull here, those tramps (Andersons, M&P15, SR556, etc.) have sort of become prizes. People are still paying $700 for Glocks. I have an M&P15 that if in a free state a would've sold by now gained so much value with me because we can no longer walk in a store and get them for $600. Though I have another AR of the quality you mentioned and a stripped lower...I just can't seem to let go of the S&W. Though I should sell it and get a 12GA or 10/22 and build my strip lower into quality. I'm fighting with myself to sell it.

Yeah, the Mass thing blurs the perspective. Something that is not considered "quality" could be valuable in MA or an opportunity to turn a profit. In normal circumstances or anywhere else, no one with a brain would pay $400 for a $40 Anderson lower. Yet here we are. In the context of this discussion, being selective would mean that you already have the basics and are now pursuing subjectively better and higher quality firearms. If you have a Remington R1, then your next purchase may be a more custom 1911. Or If you have a G19, your next purchase may be a HK or CZ. But being in MA, one would probably get another Glock just to sell it for profit.
 
Agreed. The problem is, due to all the bull here, those tramps (Andersons, M&P15, SR556, etc.) have sort of become prizes. People are still paying $700 for Glocks. I have an M&P15 that if in a free state a would've sold by now gained so much value with me because we can no longer walk in a store and get them for $600. Though I have another AR of the quality you mentioned and a stripped lower...I just can't seem to let go of the S&W. Though I should sell it and get a 12GA or 10/22 and build my strip lower into quality. I'm fighting with myself to sell it.

For a COTS gun yeah it might be difficult to replace but it's not that hard to get a rug-swept lower or a "compliant" AR in MA (which then is repaired) etc.

Frankly you're better off taking that M&P and using it as a backup or whatever, though. Even if I wanted a better rifle that's what I'd do with it. I have like a Tier 2-3 ish AR right now and I ain't selling it, even if there was no stupid AG bs or whatever in place.

Stop miring yourself in worrying about compliance though, the mindset is toxic and it just ultimately artificially limits what you can do. MA sucks for gun owners but for those that have stopped crying in their beer, there are only a pocket full of hard legal limitations here on equipment. (like not easily being able to get a suppressor) etc.

-Mike
 
I go for quantity. Ammo, tons of it, ARs, bunch of them, AKs, a few of them. EMP hits......I'm golden. Oh...have a shitload of canned tuna on the shelf too.
 
Agreed. The problem is, due to all the bull here, those tramps (Andersons, M&P15, SR556, etc.) have sort of become prizes. People are still paying $700 for Glocks. I have an M&P15 that if in a free state a would've sold by now gained so much value with me because we can no longer walk in a store and get them for $600. Though I have another AR of the quality you mentioned and a stripped lower...I just can't seem to let go of the S&W. Though I should sell it and get a 12GA or 10/22 and build my strip lower into quality. I'm fighting with myself to sell it.
I have a very meh quality rifle that is very valuable in MA. I won’t shoot it much because I have a better one, but I don’t want to ditch it because I would have to pay through the nose to replace it. I could really put that money to good use and buy 3-4 guns I’d actually use.

9mm carbine, snub revolver, AP shotgun...sigh...
 
So where on the Quantity to Selective scale do you find yourself?

The only thing I feel the urge to add to a collection is a replacement M1 Garand... I have a very few collectible type older firearms and I miss having a Garand.

All the rest of my guns have now become purpose driven. Full size carry - compact carry - pocket gun - HD shotgun - carbine(s) - Bolt gun - .22 practice guns
 
Seeing that everyone on here has a shotty, 1911 and 22 rifle I see less value in my own collection now. Damn. A 1911 is in my near future though.
 
I must be pretty typical. I've got the basics covered with hunting, home/personal defense, and range guns

pump shotgun (870 w/ three barrels)
compact 9mm carry gun (m&p9c)
subcompact .380 (wife's Sig p238)
AR-15 scoped target rifle
AR-15 dot-sited carbine
(spare stripped lower for future/shtf)
.308AR from NES 80% group buy lower
.308 Ruger gunsite scout rifle
Sig 1911 .45 (w/ .22LR conversion too)
S&W Model 66 .38/.357 4.25" k-frame revolver
Ruger 10/22 carbine
a really nice wrist rocket


Next on my list will be a full-size, large-capacity duty pistol. currently leaning toward P320RX. I don't have the budget, or the understanding-enough spouse to get everything I might actually like. And if I did, I don't have enough time or money to shoot them all.
 
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