I think too cheap can hurt gun sales.

[marlinman93]

OK some background story to this. I've had three rifles for sale on my monthly tables at our OAC collector shows for 18 months now. All at what I felt were extremely good prices for what they are.
1881 Marlin in .40-60M, excellent bore, decent wood, not a lot of metal finish, but not abused. Double set triggers, but set trigger didn't work. But it shot great just using the non set trigger. $600
1880's Marlin Ballard #2 in .38 Long, excellent bore, near perfect original finish wood, good barrel bluing, not much finish on the action. $825
Custom Ron Scott Vincent half stock .38 caliber ML rifle. Custom built at $2800 with a wonderful Bill Large barrel and still like new condition. $825

For 18 months not hardly a looker at any of them until today. The 1881 sold minutes into the show. The Ron Scott Vincent an hour later. The Ballard a few hours afterwards. Seems like the right three guys suddenly showed up and decided the prices were great. I always thought the prices were crazy cheap, and wanted them sold, so priced them low. Maybe too low?

[vancelw]

I've set up at guns shows before and not sold a single gun.

Then at the next show, sell completely out.

Same prices....go figure

[yooper2]

Ive had the same happen, I think it's all about who happens to wander by. Sometimes I think there is a certain buying energy to some shows too, where everything seems to be moving whereas other shows feel sort of dead. All of my experience is quite out of date though, haven't had a table in probably 12 years.
I do wish you'd have put the Marlin Ballard on here though! Been in the market for such a critter.

Eric

[marlinman93]

Ive had the same happen, I think it's all about who happens to wander by. Sometimes I think there is a certain buying energy to some shows too, where everything seems to be moving whereas other shows feel sort of dead. All of my experience is quite out of date though, haven't had a table in probably 12 years.
I do wish you'd have put the Marlin Ballard on here though! Been in the market for such a critter.

Eric

Sorry, but I'm done sending firearms anymore as I've had too many damaged, or stolen, and as the seller/shipper It's always my headache to deal with whichever shipper I sent it through. So I don't list firearms anywhere and only do face to face sales when I let one go. Last stolen Ballard I lost money on, and it took calling my Congressman's office to get them to force USPS to pay the insurance. It was a nightmare I'll never do again.
Heading to Colorado in May for the CGCA show, and will take some more there to sell face to face.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

At this point, I'm glad I live about as far away from you as is possible in the continental US. You seem to have a bunch of what I would consider irresistible stuff. I would probably melt down in front of your table at a gun show and have to be squeegee'd up out of the place. I think there's just fewer and fewer people around that appreciate the old school stuff. I went to a show in Tampa this past weekend with nearly 800 tables and there were zero people selling classic guns. It was mostly large commercial outfits selling to the younger crowd. Usually there's at least a table or two with P.08 Lugers and P.38 Walthers. Now those are only seen at the small shows around here.

[Griff]

They actually sell guns at a gun show? The ones around here are full of toys, cheap tools & chinese knockoffs of handcrafts that rightfully belong in the garbage dump. There's still a couple of guys selling reloading supplies, cleaning supplies, maybe some old books, but pricing is usually better on Amazon, sometimes it's seems they ordered it from Midway, added shipping, the show fee and then marked it up an additional (reasonable?) profit of 10%. The few guns you see are either a retailer from area, whose prices are almost always higher than in his store, or a "collector" who's bound & determined to retire off the one gun he's sure will do it. I've been so discouraged, by all the genuine garbage at the guns shows I haven't bothered to go for past few years.

[marlinman93]

I know I've mentioned it before, but our OAC collector gun shows have more nice old guns with only 115 tables than most "gun" shows that are 5x larger or more! But because of guys here seeing good stuff often they don't appreciate what the same guns sell for at gun shows all over the USA! The guy who bought my 1881 tried to beat me up on the price (which is always expected) and I told him at any large show like Colorado, Baltimore, Tulsa, etc. it would be a $1800-$2000 rifle even with the set trigger not working! Lucky for him he confirmed that with another friend of mine and bought it. He was a decent guy, and came by an hour later and thanked me for the gun again.

[yooper2]

Ive had the same happen, I think it's all about who happens to wander by. Sometimes I think there is a certain buying energy to some shows too, where everything seems to be moving whereas other shows feel sort of dead. All of my experience is quite out of date though, haven't had a table in probably 12 years.
I do wish you'd have put the Marlin Ballard on here though! Been in the market for such a critter.

Eric

Sorry, but I'm done sending firearms anymore as I've had too many damaged, or stolen, and as the seller/shipper It's always my headache to deal with whichever shipper I sent it through. So I don't list firearms anywhere and only do face to face sales when I let one go. Last stolen Ballard I lost money on, and it took calling my Congressman's office to get them to force USPS to pay the insurance. It was a nightmare I'll never do again.
Heading to Colorado in May for the CGCA show, and will take some more there to sell face to face.

Cant blame you for that policy! I went through holy he!! trying to collect insurance on a crankshaft I mailed that was never delivered. It was a scarce item (chris-craft MBL straight six) but nothing compared to a fine a classic firearm.

Eric