Current Credible Price Guides?

[Adobe Walls]

Howdy

What's considered the best source these days as to actual current market value on guns?AW

[TedH]

If there is something that I need to find a fair price for I just watch a few sell on Gunbroker, AuctionArms, etc. Only pay attention to the ones that actually sell, not asking prices.

[marlinman93]

I still use either Flayderman's, or the Bluebook of Gun Values, but I also check sold items at both Gunbroker and Auction Arms.

[Mike D.]

I don't know, Vall. There is a large difference between the "perceived" prices you see on AA and GB, not to mention GA, and the actual, real time value. I also have no trust in any published gun value guides. There are just too many variables involved. It seems that many "honest" and "unfooled with" guns are actually little more than parts pieces with a tad of poetic license tossed in for descriptions. If a seller fails to answer an inquiry to my satisfaction, they are hiding something. The guys that claim to "nothing about this gun" are truly suspect. Just my .02.

[Tycer]

I watch completed sales for 6 months.

[Hungarian]

With prices changing so quickly with people gobbling up guns (I have heard of outragous prices being paid), I would bet that any written price guide is outdated.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

I watch completed sales for 6 months.

That is exactly what I do. The various books of gun values are only starting places. They only reflex what two or three folks think they were worth last year. It has nothing to do with the market today. Most of the gun auctions allow you to search completed sales. This tells you just what people are willing to pay.

[Sixgun]

I don't know, Vall. There is a large difference between the "perceived" prices you see on AA and GB, not to mention GA, and the actual, real time value. I also have no trust in any published gun value guides. There are just too many variables involved. It seems that many "honest" and "unfooled with" guns are actually little more than parts pieces with a tad of poetic license tossed in for descriptions. If a seller fails to answer an inquiry to my satisfaction, they are hiding something. The guys that claim to "nothing about this gun" are truly suspect. Just my .02.

This guy is good! Mike, I can see you have been "in the game" a long time. You hit it right. I would like to add that prices are always changing, especially when a magazine article comes out. For instance, if an article comes out on the marlin 219 Zipper, prices will rise 20% overnight! But......................with the mighty pre-war Winchesters, prices ALWAYS climb. Even in bad times, a gun with "condition" rises and if you add rarity with that, will rise more. Why? Because even in bad times, there are always people who have the serious money and are willing to part with it for a nice Winchester or SA Colt.

An old timer in his eighties told me a few years back that even during the Depression, Winchesters and Colts held their value------------Sixgun

Oh! A reliable source for pricing guns? Go to Guns America and IF the description is right, take about 20-30% off and you have a real world price.

[Mike D.]

An old timer in his eighties told me a few years back that even during the Depression, Winchesters and Colts held their value------------Sixgun

Oh! A reliable source for pricing guns? Go to Guns America and IF the description is right, take about 20-30% off and you have a real world price.[/quote]

I imagine that gun prices held their own during the first Depression. Considering that a fine rifle cost around $40, more than a week's wages for most folks,
it must've been very diffiucult for the "average Joe" to keep his Winchester, let alone making another purchase.

I tried that 20% reduction theory on many sellers, Sixgun, and most got a good laugh out of it. I don't understand their thinking, though. Many guns are relisted, ad
nauseam, yet they won't cut a discount to move them along.